Home » The health care reform bill that will not die

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The health care reform bill that will not die — 24 Comments

  1. neo: Congrats on publication! You lay out the broad strokes of the history and issues well.

    Me, I’m wondering if this season’s health care bill is already dead.

    Sure, we keep hearing the usual bluster from Obama and Pelosi, but as the NYT reports:

    The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, deflected questions about health care. “We’re not on health care now,” Mr. Reid said. “We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.”

    He added, “There is no rush,” and noted that Congress still had most of this year to work on the health bills passed in 2009 by the Senate and the House.

    Except that the midterms are approaching and the health bills are very unpopular with voters.

    Sure sounds dead to me.

    Unless Obama hits the SOTU address out of the park tonight — and his bat has been pretty cold for the past six months — I’d say ObamaCare is dead and so are Obama’s expansive notions of his presidency.

    Good riddance.

  2. huxley: Thanks.

    But I believe that reports of health care reform’s demise are premature.

    It may indeed go nowhere. But if it doesn’t go anywhere, it won’t be for lack of trying. And for every statement like Reid’s, there are contradictory ones, such as this.

    Note, also, that even Reid was only talking about a delay in timing. They will never give up, I think, although they may lose again this time. That was one of the main points I tried to make in my article.

  3. Your description of the Democrats as “determined to bitterly cling” to their bills was inspired — a sharp little shiv between the ribs. Ouch.

  4. I agree with Neo-Neo on the Health Ponzi NOT dead until we absolutely KNOW it’s dead. Assumption, where Reid-Pelosi-Obama and assorted Lib-Left sewer dwellers are concerned, is the Mother of All F-Ups.

    Excellent piece at The Standard, Neo-Neo! That nefarious cabal of neocons are smart to use your stuff.

  5. neo: Well, it will be darned interesting to see what happens.

    After hearing the healthcare, healthcare, healthcare drumbeat throughout the media channels and blog talk for several months now, I find the current silence eerie.

    It feels like the morning quiet after a hurricane passed in the night.

  6. I want it known that I am trainable.

    I left an email comment at WS, as follows:

    I believe Kaufman has hit the bullseye on this. It is the Last War syndrome, which causes generals not to fight the last war exactly, but the last war as it should have gone. The Maginot Line was not put where Germany invaded but where the French had thought they were going to invade. So Germany just invaded at the same place as the last time. And something else is at work here. A combination of hurt feelings and revenge. “We worked so hard to offer you this wonderful thing once before and you rejected it. Now you’re going to take it and you’re going to like it.”

    Hope that serves.

  7. Excellent article Neo, with the usual insightful analysis.

    I also recommend Michael Gerson’s article on the same topic.

    It appears that Liberals have built into their worldview an unalterable view that anything less than government-run “universal health care” is a catastrophe. That such a government run “universal” program must be implemented… and that when it is, it will cause a cornucopia of blessings for all…. trust them they would say. They have a hard time accepting that the U.S. public just isnt willing to buy into their pipe dream. They just cant let it go.

  8. Neo, nice piece. I also read Dick Morris’ recent column, and he also argues that rumors of “health care reform’s demise are premature” and that deals are being done as we type. I have no doubt that something’s being done, but if all the viable options require passage of the Senate bill by the House first, I think it’s Miller time. Too many cats to re-herd; too much Jello, not enough hand. I predict something smaller that can be labeled ‘Victory’ is going to be the result.

    On a different note, I was just reminded that for events like the SOTU, it has become customary for one cabinet member to hide out in an undisclosed location to ensure the continuity of the executive branch. Any thoughts who that might be? I’m hoping it’s not Janet Napie. Joe Biden? Hardly better, though if he were still around after a disaster on the Hill, it would keep #3 in succession from stepping up.

  9. I find it interesting how the Democratic leadership is so willing to have their underlings take the hit in November. It is analogous to the radical Islamic leaders who recruit suicide bombers.

    I’m not convinced that this battle is over. It’s like Freddie Krueger or Dracula. It won’t die.

  10. Mr. Frank: Here’s a good example of the genre: Kevin Drum asks Democrats to “knock some heads” and pass the bill already. Of course, Kevin Drum doesn’t have to run for re-election. But he’s part of the loud drumbeat (pardon the pun) demanding that they keep pushing for the bill.

  11. OTOH, here’s Chris “I’ve got a tingle down my leg!” Matthews ripping into a Dem Congressman for the Rube Goldberg reconciliation scheme mentioned in anearlier link.

