I like this ad from Americans United for Change, “SNAIL”: Tell Congress to Pass Health Insurance Reform Now!:
I get why the GOP wants to stall health care reform: if it gets voted now, Obama wins. I accept that they don't care enough about uninsured (or pseudo-ensured) Americans to vote the way I think they should.
What I don't get is why observers think delay will do the GOP much good. What legislators have waiting for them when they get home is a lot of people who have lost their jobs — and thus their health care, and even more people nervous that it could happen to them. They are going to be bombarded with localized pitches, like this one which details the effects of the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act on Florida's 18th Congressional District:
America’s Affordable Health Choices Act would provide significant benefits in the 18th Congressional District of Florida: up to 22,000 small businesses could receive tax credits to provide coverage to their employees; 11,000 seniors would avoid the donut hole in Medicare Part D; 1,100 families could escape bankruptcy each year due to unaffordable health care costs; health care providers would receive payment for $110 million in uncompensated care each year; and 118,000 uninsured individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance.
Our Congresswoman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, is a particularly hard case with a relatively safe seat and she's unlikely to be moved by mere considerations of the benefits to local families. But that won't be as true elsewhere.
Ok, let me explain it: The unemployment rate isn’t going to reach 50%, which means that when they go home, the people who still have health insurance, *and don’t want the government screwing it up*, will still outnumber the people who don’t have health insurance. By a considerable margin.
If ‘reform’, (Which we should remember is just a warm and fuzzy way of saying “change”, and change can be for the worse.) is to be passed, it’s going to require a plausible guarantee that the people who are already insured won’t end off worse off. Because most people are insured.
And the rush to pass a bill most of whose provisions don’t kick in until after the next Presidential election is not particularly trust inspiring. “Hurry up and do this years from now!” just doesn’t deliver that sense of urgency the proponents are trying to get across.
I read the short version of this post as “Obamacare has descended from heaven like manna, we need only eat of it unquestioningly and we will be satisfied and happy. Therefore, anyone who says otherwise is a heretic who only seeks to destroy our beloved prophet, Obama. And oh, by the way, I am holier than thou.”
P.S. Is it also true that certain “Blue Dog” Democrats don’t care enough about Americans?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124865363472782519.html?mod=rss_com_mostcommentart
Or maybe you doubt that the “Blue Dog” Democrats were actually born in blue states, and really they are GOP operatives in disguise?