I just stumbled across this interesting article about the roots of Obama's healthcare bill in Massachusetts, and I think it brings up quite a few interesting points.
Logic, one would think, would dictate that the right/(Blue Dogs?) opposition does not seem to be rooted in facts, (as it was written by them and mirrors their goals), and is perhaps not genuine. Knowing that REAL progress depends on the left and the right sitting down and finding common ground that works, the right's goal is gaming the system and limiting the nation's options..
This is from the article "The curious triumph of RomneyCare" by Brad DeLong
"The conservative DNA of ObamaCare is hardly a secret. "The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan," Frum wrote. "It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to ClintonCare in 1993-1994."
Ive just been informed that one of the groups that supposedly now opposes RomneyObamacare, wrote it!
Just to put my cards on the table, I've thought since the early days of the election that the Obama wing of the Dem party and the GOP had come to some kind of agreement. I never had any proof of that.. but..
"So why are none of the talking heads on your TV screen and none of the op-ed writers in your newspaper talking about how this health plan is a big victory for Mitt Romney and Republican policy analysts? Because there has been a conspiracy of silence among those working for the bill and those working against it. Republicans working against the bill have been unwilling to say "It's RomneyCare!" because they would then face the awkward question of why they did not support it. And they were never, never, never going to vote for it."
Anyway, I think its no secret that the Democrats are in trouble in November without some kind of course correction, and I think we should consider the fact that we passed something that was dreamed up by the right and that there is a lot of evidence that it won't work. (Its perhaps designed with our largely unchanged Bush-era posturing on 'free trade', not affordability, as a guiding factor..)
This bill seems to have been designed under a number of assumptions, not the least of which seems to be that the economy would get a lot better than it has for Main Street.
That can't be allowed to stand, as the good jobs are not returning and wont without the stimulus that single payers stability brings. Just look at Canada's economy, which is in far better shape in many respects.
If the economy doesn't improve, a lot, (already around 4/5) of our people aren't going to be able to afford this, the poor wont be able to afford the health care insurance even with subsides, and the middle class are going to end up in serious trouble if they get sick because of the huge uncovered costs. The healthy are going to end up taking the fine rather than buy health insurance they can't afford and that means only the sick will buy and that means the prices will skyrocket and the plans go into an insurance death spiral. Its going to be a mess. Democrats are going to lose. Just like Massachusetts.
And that is going to be such a national disaster and betrayal that it will kill consumer spending and send the country into a non-insurance death spiral, a depression, one which we might not be able to pull out of. They are really playing with fire.
One would almost think that Obama was not in control, somebody else is.
Because he seems like a smart guy when you see him on TV. Too smart to do this.