The House Healthcare Bill (Pelosi-Care) passed last night 220- 215...and you can (without much of a stretch) blame the GOP for playing a big part in its passage.
I blame DUMB and DISINGENUOUS Republicans in voting to pass the Stupak Amendment with 176 Republican votes!
That gave the entire Democratic Party (not just the Blue Dogs) cover, and it signaled, "We're really not all that much against this monstrosity, it's just about politics as usual," from the GOP.
The GOP's OBVIOUS "best strategy" in all this, was to vote “PRESENT” on Stupak and let the Democrats fight among themselves....if the Blue Dogs caved, they'd lose BIG next election, surrendering all those vulnerable seats and if the Liberals caved, they'd face furor from the far-Left.
There was absolutely NO DOWNSIDE to voting "present," and a
Again, this is another one of those things I CAN'T accept as a "mistake," it's actually too dumb to be an accident.
Maybe they really DO have to purge the so-called "Moderates" from the GOP.
Although, an even scarier thought is that the Rockefeller-wing might not have been the driving force behind that....
The battle is not over, It has changed dimensions.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/planned-parenthood-condemns-passage-stupak-pitts-amendment-30821.htm
Planned Parenthood is now against it. They claim not having a specific type of service in the public option will make the service unavailable.
Although I do not think abortion is "health" care. And including their services in a National Health Care system would be nothing more than a "new" revenue stream to them.
I do however consider elderly care to be health care. And if the system becomes a single payer system I have concerns about the care they may not receive.
It would be a good thing if more people wake up to the realities of a nationalized health care system would do.
That Planned Parenthood revolt makes all the more clear why the Republicans shouldn't have voted YES on Stupak....they should've let the Dems fight it out.
ReplyDeleteIf the Blue Dogs had caved, they'd have risked losing their seats back home and had the Left capitulated, they'd face revolt from not only PP, but from the MoveOn-Kos-Kid goofball machine.
The GOP acted as though there was something "IN IT" for them to support Conservative Dems on Stupak (come to think of that....I sure hope there IS), but what they did here was to provide cover for the Blue Dogs at their own expense.
For better or worse, they'll be challenging for those seats next year and those Blue Dogs will NEED to curry favor with the Democratic Party''s Liberal elites....so, how much can the Blue Dogs do for their Conservative Republican "friends?" And how much do they really want to?
The Dems never seem to pass on strategy. They're always able to put political calculation over principles.
Our best hope now is that the Senate guts this monstrosity.
The $1.2 TRILLION the Dems claim Pelosi-Care will cost is contradicted by the CBO, which says it'll be closer to $1.8 TRILLION....and those are just PROJECTIONS!
When's the last time any government program came close to meeting its always too rosy pre-passage projections?
It sure would be a good thing if more Americans woke up to this, but, those who aren't engaged by now, will probably ONLY get engaged when they actually SEE the diminution of their own care, and at greater cost, down the line.
I think people of that ilk are best defined as "fur bearing."