in a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon [12/15/09], denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.First off, there is no "start over". Starting over will embolden the Republicans, who have 40 seats in the Senate and nominally another one to three (Lieberman, Nelson and Baucus). Starting over would mean that there would be no health care bill in this Congress.
Second, it is now or not for a very long time. Unless the Republicans have a complete political melt-down, the rule will probably hold that the party in power loses seats in a mid-term election. The Democrats only have to lose one seat and then the
Is that a bet you want to place? I do not.
It is either a fucked-up bill, now, or no bill. No bill means no reform until sometime after 2020. Are you willing to wait that long and let the status quo continue on, with more and more people being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions that don't pre-exist and the entirety of the health care system being run solely for the benefit of the insurance companies?
What makes you so sure that a bill means reform? Congress and the Obama Admin have been quite happy to let the insurance and drug industries lead them around by the nose on this issue.
ReplyDeleteWe will be required to buy insurance. What guarantee is there that this insurance will be any better than the insurance that fails nearly as many Americans as don't have insurance at all? We've certainly seen enough examples of the government declining to regulate financial industries lately. Why in the world would I expect that to change now?
The only way the insurance companies could have been kept honest is if there was a government-backed plan to compete with them. There isn't one now. All this bill does is give the insurance industry a captive market. It does nothing to foster competition. It does nothing to reduce the costs of medical care.
This isn't progress; it's regression. If this is the best the Democrats can do, they deserve to lose.
the bill is shit. on to finance reform... which will also be shit.
ReplyDeleteCujo said it better than I can, because I am inarticulate with rage.
ReplyDeleteThis bill is shit.
This Congress is shit.
This entire Administration is shit.
The only thing I take comfort in -- cold, cynical comfort -- is that I pretty much knew it was going to be shit before the elections, and started making my preparations for a long and miserable slog.
I gotta go with the rest of these guys. This is still speculation because there is no real bill anywhere the two playpens have to be put together and both houses of whores get to play "see who can fuck us better".
ReplyDeleteI might have turn teabag if a super shitty bill happens to get passed.
Who knows-maybe the corporations aren't happy and are holding out for more.
I do believe this is the real line in the sand. The numbers are there in congress. They probably will not be so good after the election at the rate things are going. Will those in congress make a stand for us or the corporations when and if there is a vote. Right now it's obvious what that answer is.
Time is running out and as a nation we are in severe decline in a number of areas.
Passing the bill does two things. First off, it denies the GOP the victory they want. Second, the way this is playing out, the entirety of the blame for what comes out of the Congress can be laid on Lieberman.
ReplyDeleteJust like the Democrats have been able to blame all this on Republicans up until now? They have an overwhelming majority in both houses of Congress and they occupy the White House. I think blaming all this on Joe Lieberman is going to be a tough sell.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you think no bill would look like a failure of the Democrats, and not the Republicans, shows what a tough sell this is. The GOP has enough Senators to prevent cloture if one of the Democrats has to leave the room. That's actual power. Compared to that, one Senator has almost none.
The Democrats need to get it together and pass something that will work. This bill isn't it, and neither is the current House bill, frankly.
BTW, you should read this article by Jon Walker. Talks about a lot about why the Senate bill is bad, and what can be done if it "fails".
Cujo, I'm not at all thrilled by this bill, but I think that there will be no chance at ever doing anything on this if we don't do something now, however imperfect. There is no "do over".
ReplyDeleteThere is still the point that the versions of the bill must be reconciled. This isn't over yet.
No, it's not over yet. The bill gets weaker and sicker with each iteration, and what we'll end up with will be a pale shadow of "reform".
ReplyDeleteBest off-handed turn of phrase recently: "Embolden the republicans". Ha! At least we're not doing that.