    Sure, Obama & Co. haven’t given up. Why should they? If they give up on health care, they give up pretty much everything they hoped for in Obama’s presidency. If there is any chance for salvage, it must be done now.

    But waving wands and knocking heads still won’t get it done. There is no way through the Senate except for reconciliation and that’s a Hail Mary pass. Bayh, Snowe, and Nelson have already said that they won’t vote for ObamaCare on that basis, and there will be other problems as well, including even more enraged voters.

  12. Very well argued, neo. I don’t claim to be a seer, but I predicted this in a comment here on 1/20. Here’s what I said, “My guess is that they are still going to try to pass the Senate bill out of the House unchanged, so it can go direct to Obama’s desk. They may not succeed, but I think they will give it the old college try. These people (Obama, Reid, Pelosi) do not believe the voters know what is good for them.” They are, as we speak, desperately trying to do a few mods to the Senate Bill and pass it on to Obama. They are “bitterly clinging” to their dreams of uh, er, higher priced, less efficient medical care for all. (Except the 25 million or so who won’t be covered.)

    When will this nightmare end?

  13. Neo: As you point out in your WS piece, a fundamental factor has been the undemocratic audacity of the Democrats’ tactics / behavior in this fight. To me, and I believe lots have agreed with me, the audacity has been disgusting to say the least. It gets me in the stomach and I don’t like it. And I agree that this fight (this audacity) is not over until we have clear evidence that it is just that – over. Let’s hopeychange (re: let’s demand) that real history be made a la more Scott Browns. No reset button for Obama nor for Pelosi, nor Reid from me.

  14. Then there’s this: “Top Democrats at war – with each other”:

    The anger is most palpable in the House, where Pelosi and her allies believe Obama’s reluctance to stake his political capital on health care reform in mid-2009 contributed to the near collapse of negotiations now.

    But sources say there are also signs of strain between Reid and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, and relations between Democrats in the House and Democrats in the Senate are hovering between thinly veiled disdain and outright hostility.

    I get the impression that Democrats are swinging between shell shock and panic.

    These people couldn’t get health care done when they were unified, strong and had a supermajority. I doubt they can do it now.

  15. With the Democrats “we know what’s best for you” attitude, I’m reminded of an old New Yorker cartoon (when their cartoons were consistently funny) showing a mother and son at the dinner table, with the following caption:

    “MOTHER: It’s broccoli, dear.
    CHILD: I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it.”

    Just substitute “Obama/Pelosi/Reid & Co.” for “Mother” and the large majority of the electorate for “child” and you have where we are: “the hell with ObamaCare!”

  16. What Begala gets wrong in your citation, Neo (and he invariably gets things wrong, as we know) is that the Dems failure to pass HillaryCare in 1993 caused, yes caused, the 1994 Republican House tsunami. Wrong again, Paul! The attempt to pass it caused the wave, just like the ObamaCare prospect, close, so very close, gave them Scott Brown. Watch Nov 2010! Assuming reasonable pollingplace honesty, which is not a given.

    HillaryCare was developed in secret, just like the current effort. The WSJ worked very diligently to identify the 400-some mini-gurus, none of elected office, who formulated its features. The Journal even asked readers to identify the gurus, whose abbreviated names were released under pressure, e.g., JM Smith, MK Werner. One was Ezekiel Emanuel, it turned out. He gratuitously lied when I asked him before a medical audience why he’d been asked to serve on the Ethics Panel. “I have no idea; I’m just honored to serve”, he said. A call to the WSJ journalist involved confirmed that Rahm Emanuel, then Clinton’s senior domestic policy advisor, did indeed have a brother named Ezekiel.

    Health Care “Reform” galvanized me into opposition then, as it has now.

  17. Just starting this thread, but I have to tell you that I never would have guessed your name was Jean. I always thought of you as “Ellen.”

    I have no idea why I thought that.

    OK, now I’ll go and read your article in the Weekly Standard.

    🙂

  18. Terrific article.

    Tell us, when you were a young girl studying ballet, did you ever in your wildest dreams think that you would become a political writer who made more sense than all the big brains writing for the New York Times, the New Republic, and other supposedly informed opinion leaders?

    It’s amazing how things work out.

  19. I too thought your “bitterly cling” phrase a nice turn, as well as “openly corrupt Congress”. That is what they have become. It isn’t just the difference of opinion, or a desire for another path, it is Chicago thug politics writ large.

  20. So…now that you are writing for the Weekly Standard might it be possible that one day we may see you sitting alongside Charles Krauthammer on Brett Baier’s panel of pundits?

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