The Obama administration and congressional Democrats long ago gave up any pretense of working to rationally reform American health care. The exercise now underway in the Senate is a mad dash to get to 60 votes, and nothing more. That’s why some Democratic senators who had no idea exactly what is in the “breakthrough deal” announced by majority leader Harry Reid last week immediately hailed it as a milestone. They’re for anything that creates a sense of “momentum” and “inevitability.” – The Weekly Standard
I’ve given up trying to understand what is going on with the Health Care Bills. The complexity is a feature not a bug for some….
Update: As the commenters remind me, rightly, the sausage-making is never pleasant to watch. I guess I’m expressing frustration. I am trying to be a good citizen and doctor. I just don’t understand the stuff even as I try. Ugh.
Another Update: Commenter Marty writes, “All the talk about mandated coverage, community rating, Medicare buy-in, ‘is it a tax?’ and all the rest is just the topic du jour as the Dems try to glue wings on this dead bird and then pretend it can fly.” (I edited, for clarity, the first update above).
They don’t care what it says because this is all about politics and images. Also, it is so important that you attack the families of those who vote no or even try to modify the bill to be less destructive. The best analogy I can think of is “marry me or I will kill you.”
Lovely group.
A look inside the sausage machine. It isn’t pretty.
At one time the old English Whig Party’s policy was to only delete legislation, never to propose new legislation. Sounds like a policy we could use.
It’s Kabuki designed to wear down the attention of anyone attempting to follow the specifics, and provide individual Senators with as much plausible deniability as possible.
A fiction willfully perpetuated by the MSM who refuse to demand details and seek to avoid calling the game for what it truly is.
They will pass this monstrosity and it will contain all the horrors we are being told have been dropped.
I like how some of the commenters claimed they signed the petition twice. Democrats through and through.
I am coming to the conclusion that most of the left doesn’t care what is in the bill because they know that what counts is prizing open the door to government control. Once that is open, as Robert Bolt said in the voice of Thomas More of laws, there is nothing to stop the complete control of health care and much else. England is becoming a police state, if the video here is any indication and I suspect it began with the NHS.
There really isn’t much to understand.
The plan is to get more people insured by using other people’s money, which will increase demand for services. That will drive up prices, which will now be largely internalized into the Federal budget. In order to avoid budget catastrophe, they will then suppress that demand by restricting treatment options, one way or another.
The game since about September has been to game the CBO scoring system to make the first 10 years look (not actually BE, but LOOK) budget neutral, and find a way to get to 218 in the House (done) and 60 in the Senate.
All the talk about mandated coverage, community rating, Medicare buy-in, ‘is it a tax?’ and all the rest is just the topic du jour as the Dems try to glue wings on this dead bird and then pretend it can fly.
Pretty much everything since September has just been part of this kabuki and unless it’s your job there’s little point to trying to follow all the details, day to day. The essentials don’t change. No matter what they come up with, it’ll be basically the same stinker, just wearing one tie as opposed to another.