Legal Commentary

Fruitless Concessions To The GOP

By Big Tent Democrat

Ezra Klein recites the concessions to the GOP in the Senate health bill:

I don't think it's well understood how many of the GOP's central health-care policy ideas have already been included as compromises in the health-care bill. [. . .] [T]he GOP's [. . .] health-care plan [. . .] has four planks. All of them -- yes, you read that right -- are in the Senate health-care bill. [. . .] To the surprise and dismay of many liberals, the Senate health-care bill included a compromise with the conservative vision for insurance regulation. [. . .] [W]hen Republicans are feeling bolder [. . .] they generally take aim at one of the worst distortions in the health-care market: The tax break for employer-sponsored insurance. [. . .] Democrats usually reject, and attack, both approaches. Not this year, though. Senate Democrats [proposed] the excise tax, which does virtually the same thing.

And [. . .] we shouldn't forget the compromises that have been the most painful for Democrats, and the most substantive. This is a private-market plan. Not only is single-payer off the table, but at this point, so too is the public option. The thing that liberals want most in the world has been compromised away.

Indeed. And for what? No GOP votes. I wrote about this yesterday - if the Senate bill proponents want that bill passed, concessions to the House must be made, especially on the excise tax. That is the reality of politics. To refuse to support that is to be a "Kill the Bill"-er.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 08, 2010 (boomark / email).