Now It’s Up to the Democratic Congress to Step Up

a fresh faced bill clinton in 1993. he came from hope, he ended up nowhere.

In 1993 Clinton arrived on a heady wave of enthusiasm, dedicated to undoing some of the excesses of Reaganism. He made a few stumbles, he announced a sweeping healthcare initiative and he got nowhere. There are many reasons for his failure. The sheer newness of the administration, presentation issues, and this – he got very limited support from a Democratically controlled Congress. That opened the door for Gingrich’s charges of stasis and corruption that led to the Contract for America, and sweeping mid-term victories. That broadly was the end of the Clinton Administration as an effective liberally-driven government. It’s the main reason that the Reagan Revolution was not shattered. Clinton became merely a painful interregnum.

Cut to 15 years later.  Obama is getting it right. The budget is a great document, the bipartisan experiment is over, the decision to leave troops behind in Iraq is correct, and the healthcare, energy, and education agendas are on course. Now it’s up to the Democratically elected Congress to respond. Obama’s charm offensive is wasted on the GOP. Obama appears to have realized that. The true targets of his charm offensive should be members of his own Senate caucus with a more conservative viewpoint.

Daschle Out. Good News For Healthcare Reform?

As the new President’s stumbles continue, we’re still looking for a clue that will help us confirm what kind of President he’s going to be. And now that Daschle is gone, we’re going to have an opportunity to see how serious Obama is about Healthcare reform. If he goes for someone soaked in special interest money, rather than an inspired healthcare visionary and expert, we’ll know that the President is a cautious tweaker, rather than a leader interested in lasting and genuine change. Sure hope he chooses the latter, but I’m having my doubts

Healthcare Reform IS The Economic Stimulus We Need

let's hope the ambulance is coming because there is no time to waste

In today’s NYT, Paul Krugman wonders why we haven’t heard more about major healthcare reform in the first few days of the new administration. His concern is that the economic crisis will only make the oncoming healthcare catastrophe that much more severe. It’s a very good point. Krugman surmises that perhaps solving the economic meltdown is dominating the agenda to the exclusion of almost everything else.

But Krugman doesn’t go far enough. What he fails to mention is that solving the healthcare crisis will, over the medium term, will dramatically help overcome America’s deep economic weaknesses.

It goes like this. Regardless of the plan adopted, and it’s most likely to be a build on Obama’s idea of offering a competitive government plan that will release the grip on our healthcare held by profiteering private insurance companies, the new system will have a very significant downward pressure on healthcare costs.

Where Are They Now? Immigration Reform.

illegal shmillegal

Conveniently put aside most probably by a pact between Obama and McCain, the I-word was not uttered once during the election campaign. I mean pigs wearing lipstick got about ten thousand times the airtime. John McCain walked away from the sensible immigration reform he championed for fear of losing the base that he’d been so studiously courting. And Obama, as a Democrat saw it as a net vote loser, especially in states like New Mexico and Colorado which were a firewall for his electoral strategy.

And yet it was only a few months ago, that the news was full of stories about marches in Los Angeles, and border fences being built, and extremely irate sheriffs in Mariposa County, Arizona. There was talk of vigilantes and ‘minutemen’, posses to round up the illegals, and nightmarish tales of containers turned coffins. The news cycle is a funny thing. Immigration was just dropped like a hot tamale.

The Fair Ladies Of Maine

Judging from his appointments so far, it’s becoming pretty clear that Obama is going to mean business when he takes over in two months time. Just to take one example, the appointment of Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services Secretary is a clear sign that Healthcare reform is front and center. Daschle is a former Majority Leader in the Senate and knows how to play the legislative game better than just about anyone else. Who better to help reform through Congress.

You can bet that Obama’s healthcare reform package is going to contain an awful lot that the GOP Senate Caucus is going to hate. In about three seconds all talk of bipartisanship will be off, because they will filibuster. Or at least try to. My guess is that the Dems end with 57, (they will probably win Minnesota by a handful of votes). That means, including Bernie Sanders, and the recently exonerated Joe Lieberman, they’ll have 59 votes. That leaves them one shy to beat the filibuster.

Which is where the fair ladies of Maine come in…