Why Brown’s Victory Probably Killed Health Care Reform
Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and a lot of other liberals are talking tough on health care, but the reality is that Scott Brown’s election is probably going to kill it deader than the dodo. Granted, you can never say never in this business (after all, how many of us expected the Dems to lose “Ted Kennedy’s seat” a month ago?), but here are the Democrats’ remaining options:
1. Try to delay seating Scott Brown and push health care through without him.
First off, if you go by the law as it’s written, Paul Kirk is no longer a U.S. senator. His term ended after the election last night. Even if the Democrats tried to pull a fast one, James Webb has already made it clear that he’s not interested in playing along. That means that if the Democrats in the House make revisions to the Senate bill, they can’t get it back through the Senate without Paul Kirk’s vote.
2. House Democrats pass the Senate bill as is.
Theoretically, this could happen. As a practical matter, it seems very unlikely. “Yes” vote Robert Wexler has retired and won’t be replaced until April. Republican Joseph Cao is going to be a “no” vote this time, and Bart Stupak says he has 10-12 Democrats willing to vote “no” because his pro-life amendment has been yanked. That means Pelosi would need to probably turn at least a dozen “no” votes from last time around, when the bill was more popular. That would be a tall order under any circumstances, but given that the public option has been taken out and the unions have become dismayed that their “Cadillac” health care plans will be taxed, Pelosi seems more likely to lose liberal votes than gain moderate ones at this point. So getting 218 votes in the House for the bill as it currently stands is probably just not possible.
If the Dems are smart they will recraft HCR as a simple bill no one can vote against, claim victory and retool their msg for the mid-terms; but think they have too much invested in their erroneous storyline.
http://strictlyanecdotal.com/2010/01/20/cant-see-the-forest.aspx
It seems that the Pelosi/Reid folks are convinced that they know better than we what is good for us, and are determined to give it to us, like as not. They also have too much political capital invested in this current disaster of a bill to back away from it.
I will admit that I do not know what they will do, but letting this catastrophe die in committee appears to be a non-option. Whatever they attempt, Pelosi/Reid et. al. have gotten this far, so by no means should we underestimate them.
Constant vigilance! This may be our best chance to defeat the current bill, and allow a better, less ambitious plan make its way forward.
Agree on HCR; How about C&T, et. ?
Does anyone in Washington accept
that the economy is going to be
the _only_ issue in 2010 & 2012 ?
Hey, Ted Kennedy finally made a difference!
I love Pelosi… she is the quintessential mindless Stepford liberal, complete with glazed eyes and rictus smile. It is even more laughable to hear the banal excuses trotted out by the left for their defeat in MA, full of lazy tropes that exemplify their congenital inability to perceive reality.
Obama, Pelosi and Reid are the gift that keeps on giving. Finally Americans are starting to wake up from five decades of assuming progressives are simply “compassionate”, instead of the lying, deceitful, sanctimonious, sociofascist tyrants they really are.
“There’s going to be a tendency on the part of our people to be in denial about all this. If you lose Massachusetts and that’s not a wake-up call, there’s no hope of waking up.”
Seriously QFT. Though I have to say they probably won’t wake-up. We’ll see…
Brown’s victory probably killed (Socialist) health care reform, but there’s still a ton of great Republican and Independent ideas out there for creating a better health care system……
If that happens, we are going to fix our ever growing health care mess, how? (PS – you can discount the Republican “plan” since it’s not based on any valid research.)
All this talk about “maybe we should”……is nothing but platitudes out of the mouths of losers. We however have much more work to do. I for one do not believe any of these Dim’s will go quietly without first causing additional harm to the Country. After all, they are one very large lying saock of….
[...] after all, how many of us expected the Dems to lose “Ted Kennedy’s seat” a month ago? [...]
Bellow is the voting breakdown in the Kopechne Duchy – apparently his highness Edward Kennedy was not that a popular figure:
“Brown Beat Coakley In Kennedy’s Hometown/ BOSTON (WBZ) ― How stunning was Scott Brown’s victory in the special U.S. Senate election Tuesday night?
