For now, the significance of the vote is moving the United States FROM a system in which people can assume they will have health coverage IF they are old enough (Medicare), poor enough (Medicaid), fortunate enough (working for an employer that offers coverage, or able themselves to bear expenses), or in some other way specially positioned (veterans; elected officials)... TOWARD a system in which people can assume they will have health-care coverage. Period.Katie Connolly:
More significant though is the political difficulty of arguing against the benefits of the bill, especially the ones that kick in early. Republicans will have to tell people with preexisting conditions that their new ability to access coverage will be withdrawn. They’ll have to tell young people and their parents that young folks won’t be able to stay on the family plan. They’ll have to tell Americans that they’re fighting to allow insurance companies to drop sick people from their rolls once more. Those aren’t easy fights to have. Health-care reform was much easier to dog before it actually becomes law.Newt Gingrich:
...the most radical social experiment . . . in modern times. They [Democrats] will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years [with the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s].What an odious, repellent man. He ran like Custer trying to take that one back.
Keith Ellison (D-MN and the only Muslim member of Congress):
For me, this legislation represents progress toward universal health care for all Americans. Every landmark piece of legislation had a beginning. Women’s rights did not end with the 19st Amendment; Civil Rights did not end with the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act; Social Security enacted in 1935, and Medicare in 1965, did not begin as we know them today. So too is it with this health care reform bill. It is a beginning – and an important one,Paul Krugman:
This is, of course, a political victory for President Obama, and a triumph for Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. But it is also a victory for America’s soul. In the end, a vicious, unprincipled fear offensive failed to block reform. This time, fear struck out.
And last but not least, the meltdown from the man who would be Speaker of the House of Representatives. Here he is -- John Boner with his top hit "Hypocritical Apoplectic Hell No Blues":
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9 comments:
The biggest benefit of last night's vote is that it shows that the obstructions can be overcome. The Republicans lost big time last night, and I think those predictions that they're going to pick up a lot of new House and Senate seats this fall just got flushed, and it was Boehner's very public temper tantrum that pushed the flush lever.
Thanks for reminding us about just what an "odious, repellent man" (I can't improve on your words) Gingrich is. What he said about passage of health-care reform, linking it--he hopes--to what happened to the Democratic Party following passage of civil rights legislation in the 60s reveals him perfectly. He is so amoral that it would never enter his head to ask whether civil rights or health-care legislation is good for the country, only how it might serve his own purposes. That is, not until it's time to back-and-fill for the media. Anyone who wants more on this, and other odious Republicans would probably learn useful things from John Dean's book, Conservatives Without Conscience. It's a winner.
Thanks for posting this K, we have to work hard to get the vote out this fall.. People have to realize if the Rethugs gain control they will do everything in their power to overturn this.. they don't care what the people want.. it's what the Rethugs want...
Not to mention, if they gain control.. as Bob Cesca has predicted they will vote to impeach the President.. We can't let that happen.
Roy: It had indeed reached the point where we just couldn't let the haters and the naysayers win. Once they realized that this might happen, they disgraced themselves. Hopefully, people took notice.
Barry: Thanks for stopping by. The Newtster knew exactly what he was saying -- it was a clear reference to Lyndon Johnson's remark that civil rights legislation had cost Democrats the south for 40 years.
Incidentally, how about Johnson's prescience? It took 43 years for a non-southern Democratic presidential candidate to hold his own in the south.
Annette: I don't put anything past. Them impeached Clinton over nothing and there's no reason to think that they wouldn't go after Obama as well. They are vindictive, mean-spirited people, and I hate the thought of them running the country again.
We'll lose some ground in the fall -- the party in power always does in an off-year election -- but with the right kind of effort we can minimize losses. Passing this bill really helps because it will motivate the base to turn out.
I read that Newtism this morning and wondered how long it would take him to try and Limbaugh his way out of what he said. Maybe he meant to say FDR ? When they speak their minds like this it's truly illuminating. I wanted to hear what Limbaugh had to say for himself in his closing remarks today since he promised all the dittoheads on friday that Obama didn't have the votes. Their wails are sweet music to my ears.
Rushmoron said he'd leave the country if the bill passed. We can only hope that he was telling the truth for once.
Didn't rush back out of that one? I thought he did.
It's hard to believe, but in Canada, universal healthcare was delivered by the conservatives in power.
I have a feeling that conservatives in Canada are different breed of cat than the ones here.
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