Sep 01 2009
Start Over On Bipartisan Health Care
Democrats are about to do in 7 months what it took the GOP to do in 7 years, and that is piss off and offend the independent center of this nation’s electorate to the point the centrists vote them out of power with gusto. It is a multi-pronged problem, but it’s central force is an attempt or need to appease its fanatical liberal fringe and their whacky and simplistic concepts.
The self destruction began with the stimulus bill, which will be shown again this week to not have done a damn thing for unemployment since over 95% of the job creating money is still stuck in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy, trying to find pork projects for political allies. The unemployment rate for the month of August will not be good news. At best it will be the same bad news, not much worse.
That was followed by the inane attempt to deal with global warming after a decade of no global warming. Nature, it seems, is in one of its typical long term cycles that the short attention spanned folks seem to forget exist – about every 5 minutes of the day. Tax & Trade is a gimmick to pick the pockets of hard working people, by making everything they require and consume more expensive. I will post more on this later this week, but one thing is clear – the global warming phenomena is clearly a human ‘adjustment’ to data easily shown by comparing the ‘warming’ data to the raw measurements:
Is it realistic to assume the raw measurements show no warming, but the ‘processed’ data shows warming? This snake oil, combined with the faux job stimulus, set the stage for the final act of the fanatical liberal implosion: health care.
The ‘public option’ (also known as government rationed health care led by panels of bureaucrats deciding who is worthy of the limited treatments left after all the ‘cost cutting’ and covering illegal aliens and the such) has put the fear of the federal bureaucrat into the minds of the Word War II generation, the retiring baby boomers, and all their immediate families facing the challenges of their twilight years and care. 70% of the nation likes its current health care, but to cut costs means to stop treatments, and the Dems have been on the record for going after those costly senior citizens in a myriad of ways.
The public backlash to the so called public option has been intense and growing. Polls are shifting drastically. President Obama is heading below the 50% approval rating and dems are losing all their edge against the GOP.
The rift in the democratic party, created by a massive leadership void emanating  our young and inexperienced President, is now firmly established and out in the open:
Democratic aides and lawmakers are questioning how their party can pass a health reform bill next month with centrists and liberals at odds over a core aspect of the legislation.
…
“I don’t see how we get to 218,” said a senior Democratic aide. “The Blue Dogs are ‘Hell nos.’ The people who voted yes [on energy] want to vote ‘no’ twice.”
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One Blue Dog said Pelosi’s pledge to include a public option favors her liberal base in the Democratic Caucus.
“They’re playing to people who can’t get beat by Republicans,” said the lawmaker, who plans to vote against the bill if it remains in its current form.
The Dems are screwed. I was noting a very keen observation from an up and coming leftist polling expert:
Silver also pointed to the role of health care legislation, which he said is increasingly looking like a no-win situation for House Democrats.
In his view, if a compromise bill is passed without a public option, the liberal base will become upset and may not be enthusiastic heading into the 2010 midterm elections, where their support will be critical. But if Democrats pass legislation without any assistance from Republicans, the party risks incurring the wrath of independent voters looking for a bipartisan solution. And if no health care reform at all gets passed, the administration and vulnerable members will have spent political capital without getting any results on the administration’s signature issue.
“If you pass a health care bill it doesn’t make you popular, but if you don’t sign any legislation it makes things even worse,†Silver said. “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. I don’t see what the exit strategy is for the White House. Once they went down this path, they’re going all in here, and you can’t take that bet back.â€
Couldn’t agree more. The public option made it into too many versions in the House to snuff out without a backlash from the fanatical left. But the realization that we could be heading towards the disaster which is the UK’s and Canada’s crumbling ‘public options’ has woken up the electorate and they will have nothing of it.
And it always comes back to how to pay for it, and that sets the target clearly on seniors and their rising ranks of health care consumers.
Isn’t it pretty clear that these “changes that will help reduce the deficit” after ten years are the very changes that have scared seniors and others out of supporting Obama’s health reform? I thought the plan was not to talk about them any more. … b) Please tell me you’re not going toveto a health care reform that is “deficit neutral over the next ten years” just because it doesn’t also include those longer term defcit-cutting “game changers.” You’re not going to veto it–everyone knows this–but mightn’t this be a good time to reassure us that you are not insane? ..
Our naive President let this whole mess get out of control. He did not lead and establish a baseline, he let the wing nuts in Congress run amok, and he got the result he deserves.
If anyone is serious about health care reform they will junk the current abominations from the left wing and produce something palatable to the nation. It may not save the Democrats from the voter backlash, but it sure will lesson the backlash some what if they do one thing right. Otherwise, they will feel the wrath of a nation fed up with their lame excuses about their historic screw ups.
Exactly how does Joe Klein know what will be in the final bill ?
Perhaps Joe could tell us what will be in the final bill .. so at least then we that take aim at a meaningful target instead of this amorphous cameleon of a bill which always seems to make everybody wrong when criticizing it.
