House Vote: Health Care Reform

In the wake of the House passing the Senate health care reform package, both as written and with changes to be sent back to that body, Robert Reich has written a short blog post regarding the meaning of the event and where it stands historically.  He offers some interesting insight into why this reform is tied most closely to policies of previous Republican presidents rather than to FDR and the New Deal.

Christina Bellantoni of TPM outlines what happens next.  In a nutshell, President Obama will sign the Senate bill that the House first voted on last night -- "warts and all" as Ms. Bellantoni puts it.  Thereafter, the Senate will vote on the second bill passed by the House.  This modified bill features the changes to the original Senate bill agreed to by House and Senate members via the reconciliation process.  If -- and when -- the Senate passes this modified bill, it will go to the president to sign, and will then supersede the previously signed bill, becoming the law of the final land.

If you are interested in the 34 Democrats who voted against health care reform last night in the House, check this out.  While I can see political justification for such an action -- although I would ultimately call it cowardice -- there can be no moral justification for such a vote.  Health care has been a bedrock concern for the Democratic Party for the last century if not longer.  If expanding this basic human right is not at the core of your values, why the hell are you a member of the Democratic Party?  When you have the opportunity to vote to pass the most significant piece of social legislation in the past five decades and you don't... ????

That this vote was even close, says volumes about the political situation in Washington.  This bill, however monumental historically, is fairly milk-toast in relative terms.  There will be changes to American health care, but all too few to the way the system of care operates.  That so many are up in arms to oppose it and that so many call it a great victory demonstrates that we haven't come very far in America and that we have so very much farther still to go.

22 March 2010