Conference? Watch out, here comes trouble.

A long, long time ago in a Congressional session long since adjourned, three Committees of the House- Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor- voted on the bill that would become H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Subsequently, way back on November 7, the whole House approved H.R. 3962, 220-215.

Then it was the Senate’s turn. Two committees, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) and Finance, produced radically different bills. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was left with two monumental tasks: reconcile the bills to send to the Senate floor and produce 60 votes in a chamber governed by the tyranny of the minority, wielding the filibuster. On Christmas Eve, the Senate voted to approve H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, breaking every possible Republican filibuster along the way, 60-39.

At long last, the faithful trip is done a long way from over.We can list the differences between the final versions. Only some are enumerated here. On the road to final passage, there are two choices: to “ping-pong” the Senate bill, passing it “as-is” in the House and bypassing the Conference Committee; or to go to conference between the House and Senate, and repeat this whole process.

This effort has come too far to be abandoned now. Progressives cannot ditch the bill because it has strayed too far from the perfect. It remains a good bill; it is unacceptable for the status quo to continue. No one denies that there is room for improvement; but we must remember that all of the landmark progressive reforms were deeply marked by compromise. Social Security did not cover African-Americans and excluded many occupations. Medicare did not embody the goals that are now associated with it. In time they did. In time, today’s health care reform will become a robust program and meet the dream of guaranteeing that every American has access to quality, affordable health care.

Even the least progressive bill, H.R. 3950 passed by the Senate, will have a tremendous impact on the status quo. Writing on Christmas, Paul Krugman said of the bill, “Imperfect as it is, the legislation that passed the Senate on Thursday and will probably, in a slightly modified version, soon become law will make America a much better country.[...] So progressives shouldn’t stop complaining, but they should congratulate themselves on what is, in the end, a big win for them — and for America.”

Mike Schillawski ‘10 is the President of the Cornell Democrats.