Which comes first, health care reform or reform of health care reform?
According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House won’t pass health care reform until the Senate passes a “sidecar” bill that reforms the already passed Senate version of the bill.
Presumably, the calculus is: you can only pass health care once, you can’t come back a few weeks later and amend it, so you have to get it right the first time.
Works great, assuming there are 51 votes in the Senate for whatever amendments you want.
Kills health care reform altogether if the votes aren’t there.
Either way, the Democrats will be blamed.
For that reason, it’s astonishing that the House doesn’t simply pass the Senate version of the bill and move on.
Health care will need lots of tweaking and reforming in the next 10 years.
It’s difficult to believe that Democrats will not vote for their central campaign issue in 2008, thus demonstrating conclusively that they cannot govern.
Gorilla thinks: “Why do these chickens always insist their eggs are square? They’re merely soft and yellow!”
Tags: health care reform