Legal Commentary

6 Hours That Shook The Health Debate World?

By Big Tent Democrat

I had a very busy day yesterday so I saw precisely none of the health care summit yesterday. DemfromCt has a roundup of reactions and I found some of them interesting. Ezra Klein wrote:

The big story out of the summit is not that Republicans and Democrats extended their hands in friendship, but that the White House has dug its heels into the dirt. The Democrats are not taking reconciliation off the table, they are not paring back the bill, and they are not extricating themselves from the issue. They think they're right on this one, and they're going to try and pass this legislation. Today was a boost for that effort.

I'm sure for the Democrats in that room, Ezra's descriptions may be correct. But does this really signal that the Dems can get it done? After all, the views of no one in the room were really at issue. But will Bart Stupak be swayed by what happened? More . . .

Paul Krugman wrote:

If we’re lucky, Thursday’s summit will turn out to have been the last act in the great health reform debate, the prologue to passage of an imperfect but nonetheless history-making bill.

It is not even remotely possible that this was the last act imo. As I said before, nothing that happened yesterday will change any GOP votes. And the Dem votes in the room were already secure. The actual debate left to be had involves Democrats only. And indeed, it always only involved Democrats.

Perhaps the summit yesterday so shook the public debate that now all Dems will cower before the mighty rhetorical skills of the President and passage of the President's proposal is now just a formality. I did not see it so I can't say. For some reason, I doubt it.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 26, 2010 (boomark / email).