Fool me once…
Posted by Jason Ihle | 4 Comments
…shame on…shame on you. Fool me…can’t get fooled again.
It seems Democrats have not learned President George W. Bush’s lesson.
In a maddeningly frustrating article about how Democrats have decided to throw in the towel, Senator Evan Bayh had this to say with regard to using reconciliation to get the Health Care Bill passed: “It would destroy the opportunity, if there is one, for any bipartisan cooperation the rest of this year on anything else.”
Oh, I can’t wait to see how benevolent Congressional Republicans suddenly become after a full year of obstructionism which led to the defeat of a MAJOR piece of legislation. I’m dying for the sight of the Republican Party caring more about improving the country than preventing the other guys from winning. Right, now that they’ve tasted blood and can see the November elections in the distance with the great possibility that they’ll swing in their party’s favor they’re going to go all bipartisan.
Excuse my cynicism, but this has got my blood boiling more than any political issue I can recall in my life.
And I wish I could completely lay the blame on a Republican Party that has done nothing but say ‘no’ to anything the Democrats want. They’ve had virtually no substantive suggestions to fix health care. The few who have made demands on the legislation have gotten what they’ve wanted from a Democratic Party that has bent over backwards to accommodate them, only to find they didn’t get a single Republican vote.
No, it is not entirely their fault. It is also the fault of a Democratic Party so ineffectual they can’t even get their act together well enough to decide how best to change a damn light bulb in the bathroom. When Republicans had a 3 vote majority in the House they got more of their legislation passed and with greater ease than the Democrats have managed with something like a 200 seat majority. They accomplished more with an even split in the Senate than the Democrats can claim with 59, then 60, and now back to 59 seats. I almost hope they get their asses handed to them in November like they did in 1994. They don’t deserve to run a country.
I’m so depressed. You know, couple this with the ridiculous hoops I have to jump through to get my foreign-born wife to come live with me in the US and I’m just about to give up and go to her home country of Switzerland.
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January 27th, 2010 @
Jonathan Cohn at TNR gets it:
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/even-bayhs-short-term-memory-loss
January 27th, 2010 @
I don’t think that this failure to pass legislation represents the tragic end of Health Care Legislation in the United States. After all, 100 years passed from the end of the Civil War to the point where we guaranteed voting rights to everyone in America.
Not move here because of health care. Jason, you have got to be kidding. Everyone in my family has survived here quite nicely for over 100 years without comprehensive health care. The fact that we are behind the curve with the rest of the World is not a reason to stay in Europe. There are plenty of substantial reasons to stay in Europe, provided you like where you are staying.
I am sure that you would be very happy in Switzerland if you decide to stay there, but remember what Harry Lime said:
“Don’t be so gloomy. After all it’s not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.”
January 27th, 2010 @
It’s not just the loss of a substantive Health Care bill, it’s the complete fecklessness of the Democrats and the obstructionism of Republicans.
Look, I spend a great deal of my time defending the United States to people who are critical without having any idea what America is about. And I certainly don’t think most European countries are all that great, especially on civil rights and individual liberties, freedom of speech (the issues which are most important to me personally). Jesus, Switzerland just recently passed a law by popular referendum outlawing the construction of new minaret towers, and then tried to claim that it wasn’t a referendum on Islam.
And don’t get me started on European racism. The US has its problems in that area, no doubt, but at least we’re aware of it. Most people I speak to here wouldn’t recognize racism if it bit them on the ass – and they’re surrounded by it constantly! I’ve had this argument with Sandra far too many times, so here’s hoping she doesn’t read this.
But I’m really frustrated by the fact that they had a real chance to reform Health Care in a big way (and still do, I might add), but it seems they’ve given up. We’ll see what Obama says in his SOTU in a short while. At least living in Spain or Switzerland I could live comfortably knowing that if I or my wife ever got really sick we’d be taken care of without having to bankrupt ourselves and destroy our credit for the rest of our lives.
January 28th, 2010 @
Well, the SOTU speech is over and it didn’t convince anyone to change their minds about anything. When the newly elected governor from Virginia made his address in front of a hand picked audience he said that we have the best health care in the world in the US. That of course is a crock; our life expectancy is no longer than other countries, and our infant mortality is far higher. That is possibly because the poor and young can’t afford the great health care that the older people can and therefore don’t have proper prenatal care.
As to the Democrats, they, like the Republicans, are bought and paid for by the Insurance companies so how can you expect them to vote against the hand that feeds them (and I mean that literally.)
Racism in Europe! I’m shocked, shocked! Anyone who has a percentage of Jewish blood in their veins has had family members go to their death because of European racism and antisemitism. I am not going to go on a rant so don’t run off. The thing is that – Jesus, I haven’t seen you in a long while – the presence of increasing numbers of Muslims in Europe has got that continent spooked, and not just the Swiss. Look at what the French are going to do about the veil that Muslim women wear. They are going to allow it so long as the women don’t go into the street.
No I personally, having read the Koran about two years ago, don’t see any evidence of anything that says that Muslim women have to dress like the radicals do, but its their religion, not mine. But, the thing is that with everyone in Europe becoming afraid of them, even places like Denmark, a very progressive tolerant place, are getting edgy. I expect an explosion over where you are before the year is out.
Come home already!