Pending some major catastrophe a la Mr. Karl Rove circa 2006 (Wait, nevermind…), the Senate healthcare reform bill will pass in the Senate in the the next few days. Some liberals are for it, some liberals are skeptical but, when passed, they will have an achieved something that has eluded our government for over sixty years. From a political standpoint, this bill is very unique. It’s gigantic–$871 Billion–and will be passed along party lines. As Megan McCardle points out, this has never happened before. So which party wins more political cache?
On one hand, there are the Republicans who have said no since the summer, refusing to do anything but obstruct. On the other, are the Democrats who have chosen to go the road alone and ended up with a bill that few are happy with. In the short term, it will be easy to frame this bill in the midterm elections as a massive expansion of government with little foreseeable benefits. Democrats will surely lose some seats for this. Luckily, it seems unlikely that Republicans will get a supermajority in the Senate.
In the long run, this legislation will probably just make people angry and entrenched. The changes won’t fully go into effect for a few years and I imagine this will be a campaign platform for a few years after that. In short, it’s messy. Nobody wins outright, but I guess that’s politics.
