My fearless leader in the Senate, Evan Bayh, makes a terrific point today on how important it is to accept a watered down version of health reform. In a another fine example of boldness and bravery, he tells Howey Politics Indiana that we should stop obsessing on the 20 percent that is controversial because only an ideologue would do that.
“The pre-existing exclusion thing, my God we shouldn’t keep action from being taken on that because we’re disagreeing on some other thing," Bayh told HPI. He added:
“the definition of success has been defined in such aggressive terms that the right will attack a sensible bill, the left will say chump change, even if it’s historic steps forwards that actually helps millions of people in pretty significant ways. The definition of success has been defined in ways of buyer’s remorse if we did get something done. I’ve heard people at the White House say this all-or-nothing-approach would have led them to vote against Social Security back when FDR proposed it or Medicare under LBJ. When the original Social Security bill was put into place it didn’t cover dependents. There was no annual increase in the cost of benefits. There was no disability coverage. All of these good things have been added over the years. We shouldn’t make the perfect the enemy of the good. We should have an open mind to come back in successive years and build on what’s been done. This all or nothing approach doesn’t work well with the American people. We can’t afford to do nothing, but it shouldn’t keep us from getting a lot of good things done that help people in real ways just because we can’t get everything done. That’s a position for ideologues to take."
So I'm glad that's cleared up. Just because something is right doesn't make it worth fighting for. It's best to stay away from controversy and stick to the easy stuff. We should be happy to get anything at all from the people we elect to represent our interests. Bad legislation is better than none.
Sure am glad he's looking out for me in Washington! What a bummer if I had one of thoseSenators who actually believed in shit. Dang. What could possibly get done then?