It is now virtually certain that the Senate will pass the health care reform bill currently before it. We must still suffer through the agonies of the Senate-House conference, but the odds are very great that sometime before his State of the Union address to the assembled members of Congress, the President wll sign a final bill, with as much in the way of bells and whistles, flourishes and furblows, as the White House staff can manage.
When this happens, it will be an enormous political victory for Obama, regardless of the details of the bill, and a terrible defeat for the Republicans. It did not have to be this way, of course. Had the Republicans accepted Obama's offer of bipartisanship, they could have won a bill much closer to what they say they are in favor of, and they would have shared the credit, going into the off-year elections.
But that is not what they wanted. No sooner had Obama taken the oath of office than Republicans began to say, openly and unashamedly, that their primary goal was to make Obama's presidency a failure. Gambling that at least one Democratic senator would break ranks, despite Harry Reid's best efforts, and, in all likelihood, privately hoping that Robert Byrd would expire before the final vote [a hope that devoutly Christian, born-again, but terminally stupid Tom Coburn actually gave voice to on the floor of the Senate], they dug in their heels, doubled down, bullied Olympia Snowe into behaving herself, and went for broke.
The victory, should it occur, will give Obama tremendous momentum going into 2010, just in time to throw his entire administration behind an effort to create jobs.
There is no evidence of which I am aware that the majority of Republicans care two cents about health care. Some of them are in the bag to the health industry lobbies, no doubt, but that is as true of the Democrats as of the Republicans. No one is more beholden to the health care insurance industry than Joe Lieberman, the "Senator from Hartord," as he is referred to, but even he, in the end, has gotten on board, after extracting some concessions for the industry that owns him.
If it comes to pass [he says, crossing the eight fingers with which he is not typing], it will be an extraordinary vindication for Obama's style of governing. And the Republiocans will have given it to him.
Historically, it has been conservatives, not radicals, who cherished ironies, but these days, one must get one's pleasures where one can.
Showing posts with label Republicans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Republicans. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
THE HEALTH CARE REFORM PROCESS, YET AGAIN
While Harry Reid and his Gang of Ten await the CBO scoring on the latest complex compromise proposal, it might be well to pause for a moment and reflect on how this enormously important debate has developed in the past eight months or more.
It was obvious to virtually everyone, when it began, that the process would be lengthy, contentious, tedious, complex, and fraught with political manoeuvres and dangers. Five House committees, two or three Senate committees, all debating a fundamental reorientation of one seventh of the entire American economy. Nothing this complex has been attempted in generations.
At the very beginning of the process, the Republicans made a decision. Since they are not stupid -- vicious, perhaps, despicable, undoubtedly, deeply in debt to special corporate interests, inevitably, but not stupid -- I assume the decision was conscious, calculated, deliberate, and much debated in Republican circles. The decision was to try to destroy the Obama presidency by doing everything in their power to defeat any attempt at health care reform, virtually regardless of its content. They knew that they could muster forty votes in the Senate, and it was quite unclear whether Harry Reid could hold a fractious coalition of fifty-eight Democrats and two Independents. [Remember that at this point, it was not yet clear whether Al Franken would prevail in his Senate contest].
So, despite the exhausting efforts of MaxBaucus to secure a bi-partisan coalition in his committee, the Republicans steadfastly voted against everything.
And the result? They have rendered themselves completely irrelevant to the process of negotiating a final bill. Despite their endless posturing on the floor of the Senate, despite the Tea Baggers and the disruptions in summer town hall meetings, they have completely closed themselves out of the crafting of the final bill. There is no doubt that, had they chosen to engage in genuine bi-partisan negotiations, they could have played an important role in writing the bill. But they chose instead to gamble on bringing Obama down.
Now, all of this is rather new even to folks like myself who are obsessed with politics. But it cannot have been at all new to the senior members of the Republican Senate caucus. They must have been quite well aware that their chosen strategy guaranteed them no input into the bill finally brought to a vote before the two houses of Congress. They were even willing to desert their corporate patrons, who may have been counting on them to make the final bill friendlier to corporate interests. Their lust for the kill, for destroying the Obama presidency in its first year, took precedence over everything else.
And so we have the spectacle, now, of intense negotiations being conducted entirely among -- Democrats. To be sure, corporate interests are hardly unrepresented in those closed meetings. But the absence of any Republicans at the table tilts the balance of forces markedly leftward of where it would have been otherwise.
Will the Republican gamble pay off? Will they, at the last moment, peel away Ben Nelson or Joe Lieberman or Evan Bayh or Mary Landrieu? I think it is clear that the answer is no. The momentum is so great now to pass something that the most those people can do is to push the bill marginally to the right.