He even beat Martha Coakley in Ted Kennedy’s hometown and precinct on the Cape.
According to the town clerk’s office, Brown beat Coakley 12,331 votes to 7,543 in Barnstable.
In Kennedy’s precinct 13, Brown won 656 to 504.
Here is the breakdown:
Barnstable
Total registered voters 31,100
Percentage who voted 65%
Brown 12331
Coakley 7543
Kennedy 179
Write-in 8
And…
Precinct 13
Total registered voters 2031
Percentage who voted 58%
Brown 656
Coakley 504
Kennedy 18
Write-in 1
How beautiful is that?
more @:
http://sweetness-light.com/
Nobody says it better than Charles Stevens (#5). Best description of progressives I’ve come across, and which I will use — without attribution.
I think you might be surprised.
As a physician, I am happy to see this piece of flotsam go down the tubes. I suspect the moderate dems are equally happy that they won’t have to place their weenies in that hot bun.
This can be just what they were praying for in order to have an easy out from Pelosi/Reid.
While it’s true that there are some Democrats who realize the implications of the Brown victory, they ain’t the ones driving the bus. Pelosi, Reid, Obama, et al are ideologues – akin to Sulzberger, Turner, etc. who would rather see their companies fail than to compromise their liberal princples. Listen to Obama’s vapid comments concerning the election; instead of demonstrating any contrition or actualization, Obama indirectly blamed Bush and said that the voter angst was the very same energy whick propelled the annointed one to office. No, these tin-foil Stalinists don’t get it and they will continue to whistle “Gimn Sovetskogo Soyuza” as they drive the little red-bus off of a cliff.
I think I was seeing them dithering a bit about health care reform already–at least the rank and file. This just gives them a face-saving excuse to drop what was killing them anyway.
The Jackass Party will change its communist agenda when its employer, Rothschild Inc., tells it to do so. Such is not a probability.The International Bankers want control of an atheistic, totalitarian world government and all that they engineer goes to that end.In one way or another they destroy all who dare oppose them. They have been identified as “satanists” by some investigators, and certainly they are such; at least in the sense that they serve evil, happily and eagerly.
People who really believe that unborn babies should be slaughtered; that homosexual perversion should be promoted; that government should control every aspect of our lives- should be institutionalized- until they get their minds right. Tolerating their presence in our electorate is committing political suicide.
This is because they elect their own kind, and we find ourselves ruled by sociopaths.
From my blog, an article I wrote a few weeks ago:
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/
When the French royalty returned to France in 1814 after the end of Napoleonic wars, the French foreign minister Talleyrand famously quiped that “They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” In a very short time, the French people remembered why they had beheaded the previous king. The Bourbons did not rule France for too long after their return from the exile….
So, all in all, I believe it would be better for America if Obama and his liberal allies continue their insane policies and completely lose their minds – try to steal elections in Massachusetts, and when that fails, they delay the swearing in of senator Brown until they ram through their HealthCare Bill. And then, in November 2010, the DNC suffers the worst defeat ever recorded in world history, and the GOP turns everything around.
All in all, I predicted in November 2008 that liberals will be in deep trouble if Obama is elected, but even I am surprised at how quickly they f*cked up everything they touched. It’s simply amazing.
@14 Mike. Faster, Faster, Faster!
If we are really for smaller government, lower taxes, and less Federal authority, the very last thing we need to do is propose a “Federal Health Care Program.” That is an oxymoron on the face of it.
We may be able to get Reid in November. Pelosi? Nah, San Fran will continue to reelect her, barring a Federal indictment, until she decides to retire or dies. Yep, beating her in SF is about as likely as my getting elected President. Of course, then I would look into indicting her, but……….
@8. BC: – If that happens, we are going to fix our ever growing health care mess, how? (PS – you can discount the Republican “plan” since it’s not based on any valid research.)
