"The talk in Washington is that Senate Democrats are preparing to push through health care reforms using parliamentary procedures that will allow a simple majority to prevail in their chamber, as it does in the House, instead of the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster that Senate Republicans are sure to mount. With the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, the Democrats do not have the votes just among their 57 members (and the two independents) to break a filibuster, and not all of these can be counted on to vote in lock step. If the Democrats want to enact health care reform this year, they appear to have little choice but to adopt a high-risk, go-it-alone, majority-rules strategy. We say this with considerable regret because a bipartisan compromise would be the surest way to achieve comprehensive reforms with broad public support. But the ideological split between the parties is too wide — and the animosities too deep — for that to be possible. In recent weeks, it has become inescapably clear that Republicans are unlikely to vote for substantial reform this year. Many seem bent on scuttling President Obama’s signature domestic issue no matter the cost. As Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, so infamously put it: “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”Go fer it. With only 24 percent of Americans - mostly Democrats - believing this is a good move, and a full 49 percent of Americans not wanting Government run healthcare, and congressional ballots tilting heavily towards the GOP, it would be suicide. But then no one has accused the Democratically controlled congress of being smart. For these reasons I doubt it happens. In spite of this editorial's "optimism", the Democratic power-base is simply not ready to see 2010 turn into 1994. healthcare, Barack Obama, News, politics
August 30, 2009
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