"I think that there has been a time over the last several years where Russian-U.S. relations were not as strong as they should be. What I said coming in is that I wanted to press the reset button on relations between the United States and Russia."
So this concept of “starting over” when things get bad, trying from the beginning to change for the better… well, it’s something that PresBo likes. Okay, I am not opposed to that concept… so now I say that it’s time to hit the reset button on health care reform.
Democrats started this whole process on two assumptions. The first assumption was that our system of health insurance was broken across the board, and the entire system needed to be changed, “fixed,” and controlled by Government. The second assumption was that the Democrats had the needed votes to push it through Congress, relying on the energy and optimism left over from the election of Barack Hussein Obama.
The second assumption has been shown to be wrong. The myth of Democrat solidarity was being stretched long before the Blue Dogs took a stand and said no to party leadership demands for the bill. At that point the myth wasn’t just shredded, it exploded all over the political landscape.
The first assumption, that the entire system is broken and needs to be controlled by government, is exactly the wrong foot upon which to start the process of drafting legislation. This assumption eliminates entire subcategories of mild or moderate amounts of reform. Gone is the possibility of leaving the part that works alone and tweaking federal regulations to cover the uninsured. In fact, gone is any possibility of a free-market based solution to the problems. And all of this happened without any debate.
No discussion was held to determine the best starting place, the Democratic leadership simply announced that the debate was over and a consensus had been reached. Treating half of the country in such a high-handed and cavalier manner certainly isn’t the best way in the world to build a consensus on legislation.
And it hasn’t worked. While public opinion polls show at best lackluster support for the legislation being worked on in Congress, large portions of the Democrat party have basic problems with the underlying assumptions to the bill. Republicans have been ignored to this point, treated as the ugly cousin who nobody likes or wants around, and excluded from any substantive contributions to the bills. Now that the Democrats are facing serious divisions within their own party, the Republicans are told that it can’t pass without their support. Too bad, then, that the Democrats were so intent on rejecting Republican contributions to the bill.
I think that the healthcare bill as it is, based upon incorrect and overly limiting basic assumptions, is beyond salvaging in its current shape. Small and/or targeted changes to the bill still leave in place too much that relies on that fundamental and mistaken assumption that government control is mandatory.
It is time to press the reset button on health care reform, scrap all of the legislation produced to date, and go back to start from the beginning. Open the debate up to ideas from somewhere besides the extreme left-wing
of the Democrat party this time, and maybe this time they can produce not only a bill that can be passed, and that would receive bipartisan support from both parties, but also a bill that actually manages to solve some of our problems without negatively impacting those who are happy with their insurance and medical care.So, here’s the reset button. Any takers?
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