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Republican Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) said something on Fox News, which, surprisingly, I completely agree with (not a sentence I expected to write this morning):
"I don’t think very many people believe that if you have one Republican out of 100, that therefore, it’s a bipartisan bill," Kyl told Fox News. "I don’t know what Sen. Snowe will do, but I know right now that she’s very concerned about the cost of the bill and the fact that the Congressional Budget Office is not able to provide us with an accurate cost of what the bill is."
I’m with Sen. Kyl–having the vote of one Republican does not make a bill bipartisan. No regular Americans thinks, “Well, I will probably like this bill because it did get the vote of one whole Republican. It must be a super awesome bipartisan bill.” The idea that there are millions of Americans who want a health care bill, but only if it has the vote of at least one Republican senator, is absurd.
Why is the administration pursuing Snowe so strongly, even at the price of ruining health care reform? Roll Call seems to have the answer:
Snowe also gives Reid some cover with his liberals, in that he can push the blame for all of the controversial changes he will have to make onto the perils of bipartisanship.
It sounds like the plan is to push through a bad bill and act like the mean old Olympia Snowe made them all adopt the unpopular and destructive policies. This is the height of cowardice. The Democrats have a super majority (60 votes) in the Senate, and also the option to use reconciliation to pass a bill with only a simple majority. Snowe doesn’t actually have the power to force the Democrats do anything.
If some group of Democratic senators are against extending quality affprdable health care to more Americans, if they support letting the insurance companies continue ripping off the American people, let them publicly stand up against reform. If this round of health care reform sucks, it will be 100% the fault of the Democratic Party. Snowe has no real power and no one outside the beltway really cares how she votes.
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Agree, if the Dems and the WH allow healthCos to continue ripping off a public that is already bailing out TARP — and can’t account for where the $700 billion went! — they rightly earn the contempt and derision of the nation.
But IMHO, that is also code for: “The economy will not be fixed, b/c we are not willing to take on the problems with monopolies, with lack of regulation, and we don’t have the integrity to ensure clear accounting rules.”
And Snowe is from a state currently being sued by a healthCo for preventing that monopoly from raising insurance rates? Hahahahahah!!!!!
Someone evidently thinks they’re being ‘Solomonic’ by trying to split the baby in half.
That’s a crock of stupidity.
Solomon had to make a decision: two woman both claimed to be the mother of a baby.
Solomon finally identified the baby’s true mother by threatening to ‘cut the baby in half’.
The woman who was willing to give up the baby, rather than risk its death, showed through her selflessness that she was the ‘true mother’.
It’s a weird thing, but it appears that Jay Rockefeller, Ron Wyden, Debbie Stabenow, and Maria Cantwell truly, deeply care about health care. They show this by being unwilling to see the ‘health care baby’ destroyed by false promises, false negotiations, and false compromises.
Here’s hoping that others see in their integrity the same inspiration that I take from watching all of this. It’s the only silver lining that I can spot.
Well, that plus the fact that people are waking up to the number of healthCo monopolies in the nation, which is Silver Lining #2.
I don’t doubt it Jon, but what about Labor and the Majority Leader’s need to have them on board for his re election battle ??
“This is the height of cowardice.”
If so, what are they afraid of?
Their current course of action will almost surely cost them huge numbers of votes and maybe a few seats, if it suppresses turnout.
And if things keep on the way they are going, they’ll be lucky if they aren’t fleeing howling mobs in a few years.