And the Democrats’ socialized medicine bill is based on what “research” again? And you know this how, since no one has actually witnessed the negotiations, contrary to BHO’s lie that the debates would be broadcast on C-SPAN, or seen the final bill?
You’re a riot, BC. Every time you post what looks like your stupidest comment yet, you post something even stupider.
The health care mess is a simple problem: health care costs are skyrocketing out of control because there is NO force acting to keep them affordable. The solution is equally simple: work to bring health care costs down.
The solution is NOT to force everyone to purchase insurance to cover those skyrocketing costs because – surprise, surprise – that does NOTHING to reverse the skyrocketing costs. More of what encouraged costs to skyrocket (comprehensive group insurance, legislatively mandated as it is in MA) will only make the problem worse. Massachusetts has already demonstrated this. Why do you think they rejected Obama’s socialized medicine agenda by electing Scott Brown?
The solution is to bring the cost of routine health care back into equilibrium with other commodities so that it is generally affordable, like other commodities. The way you do this is to undo the market corruption of 45 years of government meddling and let the free market function as it does in every other sector.
The solution is to recognize the real purpose of insurance – which is to mitigate financial risk – and stop abusing it as an inefficient mechanism for wealth redistribution, i.e., “spreading the wealth around” by “spreading the costs around”.
The solution is to encourage – subsidize, if necessary – high-deductible, low-premium private insurance policies that will prevent “medical bankruptcy” in the event of catastrophic illness or injury while at the same time discourage over-consumption of health care.
The solution is to realize that tort reform MUST be addressed.
The solution, ultimately, is to force the federal government to limit its legislation to the specific areas where the Constitution explicitly gives it authority. Health care is not among those. The People must be left to pursue the commerce of health care amongst themselves without meddling by the federal government in pursuit of social engineering, wealth redistribution and nanny-statism.
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@14. Mike Jefferson: – Obama indirectly blamed Bush and said that the voter angst was the very same energy whick propelled the annointed one to office.
Nothing else could more clearly demonstrate the depth of BHO’s delusional narcissism. Brown’s election was about him. EVERYTHING is all about him.
The fact that escapes BHO’s keen grasp of the surreal is this… if populist anger got him elected, it was populist anger fueled by Left Wing Media lies. BHO inherited an economy that was resurrected by the Bush Administration after the Clinton recession and 9/11, and subsequently destroyed by the Democrat-controlled Congress. Meanwhile, the populist anger that got Brown elected was fueled by reality, in spite of Left Wing Media lies. Brown’s election represents the People’s desire to halt BHO’s marxist policies.
The Socialists/Progressive/Democrats are secretly panicked because they know they all are at risk of losing their seats in the House and Senate, and may become an extinct breed. Republicans have shown, through Scott Brown, that they have figured out how to beat them across the board. Republicans have discovered an anti-Democrat/Socialist “vaccine” – so to speak. The Socialists/Progressive/Democrats have one fatal flaw that can no longer be hidden and protected by Saul Alinsky techniques of marginalizing, discrediting, name calling and character assassination. Their flaw is their brand of governance is based upon a bankrupt ideology, and ineffective principles that have to be formulated in secrete and implemented by lies, intimidation and bribery. Scott Brown won simply on the facts, the issues and the truth. The “vaccine” is as simple and elegant as that. Also, there is something divine that the death of tyranny again came in Massachusetts from patriots. In God we trust.
What if the Marxist cabal in power now doesn’t plan on holding elections in 2010? Look at it from that POV and their conduct makes perfect sense.
I don’t think they can win the civil war that would follow, but what if they do?
16. And eventually they’ll get what they want in spades- and then they’ll die. For seven years they will rule the world with the Antichrist as their leader, but then they will all perish and the righteous will inherit the Earth.
Obama and his merry men pride themselves in being weeks ahead of everybody else.
Thinking things through. Not letting anything
fall through the cracks. If by chance, though, something does, they rely on the lame steam media to keep it quiet. McCain didn’t know how many houses he owned, and the media lambasted him for it. Obama didn’t know how many states we have and the media covered the gaffe for him. Their reward; the possibility of a job in the Obama administration.
