Jan 22 2010
Grow a pair
A letter to Democrats:
“With the loss of Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat, Democrats no longer enjoy a filibuster-proof Senate majority, though they still enjoy the largest Senate majority any party has achieved in the past generation. The loss of this one vote does not require Congress or the President to abandon Senator Kennedy’s life work of health care reform. A year of political infighting, misleading debates about death panels and socialized medicine, and sheer inaction has left Americans exhausted, confused, and disgruntled. Americans are also bearing the severe consequences of deep recession and unemployment. Still, a majority of Americans support the elements of the Senate bill.
…
Alternatively, Congress can abandon this effort at this critical moment, leaving millions more Americans to become uninsured in the coming years as health care becomes ever less affordable. Abandoning health care reform—the signature political issue of this administration—would send a message that Democrats are incapable of governing and lead to massive losses in the 2010 election, possibly even in 2012. Such a retreat would also abandon the chance to achieve reforms that millions of Americans across the political spectrum desperately need in these difficult times. Now is the moment for calm and resolute leadership, pressing on toward the goal now within sight.”
Krugman, who I don’t often agree with said this another way. Democrats in both houses already voted for this. It’s too late to avoid the ignominy of voting for supposed socialist health care. If you scrap this project now you look impotent, your constituents get none of the benefits they would if the bill passes and Republicans can still say you support a “government takeover of health-care” or some other such nonsense, which they will do either way. House Democrats, vote for the senate version.
Pass the damn thing!
I don’t know. I’m getting tired of caring about a populace that doesn’t seem to care about themselves. Don’t pass it. And let people go bankrupt, let people get denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, let people get charged thousands of dollars for urgent care…maybe when enough people are buried or enough people are living in cardboard boxes and can’t listen to Beck and Limbaugh on the radio, maybe then they’ll wise up and figure out that health care needs reformed.
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