Neo, no one knows or can know what will be in the final bill. THIS is perhaps the greatest weakness of Obama’s refusal to commit to any particular set of choices – because now a thousand pols and pundits like Klein will *assume* they know what will be in the “final bill” and act on those expectations – but since there is no such thing there instead will be a thousand (or more) different sets of expectations, even NOW, which leads to total confusion and collapse whenever an attempt is made to collapse all the versions into a single reality.
For opponents, it is good enough to oppose *anything* until there is some final bill – and NOT to allow some “final bill” to coalesce only 3 hours before passage as happened with Waxman – Malarkey in the House earlier this year!!! But politically, it is probably much more effective to assume the worst (aka: Death Panels) and argue that way, since with no real bill there is no way to actually guarantee that won’t be in the bill. Obama is attempting to use ambiguity in his favor, so use some political judo and use that ambiguity against him.
Also, Joe McQuain over on the Q & O blog had a fantastic post on Obama’s core problem: He is not a Leader. In fact, he has no concept of what true Leadership is, which is why he is going to continue to fail on a greater and greater level as the pressure gets higher and higher.
http://www.qando.net/?p=4378
excerpt:
“Barack Obama has never been developed as a leader nor has he had to endure the tests a leader must endure. While I’m sure he’d deny it, he’s led a privileged life in which his charm, intelligence, charisma and a good helping of guile have been his primary means of advancement. And his political career has been perfectly tailored to take advantage of those attributes. Centered in the legislative branch where those are valued assets, he’s never been tasked to lead. Leadership in those venues is only vested in a few and with his short tenure at each level, leadership responsibilities were never vested in him. In general, it is one of the reasons that Senators rarely make good Presidents.
So he comes by his lack of leadership honestly – it is simply not something which was necessary in the track his life has taken to this point – but now finds himself in a real dilemma
He’s not a leader.
He really doesn’t know how to be a leader.”
I recomend reading the whole thing, it really is a wonderful but damning examination. This country has elected someone to the highest position of leadership, and he has absolutely no idea what he is supposed to do with it.
We already have the best health care system in the world.
Have you ever tried to locate a Dentist in Russia? Good f–king luck with that.
How about walk into an opthamologists office in Mexico? Most people I know go the a Mexican Dentist for bulk purchases of Oxy, Percodan, and Demarol…because they know he aint a dentist worthy of scraping tartar from your teeth.
Have you tried to get emergency care in Canada or Britain? You better have good life insurance when you leave our shores becasue you will not find the quality, access and ease of use in other nations.
Our health care system is the best on the planet. There is no need to fix what aint broke.
We need to inform our elected officials that they need to do something constructive with their time that benefits all of us… such as get rid of Barney Frank and all the other scumbags in Washington who are not worthy of picking the peanuts from our feces.
Yeah, but in good news the national stupidity factor is down to only 46%—I mean bobo’s approval rating, interpretation is all in how you read the polls.
KauauBoy, don’t forget there’s a solid 25% that hate this country as it is and will always support anything leading to it’s downfall, aka the far left – and they will always register support for Obama for that reason. (Guy Fawkes is in that group.) So, about 25% actually represents absolute zero on our political poll scale. Fascinating that he’s getting within shouting distanceo of THAT number!!
btw, notice that sad old Guy doesn’t dare show up anymore now that the MOST POPULAR PRESIDENT IN HISTORY!!! isn’t???
I don’t understand why they can’t do small, incremental bipartisan changes…well, actually I do and it reflects badly on the CcongressCritters.
My suggestions for reform would be:
1) Allow the purchase of insurance policies across state lines AND allow people to choose their insurance cafeteria style so they only purchase what they need.
2) No more tax credits for companies purchasing insurance for their employees – instead, give that tax credit to individuals.
3) Allow portability of insurance.
4) Allow small businesses and self-employed people to “pool”.
5) Cap trial attorney fees. Cap punitive judgments.
Do each of these in a separate, stand-alone and SHORT bill. Wait a few years and see what else is needed…
Like you said, ElvenPhoenix, you DO know why they don’t.
Your ideas are very good.
But they contain no elements of Central Control, which is all this is really about. Just like Cap and Trade, just like the Porkulus bill. What it is *supposed* to be about has nothing to do with what it’s *really* about.
Anyone who really wanted to reform this system would implement the changes you advocate.
Washington is not interested in that.
I was listening to Mark Lamont to night (I think that is his name), a black guy often on O’Reilly, any way he was on with Laura Ingram, and he said something that I have never thought about, apparently the majority of the 17 million uninsured people who don’t have medical insurance are black. So not passing the bill is racial, because all the people at the meetings are old white people, or mostly white people. So it is a racial thing against our President and the blacks that aren’t insured. Honestly I was so consumed with how it would ruin medical care, the best in the world, it never occurred to me that this argument was racial.
See Kathie, your racism is so deeply ingrained you don’t even know about it. That’s why you have to spend the rest of your life begging forgiveness for the things you don’t know about, and your children and their children too.
Well that’s what Obama told me.