But something went wrong. “Houston, we have a problem.” Or should I have said, “Boston?”
After action report:
Obama pulled a Chanticleer; got too confident. He thought his Saul Alinsky gang could march into Paris like roosters all gussied up, without a shot being fired. Plus, Obama’s handlers got too complacent. They were ripe for the picking. Now the lame steam media
is thinking the worm has turned. The tide has gone out. The truth has broken through. Jon Stewart sees the writing on the
wall and drives daily Kos crazy with wisecracks about Obama. Incidentally, Daily Kos still has Obama up in Massachusetts by 25 points.
Moveon.org has its own way to cope; they makes (intended) believe Brown never happened. Heads in the sand. Butts in the air should Obama get Michelle in a tither.
Fact is, Brown’s acceptance speech really hit home. The line of the evening, “In dealing with
terrorists, our tax money should pay for weapons to stop them. Not lawyers to defend them.” I would have loved to see Obama and his
gang of vote thieves wince at that one.
Obama, surely not the tallest tree in a forest of honesty, now must try to cover his tracks. “It wasn’t my idea
to hire Napolitano. Or to try terrorists in NYC. Or write a health care bill the voting public hates like sin. Or try to socialize this nation.
As smart as he is, Obama dumbly overplayed his hand. If Hoppy were alive, he’d saunter up to Mr. O and say, Pardner, nobody’s above the law, not even you.
These shenanigans come under the heading of my business.” Then Gabby would add, “Yer dern tootin’. Fade out. The bad guy ends up in the hoose cow while the good guys ride back to the Bar-20.
I know Obama has an imaginative mind. Can envision retiring with millions of greenbacks. A new trophy wife. And a muddied still life of the red white and blue.
I know what’s on his mind. Trouble is,
Obama never imagined he’d get into this kind of predicament. “I had them in the palm of my hand; then damn it, I
overplayed my hand. And I don’t know how to get it back.”
President Obama, the news isn’t good. The sky is cloudy all day. You screwed the pooch. Blew your over. Jumped the shark.
Even Rachel feels for you a tiny bit because, Barack, you’re in way over your head. Duck and cover my boy because finally
the conservative fire direction center finally has you verbally zeroed in.
Charles Stevens (Comment #5) for President!!!!
What a gift Scott Brown is to pragmatic Democrats, they no longer have to follow Obama over this cliff. They have cover. They can choose to hear more from the people and less from P-O-R. And yes, Senator-Elect Brown has it right again, our tax dollars should be spent defeating terrorists, not defending them. So, what’s it gonna be, Congress? Who are you going to listen to, the President or the People? Who really has your back? Psst, Obama only cares about one person and it’s not you. And it’s not us.
From reviews on the net,we know that MBT shoes will improve your posture
@23. rachel peepers: – Obama and his merry men pride themselves in being weeks ahead of everybody else.
Rachel, usually I swear you’re reading my mind when I read your excellent posts, but this is one case where I think you might have missed something. But only by a couple of millimeters.
If you look back at BHO’s relentless, lifelong, single-minded quest for more and more political power, the one common denominator isn’t just arrogance or pride or elitism or ‘street smart’ overconfidence. It’s all those things and more, described by one word: chutzpah.
I hasten to add that it’s chutzpah as defined in the original, derisive sense of its Hebrew origins, not the cool, edgy, ‘audacity of hope’ it’s often used to describe today. WikiP gets this one right (for a change): “someone who has over-stepped the boundaries of accepted behavior with no shame [my emphasis].” Socially speaking, the term is tantamount to criminal or sociopath, and of course the first personality who pops to mind in that context is another famous, lying socialist: Bill Clinton. But no one can deny that this original meaning describes BHO – and his sycophant minions who hew to his thoroughly discredited marxist line – precisely.
