snip, form the link
The long-considered but never invoked “nuclear option” was appealed to at a conspicuous time. The ground is collapsing out from under Democratic feet. In a panic, they are falling back on maneuvers which mitigate immediate pain and provide short-term gains, all the while acknowledging that the risks they are taking are high and the prospect of long-term advantage extremely low.
Take, for example, the spectacular disaster that has become of the Affordable Care ActÂ’s debut. President Barack ObamaÂ’s party in Congress abandoned the long game they had played so well over the course of the Republican-led government shutdown within days of the government reopening. When the publicÂ’s attention was focused squarely on the problematic website, the waves of insurance cancellations, and price shocks, Democrats panicked.
Vulnerable members of the president’s party in the Senate began proposing “administrative fixes” that would postpone, or altogether eliminate, the requirement that all insured hold policies compliant with the ACA’s coverage requirements. President Obama proposed his own semi-binding fix to the ACA along the same lines as those Democratic proposals only when, as POLITICO reported, up to 100 House Democrats planned to back a GOP proposal which would have allowed insurance companies to continue to sell politics not compliant with ACA guidelines.
But Obama’s “fix,” backed by his allies in Congress, chips away at the economic viability of the law. Fewer people will be funneled into more costly plans which would have subsidized the waves of sick and infirmed uninsured who threaten to overwhelm the system. It remains to be seen how much damage this new “fix” will do to the economic health of the law, but it makes the onset of the oft-warned-of “death spiral” that much more likely.
Democrats acknowledged this. They didnÂ’t care. The threat of immediate pain was that great; the prospect of loss that acute. Regardless of the long-term risks, Democrats felt they had no choice but to gamble.
a "token attempt "at a filibuster isn't really a filibuster 
....ever hear the term; "you don't get a little pregnant"?...the difference is they didn't use it, Reid did, see how that works?
Thats how Murica works. What do rw'ers love to say? Oh yeah- 
"love it or leave it"
