The legislative machinery is in place and the GOP opposition is irrelevant.

[babylonsister]

http://www.theweek.com/bullpen/column/107095/For_Democrats_its_do_or_die


For Democrats, it's do or die
The legislative machinery is in place and the GOP opposition is irrelevant. Only Democrats can prevent health reform from passing now.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Bob Shrum


The Republicans were appalled, outraged, aghast – and running out of means to describe their horror, indignation and righteous anger. It seems the president, after a year of trying to induce the Party of No to say “yes” to something, finally called for an up or down vote on health care. Majority rule in a democracy – oh the shame of it! Although, come to think of it, the 2000 election showed the GOP is only too happy to dispose of the concept when politically convenient.

The Republican opposition to reconciliation – passing the health bill without facing a filibuster – is transparently cynical for a party that has used the process, from Reagan to Bush II, to reshape the tax code and redefine the role of the federal government – which, unlike healthcare, constitutes not one sixth but close to one quarter of the entire economy.

But the truth is that in the health debate, the Republicans are now irrelevant. They constitute a solid wall of opposition, impervious to fact or argument. But they are also a static Maginot Line, and Democrats have enough votes to get around the GOP’s servitude to ideology and the insurance industry. All they have to do is call the roll and cast the votes.

snip//

Then there’s the uncertain and often miscomputed political calculation, which tempts electorally-threatened politicians to break with their own president and party. That won’t work this year, just as it didn’t work for scores of moderate Democrats who openly scorned Hillarycare in 1994; voters angry about the economy and congressional dysfunction that year chose the Republicans and tossed incumbents out. This year, as then, Democrats will have to run alongside health reform even if they run away from it. They will have to run with the phantom or the reality of the bill. Pass it – and voters will see that there are no death panels, no rationing, no loss of the right to pick your own doctor. Instead, Americans will soon discover that they can no longer be denied coverage because a child has a pre-existing condition like asthma – and that their insurance can’t be cancelled when they get sick, with a bean-counter cutting off their chemotherapy because they’ve reached their annual limit. Better to campaign on that than on the defensive claim that a defeated bill wasn’t your fault, wasn’t your idea, and somehow wasn’t your failure – in short, “reelect me for doing nothing.”

It's time for Democrats to prove that they’re a governing party – or in Congress next year, they won’t be governing at all.

[NJmaverick]

1. Get it done Dems, people are counting on you

[saltpoint]

2. Yes. The strains are beginning to be evident what with all the Pukes

running around the barnyard like beheaded fowl.

A really good ad campaign can highlight and drive home the obstructionism of the last couple years. I hope the Dems hire a firm that has done some alley fights.

The Republicans need a proper return on their investment.

Recommended.