To be sure, as is becoming a common denominator among leftist ideologues, BHO’s special level of chutzpah is grounded in his narcissistic arrogance. That quality was unavoidable, given the developmental perfect storm in which he was shuffled from one guardian to another – and one culture to another – during his formative years. He was effectively abandoned first by his irresponsible black father, and then by his guilt-ridden white mother, coddled in relative, red-diaper affluence by his grandparents, likely molested by his first communist mentor and, finally, propelled along a career aimed at socialist politics by a clear string of affirmative action that rewarded the color of his skin and the glibness of his manner, not the content of his character. He is 100% unwarranted self-esteem and 0% self-respect – the stuff psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman has identified (see p. vii of the Second Edition) as the operant factor inspiring genocidal killers, hit men, gang leaders, and violent criminals. Yes, really.
So it’s no surprise that the chutzpah we’re talking about manifests as the kind of balls it takes to run – as a political neophyte – with the most dangerous and most corrupt political machine in America, and possibly in history: Daley’s Chicago Democratic Machine, whose documented, ACORN-style manipulation of the electoral process stretches all the way back to 1960.
It’s the kind of balls it takes to steal 100 million+ dollars from Taxpayers and Contributors and then limply slink away from the deal without taking any responsibility whatsoever for the disposition of the funds – which were redistributed to socialist community activists – or the utter failure of the program they were intended to support. We’re talking, of course, about the only executive experience BHO has ever had in his entire power-grabbing career (and that includes his so-called “presidency”, so far) – the Chicago Annenberg Challenge – where he and Bill Ayers robbed the citizens of Chicago to the tune of millions, to pad the bank accounts of their favorite communist activist organizations.
It’s the kind of balls it takes to insult the American people by hiring an army of attorneys to hide the ONE and ONLY probative bit of documentation that might validate his eligibility to be elected POTUS.
It’s the kind of balls it takes to openly run a fraudulent campaign donation scam, completely confident that no one in any position of authority will ever hold him accountable which, to date, none has.
It’s the kind of balls it takes to break virtually every promise made during a campaign that possesses the dubious distinctions of being the most corrupt, most misrepresented, most wantonly deceitful in this country’s history.
It’s the kind of balls it takes to seize control over the banking, commercial insurance, automotive and (if wishes were horses) health sectors – all in direct violation of the Constitution and, in at least the last case, the will of the People.
This level of chutzpah hasn’t been seen since FDR, who shamelessly rammed through a socialist program that ultimately had to be rolled back by no less than the Supreme Court after much of it was deemed unconstitutional – including his economy-destroying, deficit-ballooning tax-and-spend “Recovery” legislation. Not to be stymied, FDR’s monumental ego forced him to embark on a corrupt campaign to pack the court with additional justices sympathetic to his socialist program. Thankfully his shameless efforts to circumvent the Constitution were thwarted, but not without leaving us with the cancer of the Social Security program, whose unconstitutional theft of Taxpayer wealth has been funding the lifetime incumbencies of America’s worst career criminal/politicians for decades, and whose entitlement bill now threatens – alone – to bankrupt the Republic.
These perpetual moral adolescents – epitomized by BHO – don’t just think they’re three steps ahead of everyone else. Just read any post written by BC, David S or any one of Moho’s numerous disassociative personalities – they are completely blinded by the religious conviction that their thoroughly discredited ideological fantasies are so superior that no one is ever going to call them on the methods they pursue to make those fantasies manifest. This is the very definition of ‘the means justify the ends’, and it’s the hallmark of the fascist, totalitarian, “liberal” left.
The problem this presents is that a defeat like MA isn’t going to deter these people, or the useful idiots who support them, in the slightest. See above, re: FDR. At best, they’ll be forced to change tactics but the strategy will remain. Given how well that strategy has worked so far, there’s no reason to change it.
