David Frum is feeling glum.
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says Republicans bet that the health care reform bill would be President Obama’s Waterloo — “just as health care was Clinton’s in 1994.”
“Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton’s 42%. The liberal block within the Democratic congressional caucus is bigger and stronger than it was in 1993-94. And of course the Democrats also remember their history, and also remember the consequences of their 1994 failure.”
“This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none… We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.”
I wouldn’t say they got nothing. It just got a lot harder for those of us who would like to do away with the Hyde Amendment, and if we’re not careful, the stupid Ben Nelson language in the Senate bill will make it harder for people to find a provider to help end a pregnancy. I’d say that the anti-choice movement made some progress in this messy process, and that’s at least something that Republicans can point to as progress. But, in the larger picture, David Frum is correct. This bill might have been the Republican version of health care fifteen-twenty years ago. Today it passes with no Republican support. And they have so poisoned the minds of their supporters, that they will never be able to govern effectively in this new paradigm. They screwed themselves. Plus, this bill greatly expands Medicaid. Last I checked, not too many people using Medicaid vote for Republicans. If their party goes from being the Party of No to the Party of Repeal, they’ll create at least 31 million solid Democrats. Idiots.
Update [2010-3-21 19:19:33 by BooMan]: The Roll Call on the Rule is a proxy for for the final vote. It passed 224-206, with 28 Democrats losing out on a chance to be seen in a good light by history.
I share their frustration.
It was a cowardly and, I believe unnecessary, capitulation. This bill was already uninspiring. Obama may have now made it’s passage a totally pyrrhic victory.
Ed, you have a way with overstatement.
Did this deal make it even less so?
pyrrhic? seriously? most likely not for the folks represented here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62I4KD20100319
for the women who start giving themselves abortions with coat hangers again.
Or simply not using insurance to pay for the operation, which is standard practice for most women already.
Since pregnancy is a pre-existing condition, women tend not to use insurance for abortions now. Not that much of substance has changed.
Pregnancy is a pre-existing condition?
That’s what the insurance cos have said to policyholders.
otherwise:
Federal law must be enforced for that to be true in people’s lives. It is the case that from 2001 to 2009, enforcement of the law was not a strong suit of governance — unless you are talking about the PATRIOT ACT.
Especially labor and environmental law.
I don’t see that it makes any substantive difference. The symbolism is a step backward, but that can be reversed. My sympathy with NOW, after their hot romance with Lieberman and the like, has worn pretty thin.
well, it does make it harder to kill the Hyde Amendment.
Why? An executive order expires on its own just like the appropriations bill Hyde is attached to, no? So what’s the substantive difference?
Obama put his stamp of approval on it, making it harder to argue against it later.
That’s reaching. He made a deal. This is politics. He’ll take a small hit if he reverses it in the future. So what.
And Dana Goldstein Tweeted that she was at a meeting where Obama met with the leaders of Planned Parenthood and pledged to dump the Hyde Amendment. Promises, promises!!
will “be reversed”. Does that justify agreeing to it in the first place?
Depends on how important breaking the back of Republican obstructionism is to you as to whether it is justified. Obama could have just forced through Stupak’s language in the law and told the pro-choice caucus to “suck it up”.
My suspicion is that NOW’s statement is primarily intended for the fundraising that will begin tomorrow. How they use those funds in the 2010 cycle will determine how reversible the executive order is.
It can’t possibly be “reversible” at all. I believe Obama lacks courage but I don’t think he’s a liar.
At worst it will expire on its own. And I don’t see how reversing it would be lying. It’s called changing your mind. Enough with the hysteria already. It grows tedious.
Totally agree. NOW has it’s agenda and one of them is clearly fundraising off of this. I would have been very surprised if they didn’t take advantage of it.
I don’t have a problem with it. It was meaningless – an EO is just that. To save healthcare and to save us from living the rest of my life in a teabagger world?? Obama didn’t give up anything.
It’s very clear. If you don’t turn out the votes to elect pro-choice candidates, you don’t have pro-choice members of Congress to vote your interests.
Any pro-choice Republicans should read the handwriting on the wall. I’m pro-choice but I vote on economic issues doesn’t cut it anymore.
Change the composition of Congress, and you will have fewer of these standoffs that end in serious compromise on the part of the President. You don’t do that by dropping out of the electoral process.
I love your title, made me laugh. That is all.
yes!
What, no neener neener?
Not until the ink is dry.
Jeb Hebsarling just crammed 20 lies into 2 minutes.
The loudest ones are always the biggest liars. Jeb Hensarling is always lying, but that might be a new record. I saw it, too.
it’s good that some of them are insane because the rest are so boring and predictable. Michele Bachmann? Not predictable. She’s got crazy you never see coming.
I think my Congressman, Eric Cantor, is a more miserable lying douche than Hensarling, though.
And he’s just really really dumb as well. I recall an argument he had with Chris Matthews on TV about the word “Appeasement” which was apparently the bold-print item in his talking points that day but he didn’t know what it actually meant.
Yeah, he’s pretty dumb. I talked policy with him when I was 17 at some breakfast thing I went to, and it was going over his head. When he spoke, all he did was try and sell the success of the Iraq War, even though the event was about nominations for the military academies.
Oh my favorite is quickly becoming Virginia Foxx of Texas. She’s so mean that no one even calls her on her lies and she gets bolder and crazier each time she gets in front of a microphone.
Sadly, she’s from my state, NC. What an embarrassment.
Woops.
Then just say she’s from Texas. It fits. I guess that’s why I thought she was from there. North Carolina really gets a bad rap when they’re nothing like South Carolina or Texas, politically. I guess she’s the exception.
http://wonkette.com/414342/victory-party-to-nite-obama-bringing-limo-full-of-nurseshookers-blow
Unbelievable.
10 PM and the Republicans are still blowing wind, with the biggest windbag of all at the podium: Boehner.
love the title BooMan…thanks
Shergald, great book by President Carter…..
Congratulations Booman for helping to get this sucker passed. Woooohoooooo, we did it.
thanks for coming along for the ride.