Democrats are being forced to re-evaluate their plans for health care reform after Republican Scott Brown's victory for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts.
My Thoughts
I figured that the Democrats would do this. Take a look at what happened. Brown's victory in a state with a 3 to 1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans was not just a statement about the health care bill. It was a clear message to Congress that the American public is not going to tolerate their arrogance anymore. They have let their wishes be known and the Democrats are now facing a public that will start voting them out of office if they refuse to listen to their constituents.Remember the town hall meetings and anger that was expressed over the specifics of the bill. Well, they just saw a small portion of it. Yesterday's election let them know the extent of that anger.
The Democrats can do a couple of things, but I believe they will chose to let Brown take his seat in the Senate before the vote on health care. Here are the other possible actions and their fallout.
1. Use the "Nuclear Option". By using political tactics, Congressional Democrats could push through the bill with a simple majority. The Democrats have enough votes in both houses to do it. They would have to strip things out of the bill and the House would have to accept the Senate's version. The fallout (pun intended) would be horrible for the Democrats.
During Obama's campaign, he pushed change and transparency in government. If the Democrats continue to use of bribes, secret meetings and political tactics to get the health care bill passed, Obama will be a one-term President and Congress will be Republican-led.
2. Vote before Brown takes his seat in the Senate. This would be another horrible move for the Democrats. It would prove to the American people that their elected officials are completely out of touch with the needs of the people and that they are arrogant.
The results are the same as option 1. Obama is out during the next election with most of the Democrats.
3. Downplay all of this and regroup. I think they will do this and they are already starting to talk about it. Read the article from Fox. Let everyone cool off and put health care on the back burner for a while or indefinitely. The Democrats will shift to another issue. In this case, jobs and the economy will be the most likely area for them. The President is going to work on creating his committee to work on lowering the deficit. The Democrats are already saying that we need to concentrate on jobs.
The results are better for the Democrats. If the health care bill is debated after Brown takes his seat and it is defeated, Democrats can tell their constituents in November that they tried. No other President or Congress faced the issues of health care head on. It was those Republicans again. Also, they can focus on the issue of jobs and the economy and let their constituents know that they see the plight of the little guy and are working to help get the economy on its feet and people back to work.
In their minds, the American public is gullible enough to buy all of this and they will get to keep their seats. I hope that we are strong enough to see through their thinly veiled attempt to woo back their voters and vote them out of office.
Posted using ShareThis
No comments:
Post a Comment