Let's hope the 3.9 million webcast watchers realized that, instead of being duped by the Republicans false claims.
They had nothing to offer but their tired, discredited old hobby horses. Sam Stein summed it up on Huffington Post:
No matter how many times Obama pointed out that there are significant areas of overlap between his plan and the Republican Party's proposals, his opponents continued to express strong disagreement over such things as the government's role in expanding coverage (Obama's plan would cover 30 million uninsured, the Republicans would cover three million) or the design of insurance market reforms (Obama would prohibit discrimination against pre-existing conditions, Republicans would not), or the length of the bill.Democrats forcefully resisted the Republican's main proposal -- which was to start over from scratch.
"Starting over in my mind is code for delay and obstruction," David Axelrod, the president's senior adviser, told CNN.
And so, by summit's end, nothing was resolved and everything was resolved.
Reconciliation seems the only immediate path forward even if it continues to make some lawmakers skittish.
At least it proved one thing: there's no point in talking about it any more. Nothing was resolved about the differences. But everything was resolved on the question of the only way forward. Leave the Republicans behind. Now is the time for taking action to get as much of the plan passed through the reconciliation process as possible.
Why is this considered so bad? This is a democracy -- or at least the shambles of one -- but at least we still usually go by majority vote, except where certain rights of the minority are protected by the Constitution.
The Republicans have been making the argument that there is no right to health care. So they can't very well argue that a constitutional right is being violated by passing health care legislation by a simple majority vote. The filibuster isn't in the constitution either.
Several of George Bush's major pieces of legislation were passed using the reconciliation process, including his big tax cuts for the wealthy, which enormously affected the health of our economy and the deficit. So they don't have much of a case to make against health care reform as a wrecker of the budget and deficit.
So now we can finish the job and get some essential things passed, even if it is far from what we wanted and what is needed. It is a start.
Ralph
It is a start. I share a lot of the disappointment that both you and Richard express that we can't seem to get the whole job done just yet. But that's part of the Democracy you're talking about in this post. Many Americans are afraid of our moving towards a Social Democracy similar to the European Democracies. They want us to remain pioneers, cowboys, and frontiersmen. That doesn't work in the face of Big Medicine [Pharma, Hospital Corporations, Insurance Giants], but a lot of the populace doesn't get that. So we start where we start. It's better than not starting at all. The Republicans are right now proposing an impossible path that cannot work, but seduces a lot of support. So we get what we can get, and prepare for the day when conditions are right to get more. The vectors are pointing in our direction - and in the case of health care, only in our direction...
ReplyDeleteOnce again Jon Stewart had the most trenchant analysis of the summit and the Republicans constantly shifting reasons for saying No.
ReplyDeleteI think Obama will use this to push for healthcare, alothough it would've been easier 8 months ago when the polled support was much higher.
But I have to admit I found the summit relatively boring and predictable. I got a much bigger thrill out of Weiner's persistence through two censures to unequivocally cast the Republicans as "a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry." That was wonderful political theater, and it was great to see someone stand up for what he believed in and refuse to compromise his message.
richard