Health Care Reform is grabbing the attention from all quarters, with scare tactics coming from the right, and what can only be called desperation coming from the left. The irony is that no one really knows what will be passed, if the votes can be found. Between deals for votes, and last minute additions (or subtractions), the rumors are flying. A couple days ago, there was the rumor that the public option was resurrected.
Pundits have been claiming for ages now that a failure at this point could be a death knell for the Obama administration, virtually guaranteeing that he’ll be a one-term president. If there is not some sort of health care reform, it will be very difficult to build energy and enthusiasm in the left-wing base.
The question has become “is something better than nothing?”, and the unfortunate truth on that remains to be seen, primarily because no one seems to really know what’s in the bill. Talk of questionable procedures to get the bill through Congress has taken center stage, and the media has been happy to stay out of finding an answer to that particular question. The argument could be made that the bill is still “fluid”, changing too much to bother keeping track. Apparently waiting until a final draft is on the floor for a vote is good enough – that’s assuming it doesn’t get through with one of those questionable procedures. That is disturbing enough, but add statements like the one from Rep. Kucinich today, and it’s difficult to call passage of the bill anything but a hollow victory. Kucinich said, “Even though I don’t like the bill, I’ve made the decision to support it.”
With poll numbers stating that the public is split on health care and generally dissatisfied with the performance of Congress as a whole, it’s no wonder that there’s some ambivalence toward the bill. Dependent on where the constituents of a given member of Congress fall on those two issues, the health care reform bill can be considered a no-win-situation. The fact that the left-wing base is largely for it is no solace for a representative facing a re-election campaign – younger voters traditionally don’t make it to the polls in the same numbers that their older counterparts do.
The argument has never been about whether or not health care reform is needed. The devil’s been in the details of how to do it from the start. Now that it is theoretically down to the wire, it is too difficult to say what the fall-out may be for Congress once the dust settles. One thing that is certain is that while the pundits may think that this is a do or die for the Obama administration, it could also be a “do and die” situation if a bill passes and the public isn’t happy with what the final draft offers.
Tags: Barack Obama, Congress, health care reform
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