Democrats. What'd you sell your soul for?

Phil Valentine

December 22, 2009

PhilValentine.com

 

It will be weeks – perhaps years – before we know the full impact of the healthcare bill passed by the Senate, if it becomes law after reconciliation with the House.  Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) held out.  It appears playing hard to get paid off for his home state.  Nebraska was one of four states getting more federal help with Medicaid. 

A few physician-owned hospitals, one, interestingly enough, in Bellevue, Neb., were grandfathered in as the bill closed the door on allowing these hospitals to get referrals from the doctors who own them.  Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana came through with her vote after securing $100 million for her state in what became derisively known as the Louisiana Purchase.

What is conspicuously absent from this bill is the center piece of Obama agenda – the government-run option.  There’s much speculation that it will be reinserted come conference committee time but its fate is undetermined.

There’s one characteristic that makes this legislation unique and, perhaps, deadly to Democrats next November.  This is a Democrat bill.  Not one Republican senator voted for it and only one Republican congressman did.  The Democrats have placed everything on this bill.  If a final draft is ever passed and signed into law by President Obama it will have to overcome the overwhelming negatives presently attached to it or it will surely swamp the Democrats’ ship in 2010. 

By the tone of the rhetoric one could conclude that they don’t really care how unpopular it is.  It’s almost as if this is a kamikaze congress, hellbent on wreaking as much damage as possible before they go down in flames.  It’s also as if they believe that nothing they do between now and January of 2011 can be undone.

It would take a massive sledgehammer and a lot of labor on the part of the Republicans to tear down this monument to Marx but it can be done.  In fact, I suspect many will be elected next November specifically for that task.  It will be interesting to see if they’re up to it once they take control and, barring some horrific screw-up by the Republicans, they will take control.

Once they do they must learn the lessons of history.  The idealistic soldiers of Newt Gingrich descended upon Washington clutching a campaign-worn document called The Contract with America.  This group of freshmen congressmen intended to fundamentally change the way Washington did business.  And they almost succeeded.  Much of the agenda laid out by Speaker Newt passed in the House but languished in the Senate.  The House had done all it could do.  It just could not force the senate to do what it should have done.

This time around things must be different and they are already starting out decidedly so.  This movement is a true grass-roots movement without a leader.  The tea party movement is not the brainchild of one or even a handful of politicians.  It springs from an electorate so utterly frightened by the speed at which they’ve watched their country go down the drain that they are moved to congregate by the thousands and demand government reform.  This parade has already begun and candidates will, no doubt, grab their batons and rush to the front of it in an effort to ride this wave of discontent into office.  Nothing wrong with that if their intentions are pure.  And pure they must be if the Republicans hope to truly seize the moment.  If their intention is to hitch their wagon to a movement only to continue business as usual, the Republicans can count on a generation in the minority.