Now that Baucus’ healthcare bill has passed out of committee, it seems that Republican’s are beginning to realize that obstructionism isn’t going to work. The Democrats, of course, do not need to compromise for their bill to pass, but creating a fully bipartisan bill would be good politics for both parties.
From the beginning, Republicans have been clamoring for medical malpractice reform since the beginning of this battle, and the Congressional Budget Office has said that it will save $11 billion annually. If this is true, then why aren’t the Democrats even acknowledging this as a viable possibility? First, trial lawyers (who have a vested stake in not having tort reform) are major Democratic donors. On a website launched by the American Association for Justice, the lawyer lobby appeals to the morality of the average person in an attempt to turn the public off of the idea of tort reform. The fact that the same organization is deeply in debt does not help their case, however. No matter, the Democrats are still beholden to the hands that fed them into office, and, unless anything radically changes, it will likely stay that way.
On the other hand, maybe this is just obstructionism in disguise. Maybe Enzi has craftily changed his rhetoric after realizing that he is waging an uphill battle. In the middle of August, Moe Lane posted something on RedState that has stuck with me for the past two months:
The Democrats can pass something whenever they like: they have the votes, after all. We’re not going to pretend that they need our help. We’re certainly not going to pretend that they want our input, either. All they want is the ability to share the blame.
This is the feeling that I get from the Republicans, even now.
