The Republican's Waterloo?
By Louise
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum says that while he opposes the health care reform plan, its passage is a major defeat for the Republican Party. In his words, it will be the GOP’s "Waterloo." Frum points out "radical" Republicans like Jim DeMint who made the decision to not negotiate with President Obama, and instead they all focused on a strategy of obstruction, failed the Republican Party. As a result, Frum says, Democrats will be able to claim full credit for passing a bill with many popular provisions, leaving the GOP out in the cold. Frum's analysis is right, and if this makes it through the Senate, it may well be that the 2010 election will actually increase the Democratic majority in Congress, just like during the first term of the FDR presidency.
Comments
#2
Question for Thom & listeners
How can a citizen, State govt or political party challenge the new law's provision that citizens buy insurance now if that part of the bill doesn't go into effect for several years? (2014)
I was under the impression a court could not act until a crime or wrongdoing had ocured or in the case of this new law, until that part of it goes into effect and affects a citizen
On what grounds can a tast case be brought for a part of this bill that won't go into effect for four years?
#3
On line 8 the word "tast" should be "test" as in test case
#4
Let us not forget the swing of the pendulum. What President Obama, Senator Reid and Representative Pelosi did in order to get this piece of legislation passed represents all that is wrong with congress. Clearly if one looks at the poll numbers (a favorite past time of politicians), one would have to conclude that a majority of the people of this country DO NOT support this particular bill.
Far from the Republicans “going away”, the net effect of the actions of the President and Congress last Sunday will be to sweep a vast number of Democrats from their seats and once again place the Republicans in control of both houses.
My question to all of you is this: Why was this particular bill so important? No one – and I mean NO ONE – argues that our present health care system is out of control. But the fix that has now been signed by Obama will do nothing to cure that. If anything, it will make a bad situation worse. There are far too many holes that need to be filled to make this bill even remotely workable.
When your taxes start to rise and become even more varied than they already are (a national sales tax on top of an income tax comes to mind) , remember that when you ignored such simple solutions such as Tort reform in order to bring down insurance costs that this is what you wanted.
And costs will continue to rise - It is a mathematical certainty. You cannot insure everyone in the United States with the current deficits in place and expect costs to go down. Additionally, as doctors become overburdened with the influx of new patients, expect less people to become doctors – at least competent people anyway.
That’s the harsh reality of what was voted in last Sunday. Perhaps looking beyond mere partisanship to a logical, reasonable solution to the problem would have been the real Presidential thing to do. Sadly, that character trait appears to be missing in the current occupant of the White House. November of 2012 will remedy that.
#5
If this is Waterloo the Republicans are Napoleon for sure. Just like Napoleon at Waterloo they have attacked and attacked and attacked a stronger force until their position was hopeless. We'll see if they have the good sense to withdraw or if they persist until they lose the war. Of course, they can not stop or they would not be their own idea of manly men. And they can't be Eisenhower Republicans because that would put them to the left of Obama. And Nixon actually implemented LBJs programs - medicaid, welfare, etc. and they will have none of that. My oh my what can the angry Republicants do now ...
As Thom has pointed out, politicians look for a crowd to get in front of and claim to be leaders. Kinda funny to watch the Republicants squirm as the are hoist on their own petard of hate filled unpatriotic rhetoric. BTW being 'hoist[ed] on your own petard' is a death sentence - a petard is an IED - its an explosive ram used to break down gates - Go Tea Partiers Go! Smash the Republicans against a gate thats already open! It is still a democracy after all.
The scary bit is that the Democrats have edged to the right on so many issues to box in the Republicans and the Republicans have gone further right to be the 'true' party of the right and after decades of this dynamic we in America have an impoverished political process. The pendulum is stuck and we are becoming an impoverished people. Now the predefined corporate controlled 'possible' is the enemy of the good while talking heads keep saying 'We can't let the really good be the enemy of the good'. After all, the perfect is at least really good right? The perfect is never the enemy of the good. Preconceived notions of what is possible are most often the primary stumbling block of real change: people won't even try what they think is impossible. So, the Republicants will not stop. It appears they will goose-step right over the edge of an electoral cliff with the mass of people unemployed and/or uninsured still growing. People really want significant change and will very likely vote no on the party of no. But maybe a sea of corporate cash will save them with massive TV buys. And they really have stolen 2 of last 3 Presidential elections. Hmmm maybe they think the fix is in. The mid-term elections should be a massive swing to the left. But I still think that the HCR mandate with no public option == political suicide: it has energized the right and demoralized the left and the independents are suspicious to say the least. We will see soon.
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Whenever I see the two words connected, Republican + Waterloo, I feel the need to post the most recent story of Republican debacle I have come across. Hence this offering:
Firm Tied to Murtha Earmarks Goes Dark
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_104/news/44221-1.html
Of course, I think that if the Republicans don't GET OFF the health care issue, they're going to disappear. Which is what I hope they do.
Idaho has passed a state law mandating that their A.G. file a challenge to the constitutionality of the Health Care Bill upon passage. Of course, this must be taken seriously since they have a PACKED COURT in D.C.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/idaho-bans-federal-health_n_503...
Thanks for the spot to spout Thom!