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Health Care Karma Watch, February 14, 2010.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  February 14th, 2010 at 12:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

(Via Instapundit) Michael Barone unpacks the bind that House Democrats are in over the health care rationing bill, right now (to summarize, reports suggest that they really don’t want to pass the Senate version, promises of reconciliation later or no):

If you vote for the Senate bill, you’re voting for something that has 35% support nationwide and probably a little less than that in your district. You will have voted for the Cornhusker Hustle and the Louisiana Purchase. Your Republican opponent will ask why you voted for something that gave taxpayers in Nebraska and Louisiana better treatment than the people you represent (there are no Democratic House members running for reelection in those two states: Nebraska has only Republican House members and the single Louisiana House Democrat is running for the Senate). The only protection you have against this is the assurance that the Senate parliamentarian and scared incumbent senators will come through for you, and that Harry Reid will pursue a steady course.

Read the whole thing, and may I offer an observation?  None of this would have happened if the Democrats had simply kept to their word and acted decently towards Republican legislators last year.  If they had involved their colleagues in the process, they would have gotten a much better bill, absolutely crucial bipartisan support, and at least some of what they ostensibly wanted.  But because they thought that they could get away with being arrogant and bullying and petty, the Democrats are now facing what could be the worst political backlash of the last thirty years.  And they’ve earned every drop of it.

Isn’t it funny how often the virtuous option turns out to be the smart one, too?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    If not for their arrogant dismissal of the GOP we’d have likely;y wound up with an incrementally socialist bill with a veneer of GOP support in the form of Snowe, Collins, Voinovich, Graham, and maybe even McCain rather than a pure socialist bill. I personally don’t like it when the moderates in the GOP start by first accepting the premise of the Democrats as the starting point for negotiations thereby ceding to them the high ground rather than insisting on a neutral starting point and working from there. This is how the Left has managed to march us down the road to socialism for generations.
    Their arrogance has created an opening for a truly conservative approach to reforming our health care that reduces government meddling rather than one that massively increases it.
    The Democrats arrogance has also finally exposed their agenda to a wider audience than those of us that have always opposed it. I think, and hope, that they are driven from office for decades.

  • http://itsaboutfreedom.proboards.com/index.cgi IronDioPriest

    “Isn?t it funny how often the virtuous option turns out to be the smart one, too?”

    There would have been no virtue in a bi-partisan remake of the health care system. It would only have moved us incrementally closer to Socialism, the only question being a matter of degree.

    As to whether it would have been smart, I ask you to take the pulse of the American people to get a read on that one.

  • USNJIMRET

    Unless, of course, you are on the receiving end of coming round!!

  • USNJIMRET

    Unless, of course, you are on the receiving end of coming round!!

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …to not fixing the problem is to adopt the Democrats’ stance in some form, sure. Which is a bad assumption to make, as large sections of the underlying problem are direct results of the need to pander to Democratic special-interest groups (trial lawyers, union leadership cadres).

    I am not going to take a hard-line libertarian position and say that *no* regulation is needed; but we can still have *less*, yet *more effective* regulation by carving out all the privileges that have been allowed to accumulate in the current scheme.

  • ntrepid

    Along the lines of what others have said above, I do think we fool ourselves to think that a bipartisan bill?whether it be a targeted Maine vote getter or something more compromising?would have truly fit the ?much better bill? description with respect to today?s fundamental arguments against a massive power grab by our beloved federal behemoth.

    I believe that such a bill would unfortunately demonstrate that the Republican power brokers utilized to craft that legislation are not all that different from the not-so-bat-$&!#-crazy Democrats that still managed to vote for those unacceptable existing bills.

    That bipartisan majority would then have been just as arrogant, bullying, and petty towards us in the unenlightened constituency class.

    Ntrepid
    Proud Member for 5 Years and 5 Months

  • kewgardens

    No one seems concerned about my persistent worry. What is to stop the Dems from passing this bill AFTER the November elections? At that point, there will be a lot of soon to be out of work — but ideologically driven — lame duck Dems with essentially nothing left to lose.

    At that point, what is going to stop the House from passing the Senate bill? Obama will probably offer these newly unemployed folks nice cushy jobs (ambassador to Fiji anyone?) in the government in exchange for their votes.

    If the Senate hadn’t passed the bill last December, this would not be a problem — the GOP Senate caucas would rightly filibuster it to death. But the Senate-passed bill is hanging out there and the House can pass it at any time.

  • thurman

    One point is that, from my very superficial understanding, the option of reconciliation on the existing Senate HCR bill expires after April 2010 for some reason. So they’d have to pass the Senate bill and then alter it again from scratch, which would take months and months.

    So hopefully, there is no way this would happen, especially because the unions wouldn’t get their special $80 billion tax break.

    I’m more worried about them cramming it through now still– especially with Plouffe back on board, their logic seems to be that they’re screwed whether they do or don’t cram it through, so they might as well and hope it pays off for them down the road.

    The polls are almost too bad right now, to where many Dims have to already have this lame duck attitude– I think they cram it through now, before April, if ever

  • kewgardens

    Yea, but reconciliation is not relevant if the House simply agrees to pass the Senate bill — as is.

    And the current House opposition to the Senate will likely vaporize post-November, when the Dems realize (in concrete terms) that their supermajority (and perhaps majority) is gone come January. It seems to me that at that point, they will take what they can get and pass the Senate bill. The Left will realize that they will be unable to pass anything better (or equally “good”) anytime in the near or intermediate future.

    I just don’t know what the GOP can do to stop such a scenario. If only the GOP had been able to delay the December vote until after the Massachusetts Senate election.

  • tngal

    Its the amazing insurance bill. It minces and crushes and even makes a delicious fruit smoothy.
    -
    Doesn’t really matter if its by reconcilliation or a majority vote this hulk of a bill is here and won’t die. I posted a link to the “invitation” sent by the WH concerning the upcoming summit this month. When you read the letter you notice its not just the just partisan yacky-yak, instead its condescending to republican lawmakers and is basically a dare. BO gets his commercial time again and pushes his agenda while dismissing our major concerns. This face time is only to convince the masses of his message. Meanwhile, Pelosi and Reid continue to conference with each other right up till the last minute to serve their liberal bases and when vote time comes the lame ducks will vote for anything in any form cause they don’t care anymore.

  • larryp

    I think you’d have to apply to the health area to which you’d wantto move to, if you needed to re-locate for a job.
    Then the Health commissioner of that state or region would say yes or no depending on the availability of “care” in that state or region.
    I think weAmericans will be furious to find out that we are blocked that way. The only bill I read was the HR 3200 and all the no care paragraphs in that one are definitely an excrement sandwich.
    Why does our govt hate us so? Why should we Americans support them in any way?
    Going to this Feb 25 mtg and letting Obama be the talk-show host and slip all the ridicule in and sneak in giving the finger like he did in the
    debates (to M’Cain and Hillary causing much laughter) is really Dumb.
    D’ya think the GOP could stop being dumb? Perhaps no one in the Gop wants a “better” Donk bill…