"I am pleased by the progress we're making on health care reform and still believe, as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest," the president said. "I look forward to a final product that achieves these very important goals."Funny, all that. Since it was Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) who proposed the trigger plan a week ago. While I don't necessarily agree with Snowe on this, she does have a valid concern, stating:
"If you establish a public option at the forefront that goes head-to-head and competes with the private health insurance market ... the public option will have significant price advantages." Snowe said having a government option as a backup would be an approach "that bridges both sides" and gives private insurers a fair chance to meet the requirements of the new law. "I don't think we can entirely depend on the private insurance market to deliver. They haven't delivered thus far, and that's why we're in the predicament we're in today."It should be noted as well that Snowe was the only Republican on the Finance Committee who would not go on-record opposing the public option. And being pretty much the only Republican that President Obama trusts, I'd listen if I were them. With the swearing in of Al Franken yesterday, Democrats "don't need" the GOP any more, and "don't need" Snowe to rally the moderates. Still, we should listen to the people in Congress who know what they are talking about, and Snowe knows.
Sen. Snowe is on the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance, and is the former chair and ranking member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, as well as a member of the Subcommittee on Health Care, and two other important subcommittees of the Finance Committee focussed on industry, competitiveness, and growth. With Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), who Snowe works with on a daily basis, pushing over a $1 Trillion dollar estimate (or one third of the current US budget) on health care reform (noting also that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security already take up half of the US budget), anyone in their right mind should be able to understand that this health care bill -- and its fallout -- will have a ripple effect through the American and the international economy, effect competitiveness, which effects innovation, which effects effectiveness of actual health care.
Let's look at some of the bad news: the evolving reality that $787 Billion dollars in stimulus spending is not really working. The Vice President admitting that they "misread" the economy. Steadily rising unemployment rates causing a panic for another stimulus package. And steadily declining presidential approval ratings, largely based on economic mismanagement. On yeah, not to mention a -19% approval rating for Congress, which is a 20 point jump from this time last year, but still nothing to write home about.
Democrats have about 16 months to get something done, less really, before midterm elections, and if they think they are going to keep their precious 60-vote majority, they've got some 'splaining to do. Spend, spend, spend, spend, and it's not working. Government takeovers of major American industry, and people who gave their lives to these companies are still losing their pensions. Let me re-state my point about mid-term elections: the Democrats that do get elected are going to look a lot more like Republicans than the Democrats you see today. Fiscal hawks are going to have their day in the wake of the largest spending glut in global history. And they better get health care reform taken care of before it all goes down, or it will go down -- in flames.
So, the White House listens to the one and only Republican who is willing to cooperate on health care, and who has enough seniority and enough gravitas to get more of the GOP on board, and maybe stave off a total I-told-you-so smackdown in 2010, and that pisses MoveOn.org off. I knew I took myself off their mailing list for a reason. For those who have inquired over time: these are the left-wing nut jobs I keep saying Democrats need to say goodbye to. MoveOn.org launched a balls-out, no apology hyper-biased campaign to support Barack Obama for President, even going so far as to circulate and support anti-Clinton campaign materials. Now their beloved messiah has turned out not to be a messiah at all, they've started nipping at his heels, too.
There is no more unity among liberals than there is among conservatives right now. President Obama has talked about the "character of this century," which so far seems to be bitter partisanship, dire economic consequences, and the collapse of traditional institutions. I've said this before, and I believe it the more I think about it: a major ideological shift is underway, not just in the two major political parties of the US, but in America overall. 20 years from now I believe we will have seen a major social revolution, and it is starting now, here, with the collapse of what we once believed was "America." (Where being a doctor or a lawyer was the ultimate American dream career.) I personally believe the most American thing about Americans is our ability to adapt to change, to embrace new possibilities and to make the most of adversity. We've talked and heard a lot about how Republicans need to adapt or perish. I think the American system of government overall needs to adapt or perish, and the health care debate pretty much draws in every thread of the discussion.
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