The signing into law of the Healthcare Bill is, as VP Biden colourfully said, a big deal, an historic moment happening in our lifetimes. So I asked Munguin’s Republic’s own ‘Alistair Cooke’ for his point of view on the subject…. And he very kindly gave it……………… Thanks Danny.
Regular readers of Munguin’s Republic will know that for about a year their colonial cousins have been gripped in a titanic political struggle to establish a program of universal healthcare for Americans regardless of their means. Such a program has eluded presidents for many decades, not least the high profile failure of Bill and Hillary Clinton almost twenty years ago.
With President Obama’s signing last Tuesday of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the US now how such a law, which Britain, the European nations, and almost every other developed nation on earth has had for decades.
The effort has demonstrated how really hard it is for the federal government of the United States to pass a big, controversial piece of legislation, requiring as it does, the simultaneous agreement of three constitutionally independent, and separately elected political powers….the two houses of Congress, and the President.
Tris has reported some milestones along the way – the passage of a major parliamentary hurdle last December in the Senate, and the imminent passage of the final bill in the House just a few days ago. Along the way, he documented the spectacular and ironic loss to the Republicans of Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat, which promised to derail the whole process by the loss of the Democratic 60 vote senate supermajority. Finally, he’s posted a report on the emergence of the right wing Tea Party Protest movement, and Republican fear mongering on the health care issue.
Politically, this centerpiece of President Obama’s legislative agenda was accomplished by the House of Representative’s passage of last December’s Senate-approved version of the bill as written, with the promise that the Senate will immediately consider a package of changes in a so-called reconciliation bill, now being debated in th
at body. But regardless of the outcome of that debate, and regardless of the Republican bluff and bluster about efforts for immediate repeal and constitutional challenges, the bill is now the law of the land and very likely to remain so.
Whether Democrats will be rewarded or punished for this in the upcoming mid-term elections is not at all clear. Right wing Republicans…..the Tea Party protesters and others…..skillfully wrested the political message away from the Obama administration last summer. The administration was caught utterly flat-footed over a Republican crafted political outcry about this new federal government “takeover” of the American health care system.
The program was called Marxist, Communist, or Nazi, every despicable word in the American political lexicon. Pictures of Obama as Stalin, Hitler, and Chairman Mao flourished during last summer’s rallies. Sarah Palin told us that “death panels” would be established to rule on whether or not your life would be worth saving. (In fact, the program is an insurance-based system that works within the existing private health care delivery system, and heavily favors the private insurance industry.)
The willingness of the Republicans to deliberately frame the “debate” in the manner they did, and the gullibility of many Americans in believing it, speaks poorly of the American political process. I’m sure that there are fringe political groups in Britain, but it’s hard to imagine that such utter and complete insanity could ever infect Britain’s mainstream political discourse.
The bill received a glittering ceremonial signing in the East Room of the White House with dignitaries and private citizens of all stripes in attendance. And we can always depend on Vice President Joe Biden to inject some unintended humor into such an occasion. After a lavish introduction of the President, Biden whispered into his ear…..AND directly into an open microphone….. "this is a big (BLEEPING) deal.”
But of course he was right. It is precisely that.
Regular readers of Munguin’s Republic will know that for about a year their colonial cousins have been gripped in a titanic political struggle to establish a program of universal healthcare for Americans regardless of their means. Such a program has eluded presidents for many decades, not least the high profile failure of Bill and Hillary Clinton almost twenty years ago.
With President Obama’s signing last Tuesday of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the US now how such a law, which Britain, the European nations, and almost every other developed nation on earth has had for decades.
The effort has demonstrated how really hard it is for the federal government of the United States to pass a big, controversial piece of legislation, requiring as it does, the simultaneous agreement of three constitutionally independent, and separately elected political powers….the two houses of Congress, and the President.
Tris has reported some milestones along the way – the passage of a major parliamentary hurdle last December in the Senate, and the imminent passage of the final bill in the House just a few days ago. Along the way, he documented the spectacular and ironic loss to the Republicans of Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat, which promised to derail the whole process by the loss of the Democratic 60 vote senate supermajority. Finally, he’s posted a report on the emergence of the right wing Tea Party Protest movement, and Republican fear mongering on the health care issue.
Politically, this centerpiece of President Obama’s legislative agenda was accomplished by the House of Representative’s passage of last December’s Senate-approved version of the bill as written, with the promise that the Senate will immediately consider a package of changes in a so-called reconciliation bill, now being debated in th
at body. But regardless of the outcome of that debate, and regardless of the Republican bluff and bluster about efforts for immediate repeal and constitutional challenges, the bill is now the law of the land and very likely to remain so.Whether Democrats will be rewarded or punished for this in the upcoming mid-term elections is not at all clear. Right wing Republicans…..the Tea Party protesters and others…..skillfully wrested the political message away from the Obama administration last summer. The administration was caught utterly flat-footed over a Republican crafted political outcry about this new federal government “takeover” of the American health care system.
The program was called Marxist, Communist, or Nazi, every despicable word in the American political lexicon. Pictures of Obama as Stalin, Hitler, and Chairman Mao flourished during last summer’s rallies. Sarah Palin told us that “death panels” would be established to rule on whether or not your life would be worth saving. (In fact, the program is an insurance-based system that works within the existing private health care delivery system, and heavily favors the private insurance industry.)
The willingness of the Republicans to deliberately frame the “debate” in the manner they did, and the gullibility of many Americans in believing it, speaks poorly of the American political process. I’m sure that there are fringe political groups in Britain, but it’s hard to imagine that such utter and complete insanity could ever infect Britain’s mainstream political discourse.
The bill received a glittering ceremonial signing in the East Room of the White House with dignitaries and private citizens of all stripes in attendance. And we can always depend on Vice President Joe Biden to inject some unintended humor into such an occasion. After a lavish introduction of the President, Biden whispered into his ear…..AND directly into an open microphone….. "this is a big (BLEEPING) deal.”
But of course he was right. It is precisely that.
Pics show (1) the president signing the bill into law, and (2) surrounded by some of the people who made it happen, including a brave little lad who lost his mother because they were too poor to pay for medical care.
You may also be interested in http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36002627#36002627. I found it moving, and at the same time funny.
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