Why this bill is important

1: Improvability (and yeah, I think I just invented a new word)

(via Bob Cesca)

This is really great stuff. Bernie Sanders has successfully added $10 billion for primary care. Some details:

-Forgives medical school debt for doctors who choose primary care, increasing the number of primary care doctors by 20,000.

-More than doubles the number of primary care clinics.

-Eases the burden on Medicaid.

-Creates primary care access for 25 million Americans.

Senator Sanders is also working with Ron Wyden to establish the groundwork for state-based single-payer plans. These are the kinds of improvements that can be added to this work in progress over time -- another reason why passing this bill is so important to the long-term effort.

Bernie Sanders is doing great unheralded work on HCR. Let's thank him later. Noting it now would just attract the ire of Lieberman.

2. A new paradigm

(Paul Krugman)

...it represents a rejection of the view that the solution for all problems is to cut some taxes and remove some regulations. In that sense, what’s happening now, for all the disappointment it represents for progressives, is a historic moment.

And let’s also not fail to take note of those who had a chance to join in this historic moment, and punted.
...

I’m talking instead about the self-described centrists, pundits and politicians, who have spent years lecturing us on the need to make hard choices and actually come to grip with America’s problems; you know who I mean. So what did they do when faced with a chance to help confront those problems? They made excuses.
...

And the lesson I take from that is that these people are insincere. They like posing as defenders of fiscal rectitude; they like declaring a pox on both houses; but when push comes to shove, their dislike of social insurance, their refusal to consider any government economy measures that don’t involve punishing people with lower incomes, trumps their supposed concern about acting responsibly.

Gentlemen — everyone I can think of here does happen to be male — this was your moment of truth, your test of character. You failed.