According to the New York Times, Democrats are going to stop negotiating with Republicans on health care, and focus on just getting a purely Democratic measure passed.
Top Democrats said Tuesday that their go-it-alone view was being shaped by what they saw as Republicans’ purposely strident tone against health care legislation during this month’s Congressional recess, as well as remarks by leading Republicans that current proposals were flawed beyond repair.This is pretty funny.Somehow I doubt we'll notice any actual changes, since Democrats haven't exactly been negotiating in good faith with Republicans anyway. They've already decided what they want to do, and the main fights have been with moderate and conservative Democratic resistance. The administration and its allies in Congress see their vision of health care reform as a holy crusade. They hold their positions with the fervor of religious fanatics. Anyone disagreeing with their supposed "facts" is "lying." Anyone who opposes them is evil and un-American. Ask them. They'll tell you.
Unfortunately for Democrats, opposition to these health care reform efforts is not just a minority Republican phenomenon. Opposition runs deep throughout the country, as the latest polls have shown. But the Democratic leadership apparently believes its own propaganda that protests are just a political effort generated by Republican operatives to damage the president.
The officials said the White House hoped to make the case to the American people that it was Republicans who had abandoned the effort at bipartisanship.I know President Obama is a skilled liar, but I seriously doubt whether people are going to swallow that one. The Obama administration's definition of bipartisanship is: I won the election, that means we are going to do it my way.
My initial position on health care reform was that something would be passed, therefore Republicans should work with moderate and conservative Democrats to minimize the damage. But it now appears that opposition to the current reform proposals has significant public support. The GOP should do everything possible to defeat the administration's plans outright and try to send the whole thing back to the drawing board. If Democrats ram through a partisan bill by radically altering Senate tradition with "reconciliation," they will be cutting their own throats politically.
UNRR I like you, but you and I are watching completely different health care debates.
ReplyDeleteThe Dems haven't dealt in good faith? They took single-payer off the table immediately. Now they're pissing away the compromise public option for compromise co-ops - and the Republicans *still!* are saying they won't vote for it. Sorry, but we're the only industrialized country that leaves its citizens to fend for themselves for health care. There's no way that taking over 40 years to do universal health care counts as "forcing it through".
(With respect.)
"The Dems haven't dealt in good faith? They took single-payer off the table immediately. Now they're pissing away the compromise public option for compromise co-ops "
ReplyDeleteNot at all. They've decided that their version(s) of healthcare reform is a good idea and have ignored other ideas entirely. As for co-ops, most on the right consider them a smokescreen for a public option, and the entire reform effort a precursor for single payer -- ie a slippery slope. And there are good reasons for viewing it that way -- for one thing that fact that almost everyone vociferously supporting reform is also a fan of single payer.
" Sorry, but we're the only industrialized country that leaves its citizens to fend for themselves for health care."
Except that we don't. We have Medicaid in every state, and anyone can show up at an emergency room and get treatment. There are definitely people caught in a gap whose income isn't low enough for Medicaid, but who can't afford or get health insurance. But the fact that we have problems doesn't mean the proposed changes are automatically desirable.
"There's no way that taking over 40 years to do universal health care"
You are assuming that universal healthcare is some sort of end goal that we've been working toward. Many on the right, plus libertarians, do not share that assumption. Even those that accept certain forms of nanny-statism, have various limits, and government-run health care is one of them. (I know the current proposals do not actually represent a government-takeover of health care yet, but they are a significant step on that path).
""forcing it through""
By forcing it through I mean pushing a bill through Congress despite public opposition and without considering the positions of the minority -- which is what they are apparently thinking of doing.
I'm not against some sort of health care reform. I'm against most of the reforms that have been proposed by Democrats.