In recent days, there seems to be a crescendo in the commentary from people warning the Obama administration and Congress about being too quick to compromise to get some kind of grand \u201cbipartisan\u201d health care reform that will attract Republican votes. This view is dead-on. While there are some things that must be compromised on, there are also some very basic tenets (like the public option) that must survive, no matter who is unhappy with it.<\/p>\n
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One hallmark of the Obama administration, which can be viewed as good or bad depending on the issue, is that Obama really wants to find bipartisan solutions to problems. Sometimes, this work. Other times, such as with regards to the stimulus bill, it doesn\u2019t (for all the compromises, he got little if any Republican support). Health care is one of those times when it doesn\u2019t work. There is nothing that Obama and Congressional Democrats can do, no compromise they can make, that will get Republican support unless it also leads to a toothless bill.<\/p>\n
Most Republicans (and a few Democrats) do not want to change the status quo. Remember that the wasteful spending that makes up a large chunk of health care spending is money in somebody\u2019s pocket, mainly insurance companies and providers. They use this money to lobby elected officials to keep things the way they are. Republicans, rarely encountering corporate money they don\u2019t like, are especially prone to this, but this is a bipartisan affair, with many Democrats along for the ride.<\/p>\n
Republicans have an added, political reason to want to gut health care reform. True, many Republicans, and especially Republican leadership, have an a priori <\/em>belief that the government can do no right (except when it comes to spending money on defense projects), but that\u2019s not the prime reason they are against it. Republicans are against working health care reform now for the same reason they were against it in 1993: if successful, it will further damage the Republican party and demonstrate that their philosophy is wrong.<\/p>\n This is the main reason why it is so important to set bipartisanship aside so Congress can come up with a health care reform plan that works. For if a successful plan will damage the Republicans, a plan that fails because it doesn\u2019t go far enough will damage the Democrats and set back the cause of health care reform decades. It\u2019s been 16 years since the last real attempt at reform. The Obama administration has made this the key to his administration and ratcheted up public expectations accordingly. To fail to pass a plan, or worse, to pass a plan that doesn\u2019t change anything, will seriously endanger his presidency.<\/p>\n The public wants a plan that make significant changes. Even a majority of Republicans support a public option, for example, despite what Republican leadership and even some Democrats seem to believe. In 2008, people voted for Obama and Congressional Democrats to go long and make significant changes to our country, with health care near the top of the list. In this climate, it is a far, far greater risk to do too little than to go too far with reform. Politicians should take heed of this, and be wary of reaching some “compromise” to attempt to get Republican support that will never be forthcoming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In recent days, there seems to be a crescendo in the commentary from people warning the Obama administration and Congress about being too quick to compromise to get some kind of grand \u201cbipartisan\u201d health care reform that will attract Republican votes. This view is dead-on. While there are some things that must be compromised on,… Continue reading Health care: Beware of compromise<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[77],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-health-care","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t