Think what this will mean. First, it will be, and will be seen as, an enormous victory for Obama. Hence, the Republicans will have lost. Second, a wide variety of extremely important reforms and changes will have been enacted, whatever the final shape of the bill. Everyone has agreed to stop insurance companies from denying insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. Everyone has agreed that thirty million or more Americans now uninsured will become insured. There are countless other good things in the proposed legislation that are not even in dispute.
Fascinating.
It was obvious to virtually everyone, when it began, that the process would be lengthy, contentious, tedious, complex, and fraught with political manoeuvres and dangers. Five House committees, two or three Senate committees, all debating a fundamental reorientation of one seventh of the entire American economy. Nothing this complex has been attempted in generations.
At the very beginning of the process, the Republicans made a decision. Since they are not stupid -- vicious, perhaps, despicable, undoubtedly, deeply in debt to special corporate interests, inevitably, but not stupid -- I assume the decision was conscious, calculated, deliberate, and much debated in Republican circles. The decision was to try to destroy the Obama presidency by doing everything in their power to defeat any attempt at health care reform, virtually regardless of its content. They knew that they could muster forty votes in the Senate, and it was quite unclear whether Harry Reid could hold a fractious coalition of fifty-eight Democrats and two Independents. [Remember that at this point, it was not yet clear whether Al Franken would prevail in his Senate contest].
So, despite the exhausting efforts of MaxBaucus to secure a bi-partisan coalition in his committee, the Republicans steadfastly voted against everything.
And the result? They have rendered themselves completely irrelevant to the process of negotiating a final bill. Despite their endless posturing on the floor of the Senate, despite the Tea Baggers and the disruptions in summer town hall meetings, they have completely closed themselves out of the crafting of the final bill. There is no doubt that, had they chosen to engage in genuine bi-partisan negotiations, they could have played an important role in writing the bill. But they chose instead to gamble on bringing Obama down.
Now, all of this is rather new even to folks like myself who are obsessed with politics. But it cannot have been at all new to the senior members of the Republican Senate caucus. They must have been quite well aware that their chosen strategy guaranteed them no input into the bill finally brought to a vote before the two houses of Congress. They were even willing to desert their corporate patrons, who may have been counting on them to make the final bill friendlier to corporate interests. Their lust for the kill, for destroying the Obama presidency in its first year, took precedence over everything else.
And so we have the spectacle, now, of intense negotiations being conducted entirely among -- Democrats. To be sure, corporate interests are hardly unrepresented in those closed meetings. But the absence of any Republicans at the table tilts the balance of forces markedly leftward of where it would have been otherwise.
Will the Republican gamble pay off? Will they, at the last moment, peel away Ben Nelson or Joe Lieberman or Evan Bayh or Mary Landrieu? I think it is clear that the answer is no. The momentum is so great now to pass something that the most those people can do is to push the bill marginally to the right.
Think what this will mean. First, it will be, and will be seen as, an enormous victory for Obama. Hence, the Republicans will have lost. Second, a wide variety of extremely important reforms and changes will have been enacted, whatever the final shape of the bill. Everyone has agreed to stop insurance companies from denying insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. Everyone has agreed that thirty million or more Americans now uninsured will become insured. There are countless other good things in the proposed legislation that are not even in dispute.
Fascinating.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
All right, let me see if I have this straight. Senator John Ensign's staffer and her husband have their house broken into by thieves. The house is so messed up that they and their children move in with the Ensigns, who live in a neighborhood nearby. While they are all living together with the Ensigns and their children, Ensign starts shtupping the staffer. This causes some difficulties, which lead to the staffer severing her connection with the Senator's staff. Senator Tom Coburn, who is both a doctor and a lay minister, counsels Senator Ensign, and then, when questioned, says that as both a doctor and a minister he claims the privilege of keeping what he and Senator Ensign talked about private, except that Senator Coburn's office puts out a press release full of details about which the Senator has claimed privilege. Meanwhile, Senator Ensign's rich father and mother make eight gifts of $12,000 each to the staffer, her husband, and the two children, for a total of $96,000 totally free of all tax consequences [anyone can give anyone $12,000 a year or less with no tax consequences], ostensibly to tide them over the difficult time they are having.
Meanwhile, Senator Larry Craig is emplying a wide stance in the pubic bathrooms in an airport, Senator David Vitter is frequenting a DC madam, Governor Mark Sanford is explaining that though he crossed the sexual line with his Brazilian bombshell, he did not cross the sexual line with a number of other women, though he did cross a line nevertheless. And Governor Sarah Palin ups and quits her governorship, in order to show that she is no quitter, and then, having decided that her first attempt at explanation left something to be desired, gives a series of hastily arranged interviews with representatives of the hated Mainstream Media, wearing waders even though she gives no evidence of being actually engaged in fishing.