Meanwhile, the conservative opposition to Barry’s Marxist Hoard at present comprises three loosely allied groups. The first is a rag-tag army of millions of politically groggy Americans who are struggling to find their political voice while still required to search for work and/or hold down a job, support a family, run a small company and pay taxes to support the useless eaters whose votes Big Government has secured through entitlement. The second is a collection of blogger/journalists who are slowly replacing the corrupt, dead-tree Left Wing Media as society’s watchdogs in the political arena. The third is a thoroughly inept, demoralized and largely infiltrated RNC/GOP, which after it completely ignored Scott Brown’s candidacy, now has the unmitigated temerity to claim his victory as theirs. This conglomeration doesn’t yet represent a threat to the long march of socialism in any real sense.
Yes, there is a small contingent of the “conservative fire direction center” that found BHO’s general coordinates, pretty much by the accident of Brown’s unlikely candidacy. But those three factions must find a way to work in concert. They have to stop spending ALL of their resources whining about obvious double standards, pointing out the same leftist lies over and over again, and sniping at the Pelosi-Obama-Reid Treason Train. That sport, unfortunately, takes up about 99% of PJM’s resources. They must begin pro-actively pursing widespread education of the public regarding the meaning and intent of the Constitution, the mechanisms that allow the free market to function, and the insidious nature and perennial failure of socialism.
Until those things happen, the only tangible victories we’re going to see are the ones where the leftists’ chutzpah makes them careless – like it did in the super-critical race in MA on Tuesday.
Don’t look for them to make that same mistake again. These people may be shameless sociopaths. But they’re not stupid.
Since so much of the attention to Brown’s victory is b/o the ‘Health Care Reform’ legislation, I offer this thought:
To whatever degree there’s a problem with health care in this country (and, while I’ll admit there are problems, it is telling that, when the prime minister of Whoknowswhereistan needs medical treatment, where do they go?), it’s because it is perceived as being too expensive. The average American would have a hard time affording the cost of an appendectomy these days, let alone open-heart surgery. Conversely, many other services we routinely employ (plumbers, electricians, etc), while we may kvetch at how expensive they are, are readily affordable. So the question is: why?
I respectfully submit that the REAL reason why health care is so expensive can be traced back (as so many problems in our nation can be) to ill-informed gov’t regulation. In the case of health care the twin engines pushing high costs are the FDA and the medical practice acts. B/o these regulations, it is illegal to provide medical care or sell medication unless one has jumped through gov’t hoops. This results in lower competition and higher costs. It also means that so many of my colleagues, protected from competition as they are by the medical practice acts, would forcefully defend them. Similarly the drug companies, similarly protected, would defend the FDA, since it protects them from lean, mean, cutthroat competition. All of this results in markedly higher costs for medical care, which hurts the poor greatly. I have many patients who can’t see the specialist I want them to see b/o lack of availability; there just isn’t one close enough for them. Why not? Because the supply of physicians is regulated by the gov’t. Practicing physicians, and those willing to jump through the hoops to become practicing physicians, love this, whether they realize it or not, because it protects them from competition.
Unfortunately, ‘we the people’ long ago decided we wanted a king. We didn’t want to call it that, so we just granted our gov’t king-like powers, among them the power to decide which physicians and medicines we are allowed to use. Perish the thought that we should actually decide for ourselves.
Gov’t was not designed to regulate medical care in any way, with the possible exception of certain measures to combat epidemics. Using it to do so makes as much sense, and results in the same predictable screw-ups, as using a screwdriver to pound in a nail.
Earlier today Pelosi was shown on video saying that, in its present form, the Senate Health Care Reform bill could not get enough Democratic votes to be passed in the House, and there were reports that she also said that now was the “time to go slow,” but the New York Daily News is now reporting that, in a closed door meeting today, Pelosi presented the Democratic leadership with a plan to go forward and use the reconciliation process to cram what Democrats can salvage of the Health Care bills down our throats.
27, goy, great insight
Thanks. I soaked up everything you said. Great stuff. Love, R.
It seems that the democrats new approach is to instead pass a whole bunch of smaller bills concerning “health care reform”! So now instead of one really large bad bill that is not supported by most of the country, now instead we will have several smaller and equally bad bills that in the end do the same thing as the one large bad bill!
Can’t wait to see what these clowns come up with, and I am almost certain that it will all be bad and unpopular!