With their stubborn refusal to compromise and efforts to use the issue as a way to win seats in the upcoming midterm elections, I don't see what choice Democrats have but to push health care reform through by using a simple majority vote that will eliminate Republican parliamentary efforts to halt it.

The issue is of paramount importance for the 46-million Americans without coverage, for businesses struggling to compete because of the ridiculous cost of health care, for the millions of Americans denied coverage for pre-existing conditions and for this country's long-term financial success, but obviously not to members of the Republican party, none of whom voted in favor of the Senate bill.

Under the White House call for a "simple up-or-down" vote, the house would, according to the Associated Press, "pass the Senate bill and send it to Obama. The Senate would then use budget reconciliation rules to make several changes demanded by House Democrats. Those rules prohibit filibusters."

"We're not talking about changing any rules here," White House Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle said on 'Meet the Press.' "All the president's talking about is: Do we need to address this problem and does it make sense to have a simple, up-or-down vote on whether or not we want to fix these problems?"

This issue is not one that should be about politics. Republicans have plotted from the beginning to do just that. Let's not forget the comment from Republican Sen. Jim DeMint's about health care reform: "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."President Obama has reached out to Republicans and asked them to weigh in on the issue. A nationally televised health care summit, with Democrats and Republicans, yielded nothing except more Republican demands to start from scratch. Why?

"There are a number of other Republicans who do not think something of this magnitude ought to be jammed down the throats of a public that doesn't want it through this kind of device," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on CNN.

If Republicans were truly interested in compromise, they would try and make the bill the best it could be. Instead, they have muddied the issue. They have led voters to believe that this is a vote about the government intruding into their lives. They have stoked fear in the elderly about death panels and the middle class about exorbitant costs, two groups that could benefit from this bill. Voters elected a majority of representatives who are in favor of the proposal. Why talk about future elections? The representatives we have are there to do a job right now.

I like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's thinking on the issue. "We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she said on the Sunday morning talks shows. "We're here to do the job for the American people."

Pelosi referenced the struggle to pass Medicare and Social Security, which provides care for millions of Americans and are popular parts of our safety net. The same talk about America becoming a socialist regime were being bandied then too.

The same efforts to stop those reforms "decades ago are at work again against this bill," said Pelosi.

Those Democrats worried about losing their seats in upcoming elections should let it go. You were elected to serve, not to remain in office for life. If you are going to lose your seat, now is the time to at least make a stand.