When I was young, the Republican Party was the party of grownups. Dull, unimaginative, out of touch with whatever happened to be the popular culture of the day, but manifestly grownups. What is going on? The Democratic Party is now the party of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as sober and serious a pair of grownups as you could find.
What happened?
Meanwhile, Senator Larry Craig is emplying a wide stance in the pubic bathrooms in an airport, Senator David Vitter is frequenting a DC madam, Governor Mark Sanford is explaining that though he crossed the sexual line with his Brazilian bombshell, he did not cross the sexual line with a number of other women, though he did cross a line nevertheless. And Governor Sarah Palin ups and quits her governorship, in order to show that she is no quitter, and then, having decided that her first attempt at explanation left something to be desired, gives a series of hastily arranged interviews with representatives of the hated Mainstream Media, wearing waders even though she gives no evidence of being actually engaged in fishing.
When I was young, the Republican Party was the party of grownups. Dull, unimaginative, out of touch with whatever happened to be the popular culture of the day, but manifestly grownups. What is going on? The Democratic Party is now the party of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as sober and serious a pair of grownups as you could find.
What happened?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
THE ALL TIME WINNER FOR SHEER NUTTINESS
OK. I have not yet figured out how to snatch a url from someone else's site and insert it into mine, so just go to The Huffington Post and look under politics for the story about the Oklahoma State Legislature. I think there is some serious question about whether those folks inhabit the same world that I do. This is a must read.
Monday, June 22, 2009
SNARKING
We must take our pleasures where we find them. Perhaps I am drawn to this particular bit of guilty joy because its source is right next door. After having been forced for months to listen to Governor Mark Warner of South Carolina strike santimonious poses and refuse seven hundred million dollars of stimulus money for South Carolinian education because of his principled objections to public monies, now we are suddenly told that he has gone missing these past four days, and that his wife does not know where he is. Is there any form of screw-up that Republicans have neglected? One particularly unforgiving blogger suggested that he was simply spending time with a second family in Georgia! I know, I know, none of this is of any importance whatsoever, and besides, it is distinctly unChristian of me to wish him ill. But then ...
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Noah's Ark
I know I said I would not comment on each passing outrage, but there are moments when the only way to keep one's sanity is to say something. Two days ago, during the ten-man Republican debate among presidential hopefuls, the question was asked, "Who doesn't believe in evolution?" Three candidates raised their hands.
My guess is that none of them has a clue what evolution is, but quite appropriately they are seeking to reflect the will of their actual and potential consituents [which is to say the fundamentalist Christian inerrants who make up a significant fraction of the Republican primary voters.] So this question is put to these three distinguished gentlemen as a way of asking it of the millions of Americans whom they represent:
When the lions get off the ark after forty days and nights of rain, they are hungry, I think we can assume. What do they eat?
Those of us who have been on safari, or have watched the Nature Channel, know that lions eat African buffalo, or impala if they can't get buffalo. They also, on occasion, eat wart hog, giraffe, and zebra. But each of these animals is a mammal and can reproduce only if there are a male and a female. What is more, their gestation periods are reasonably lengthy. [Fourteen months for a giraffe, if Google can be trusted.]
It is of course possible that the Lord was sufficiently foresighted to arrange for all the female mammals to be pregnant when they boarded the ark [or to get pregnant on the ark -- there is never much to do except eat on a cruise], but lions kill every three or four days, so by the time the first week is up in the new postdiluvian world, several species will have gone extinct.
I know, I know, this sort of pettifogging misses the point of religion, and since I am after all an atheist, I can legitimately be accused of not getting it.
I was just asking.
My guess is that none of them has a clue what evolution is, but quite appropriately they are seeking to reflect the will of their actual and potential consituents [which is to say the fundamentalist Christian inerrants who make up a significant fraction of the Republican primary voters.] So this question is put to these three distinguished gentlemen as a way of asking it of the millions of Americans whom they represent:
When the lions get off the ark after forty days and nights of rain, they are hungry, I think we can assume. What do they eat?
Those of us who have been on safari, or have watched the Nature Channel, know that lions eat African buffalo, or impala if they can't get buffalo. They also, on occasion, eat wart hog, giraffe, and zebra. But each of these animals is a mammal and can reproduce only if there are a male and a female. What is more, their gestation periods are reasonably lengthy. [Fourteen months for a giraffe, if Google can be trusted.]
It is of course possible that the Lord was sufficiently foresighted to arrange for all the female mammals to be pregnant when they boarded the ark [or to get pregnant on the ark -- there is never much to do except eat on a cruise], but lions kill every three or four days, so by the time the first week is up in the new postdiluvian world, several species will have gone extinct.
I know, I know, this sort of pettifogging misses the point of religion, and since I am after all an atheist, I can legitimately be accused of not getting it.
I was just asking.
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