Mickey Kaus is reporting that a Brown victory in the Massachusetts Senate race may not necessarily kill the healthcare bill. If the house passes the current Senate bill as-is, there will be no need for a conference. A tricky move indeed but we’ll have to wait and see the outcome of the election for the Democrats to make their choice.
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One of These Things…
…is not like the other. The Atlantic had people vote on Best Republican and Best Democratic scandals of the decade. All of them were sort of personal/morality issues, with the striking example of the GOP winner:
Results: the Abramoff investigaion, 47%;
Compare this with the scope of the top Democratic scandal:
Results: John Edwards’ affair with Reille Hunter, 45%;
Who Wins In Healthcare Reform?
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.
Liberals (Hopefully) Banding Together To Pass Healthcare Reform
After last night’s news that the Medicare buy-in had been dropped, it is understandable that progressive activists woke up with a pretty fat hangover. All is not lost though, super-intelllectual liberal bloggers Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein looked back on how far we have come in healthcare policy. It is nice, right now, to see that Democrats are looking to unify themselves to achieve an historic victory.
The nay-sayers are not gone though. The new (albeit short) rhetorical battle will be between policy wonks (who think the bill should be passed) and activists (who think there can still be more work). More political, less wonky bloggers want nothing to do with this bill, but my guess is that they will eventually get on board. When it comes down to it, the numbers are showing that more people will be covered. More coverage will lead to more votes, even if the changes don’t kick in for another few election cycles.
Who Will Kill Healthcare Reform?
If anybody does, I can guarantee it will be the Democrats. With the Medicare buy-in gone, the liberal bloggers and probably liberal senators want no part of it. Without any sort of government option to force costs to go down, liberals see this bill as merely a give away to insurance companies. This is, of course, a problem for the Democratic party right now. When Republicans ran the show, there was none of this disunity business. If you didn’t vote with the Republican caucus, you weren’t a Republican, simple enough. The Democratic party is considerably more fractured though. In fact, rather than having their own unified ideology, Democrats have sort of been just the not-Republican party.
Enter the liberal Internet. Sites like DailyKos and MoveOn mobilize thousands of supporters for exactly what they want. Their message is pointed and far-left. They can’t afford to neglect the moderates though. So they are stuck in a tight spot. It’s difficult to be inclusive of the spectrum of the Democratic party when the viewpoints are so varied. This normally isn’t a problem, but when you are trying to rework an entire industry, the faults are exposed and Republicans simply exploit these.
Long story short: The only losers in this situation, politically speaking, are the Democrats. If they emerge from this over half-year discussion with nothing, they will absolutely be to blame. The Republicans had their attempt at killing reform over the summer, people realized it was mostly hot air. Now it’s the Democrats’ chance to kill it–at their own peril.
Lieberman Flip Flops, Tries To Murder Senate Health Care Bill
Smooth one Senator Lieberman. They’re on to you though, a lot of them…
- Matthew Yglesias: Lieberman Hearts Medicare Buy-In
- Think Progress: Lieberman Last Week: ‘I Don’t Know How Anybody Can Decide Until You See The Actual Language’
- Andrew Sullivan: Lieberman sticks the shiv in
- The Atlantic Politics Channel: Why Lieberman Hates The Health Care Bill
- Ezra Klein: Joe Lieberman: Let’s not make a deal!
- Firedoglake: Video Surfaces Of Lieberman Supporting Medicare Buy-In Just Three Months Ago
- Talking Points Memo: How To Deal With Joe
- Crooks and Liars: This Is What It Comes Down To: Lieberman Is A Spiteful Little Toad Who Will Kill Health-Care Reform.
Conservatives have opinions too:
- The Corner: McCain Defends Lieberman
- R. S. McCain: The Left vs. Lieberman: ‘By Any Means Necessary’
- Hot Air: Lieberman: No cloture on Reid package
Also, Hot Air is reporting that Lieberman won and the Medicare buy-in that Sen. Lieberman opposed has been dropped.
Steele: That’s Not Creating Jobs
GOP Chairman Michael Steele made an odd retort on This Week With George Stephanopoulos when Virginia governor Tim Kaine said that there were projects in Virginia that have been funded by stimulus money.
Do You Think They Will Have Read The Bill By Then?
Top Congressional Democrats said today that a healthcare bill is unlikely in 2009. Now nobody can say that a bill was rushed because the better part of a year is plenty of time for any reasonable person to read 1000+ (times the number of bills) pages.