It Was Never about Health, Insurance, Nor Reform

The House of Representatives passed the Senate version of America's health care reform bill, and it will become the law of the land as soon as President Obama signs it. Then, there is a reconciliation package up for a vote that will fix the flaws in that bill. As a result, America becomes a nation in which virtually everyone has health care insurance. However, this whole political process had little to do with health, insurance or reform. It was all about who will govern America.

The Democrats are probably the worst disciplined political party in any nation worthy of the name. For over a year, progressive Democrats and the White House negotiated not with the Republicans but rather with rightist Democrats like Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln and Bart Stupak, people who may actually be in the wrong party. The left surrendered Medicare for all, surrendered the public option, surrendered, and surrendered. Why? Because they had promised something.

As for the Republicans, they made a determination two weeks before Mr. Obama was sworn in as president; they would not cooperate at all. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stated, "the reward for playing team ball this year was the reversal of the political environment and the possibility that we will have a bigger team next year." So no matter what was on offer, the GOP was to be the Party of No, hoping that their natural recovery during mid-term elections would be exaggerated.

They have behaved, not to put too fine a point on it, stupidly. They are allegedly the party of fiscal responsibility, and even engaging in the doublethink needed to excuse the profligacy of 2001-2008, they balked when it looked bipartisan. They backed the pay-go rule in Congress, which essentially says that any new spending must be funded by a tax increase or a spending cut elsewhere. It is the fiscally responsible move that created the Clinton years' budget surpluses. Few can reasonably argue against it. However, once Mr. Obama came out in favor of it, seven of the rules' Republican sponsors actually voted against their own sensible proposal.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) stated the GOP's position, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." While one doesn't believe for a moment that conservatives care less about the sick than liberals, it is clear from this statement that this was never about health, nor insurance, nor reform. It was about undermining the landslide victory of the Obama team in November 2008. David Frum, of the W administration, is on record as saying that the GOP made a strategic mistake in not negotiating a better deal. Inhabitants of the nether regions of Glennbeckistan obviously disagree. Now that they have lost, the fissures within the rightist bloc will become even more apparent. Full on resistance has failed; so, now what do they do?

This is Waterloo, and as this journal predicted, Mr. Obama is playing the role of the Duke of Wellington. What is most interesting is that the progressives who bitched and moaned about the bill fell into line. They played the role of Blucher's troops, arriving late in the day on Wellington's left, dressed in blue, causing the Bonapartists to break.

The Republicans made a huge mistake. They failed to understand that the minority can't carry the day, but it can alter the course of legislation. They opted not to negotiate, and as a result, they failed to influence the result. They acted against their own interests in order to stay ideologically pure. In doing so, they lost.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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