The Sunshine Empire

Watching Meet The Press this morning I am sick and damn tired of this debate. The President said it right this week, everything has been said. Listening to those that insist that the health care reform bill is unpopular is like listening to the ever changing number of communists in the state department from Joe McCarthy. 52%, 68%, 58%, 73%, it’s always changing with regard to the bill’s critics. Often it’s with the dubious question of “Do you favor a massive takeover of health care” when that has never been the plan. Never mind that the public option and it’s variations is vastly popular with the American people, as are the health insurance reforms. The bill and the effort behind it has always been about health insurance reforms, and not about who’s delivering care. The republican effort consistently has been to say no to everything as slowly as possible, then turn around and call the finished product horrible because of the lack of bipartisanship. It’s Nixonian in its cynicism, and it’s effectiveness and that is why the hubbub over the reconciliation process is hilarious almost. Both republicans and democrats hypocrisy has been in full display this week. The President who voted with filibusters of judicial nominees during his time in the Senate was now echoing Senate republicans from that time in calling for an up or down vote. The republicans in the senate who decried the filibuster as anti-democratic now look at the rights of the minority as sacrosanct. I want them to just get this bill done via reconciliation, if for nothing else so that we can move on to something else.

The Democrats will lose seats this November no matter if they complete passage of the health care reform bill or not. That’s another misnomer with this as well. The bill has passed both houses of Congress and reconciliation is merely the process of completing it for the President’s signature. The up or down vote that the President called for has actually already occurred. The new emerging meme is the return of “the culture of corruption.” The stepping down of the first Muppet elected to congress, Charles Rangel, from his powerful house committee chairmanship and the troubles of New York Governor David Patterson are not going to affect the votes of people in Nebraska, California or Florida. When Democrats retook the Congress in 2006 one of their messages was the often repeated “culture of corruption” but their successes in the mid-term elections had more to do with the incompetence of the Bush administration than Mark Foley and such. Republicans will gain seats due to natural historic trends, the unprecedented times we have, and the political law of diminishing returns.