If naivete was a valuable commodity, Montana Democratic Senator Max
Baucus could retire a very rich man. For weeks, the Chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee has promised that his committees version of a
health care reform bill would be a true compromise, a bipartisan effort
sure to win the support of a sizable number of Senate Republicans.
Well,
guess what? The senator released his proposed legislation today and
even Sen. Olympia Snowe, the one Republican Baucus must have presumed
was in the bag, announced
she could not support his bill. Chairman Baucus has now failed to
secure a single Republican backer for the legislation. That whole
compromise and bipartisanship thing worked well, huh?
For most
folks it became clear some time ago that the GOP health care reform
strategy was to do everything in its power to block the legislation.
While the senator's bill has some worthy aspects (Ezra Klein
has been writing on the details of the bill throughout the day), the
lack of a single Republican vote shouldn't be a big surprise and forces
the Senate Democrats to either fall back to square one or roughshod the
bill through the Senate via a reconciliation vote to bypass the Senate
filibuster rules.
The shit will hit the fan should Senate Democrats choose the latter
approach. Republicans will howl that Democrats are circumventing time
honored Senate traditions and unilaterally forcing legislation down the
throats of Americans. Yada, yada, yada. It's probably the only option
at this point, but why would the Senate go and piss all those
Republicans off with a bill that was, in the end, weakened to garner
Republican support?
Since it should now be obvious to all (even Senator Baucus) that
Congressional Republicans have zero intent to vote for ANY health care
reform legislation and any health care legislation coming out of the
Senate will be a Democrats only vote,why not take this opportunity to advance meaningful legislation and push for single payer, Medicare for all, bill?
That's exactly what I said Below
ReplyDeleteYou sure did. Sorry for stepping on your post Ron.
ReplyDeleteNo problem Jay - we can't say it enough!
ReplyDeleteI doubt it's naivete, Jay. More likely self-absorbtion.
ReplyDeleteI've been saying for quite a while that I don't know what political sense it makes for Democrats to pass a bill as watered down as the one they'll eventually pass if they're going to bear all of the political risk for passing it. Better to go for single payer which at least has some chance of correcting some of the problems with our current system rather than passing a bill just for the sake of passing a bill and being able to say you've passed healthcare reform.
I think most Senators have been insulated from real world problems for so long that they no longer grasp how this stuff affects people in the real world.
ReplyDeleteThey have the best health insurance in the world, and their immediate families with them. Their social set is well off and not worried about coverage. They talk to each other and to lobbyists about how things should go, not to the folks down at the diner.
And let's not forget about simple venality. Baucus and the rest, these are not dumb people. Baucus has spent the last six months negotiating with himself. It can't be that he thinks this is a good negotiating tactic, he's done it for a reason and that reason ain't "bi-partisanship". He's known perfectly well that the GOP was never going to vote for anything Democratic. I believe Baucus and some of the others are just lining up their future jobs--as lobbyists.
Too many Senators are disconnected from their consituients and they're greedy for power and money.
Forgot to add that this is the best time to push for single payer. The fact that it wasn't the first option says a lot.
ReplyDelete