Up or Down

Dave Newton says:

If the Republicans and Democrats could have gotten together on even a Step One healthcare reform bill, I think reasonable people would have approved -- I almost wrote "would have been happy," but I realize that's a naive idea. The fact is, the Republicans sort-of participated in this long process -- all the while denying they were doing so and reserving the option of trashing the process and its product.
While Congressional Democrats may have had their fingers crossed while appearing to collaborate with Republicans on a bill, I believe President Obama has bent over backwards to try to generate a bipartisan process. I think reasonable people would have to acknowledge this. I don't expect unreasonable partisans to agree. So be it.

Whatever happens next in Congress, the ridiculous political battle over whether to fix a clearly broken healthcare system will no doubt continue. Standing where I do, independent and desperate to clean up our broken political system, I'm ready to support the Healthcare Reform Act of 2010 in its reconciled form. And I'm ready to campaign and vote for any candidate who promises to be independent from boneheaded, ideological Democrat or Republican partisanship.

Bill Hurme says:

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," opined Lord Acton in the late 19th Century. I have rarely seen a more absolute example of this maxim that the current administration's insistence on having their way over the 2,000+ page health care plan. Dave, as usual, you are quickly following the Obama/Pelosi playbook with a naivete' that overwhelms me. Read the polls, Dave. Passage of this bill is not something that "reasonable people would have approved." Reasonable People don't want it! It's not only the Republicans who are opposed, nor the dozen or so Democrats who are nervous, it's the American people. Stop the presses. Start over. Consider a more reasonable approach to addressing a handful of health care issues that we should all be concerned about.

Dave Newton says:

Talk about playbooks. It's obvious that I'm not following anybody's plan, and twice as obvious that you are. And what part of the year-long process of trying to talk to Republicans about healthcare is an example of "absolute power?" With one Republican at the healthcare "summit" saying folks should just save up their money to pay for the world's greatest healthcare, and another throwing himself in the path of unemployment benefits, in the name of deficit reduction, I'm beginning to wonder if all you guys need a long vacation. I'm not crazy (no pun intended) about some of the traditional Democrat approaches to social problems, but at least they try to address them. Start over? Fresh piece of paper? I think the Congressional Democrats should just get their own majority lined up and let's get on with our lives. Let me know when you've got something to say that Mitch McConnell or Rush Limbaugh didn't write.

Last time: Less Government

Time before that: Can't we get along?

Time before that: Urban Renewal