In response to a "Kill the Bill" article on HCR, I present the alternative I would press for if I was the president. One can hope.
Kill the Bill
To begin, if I were the president I would strongly and unequivocally back the House’s version of the bill, including a strong public option, minus the Stupak amendment, the individual mandate, and the ban on the re-importation of generic drugs, as the two existing bills put forth by the House and Senate are merged into one.
I would, of course, be happy to sign the House version of HCR into law, with the expressed purpose that I could perhaps improve upon the bill in the near future. That is the lesser of two evils as things stand today. Hell, I might even be able to campaign on it in 2010 without pissing off my base and turning independents away.
I would NOT however, sign into law a bill that taxes the American people tomorrow, but fails to deliver most of the reforms until 2014, two years before my potential second term ends, and which includes an individual mandate that only the insurance companies could love, and then have the gall to pretend that it represents reform. Unless of course I was drunk or high, or perhaps both.
That is, of course, unless my real aim is to lose 30 House seats, 3-5 Senate seats, while surrendering a portion of the bully pulpit I currently hold a monopoly over, to Republican shit birds like Boehner and McConnell, who have nothing substantive to offer but more empty sloganeering from the Party of No.
Those two are praying for Obama to hand them a simple issue to rally around in 2010. Remember, "terrorists hate freedom, freedom is on the march?" Mindless sloganeering such as that did well for Bush in 2004. Handing them an issue to run against makes as much sense as an intentional walk in the top of the 9th inning, why give them first base in 2010?
The truth is that no issue will be more advantageous for Republicans to run against in 2010 than healthcare. If the Republicans can turn the midterm election into a referendum on how "the Marxist-Leninist Obama is a really corporate whore who sold us down the river on health care reform by cozying up to his corporate friends in the insurance lobby, and that his health care reform package is really a socialist takeover of the free enterprise system, they win, and win big. Notice the contradictions in that statement? Voters won’t.
Republicans love having bat shit crazy fights like that because the voters eat it up. Every damn time. Why, because voters are the least informed of Americans, how else do you think some of the people in the Congress got elected? Michelle Bachmann is a rock-star in her district and she should probably be heavily sedated in a fine institution somewhere east of Brainerd.
The truth is, you could wrap the Constitution in bacon and deep fry it and Americans would stand in line for hours to buy them up by the dozens, blissfully unaware because consumers never read the fine print on any good marketing strategy. Don’t believe me; check those credit card offers you get in the mail. Hell, go hang out a paycheck loan store and you’ll soon discover the verifiable truth in that statement.
In a perfect world, truth be told, I would have a parliamentary system to operate with as president. And as such, I would have already called for a special election in 90 days, and thus would have 60 days to campaign on my ideas for HCR, in stark contrast to the non-plan that has to yet be presented to the American people from the other side of the aisle.
Tragically, our system does not allow for that and so I must live in the world of reality. Thus, I would manufacture my own vote of confidence and back the House version while praying for gridlock, all the while remaining flexible enough in my thinking that should the House bill be accepted by the Senate, I would accept that version as s compromise worthy of future reform.
In the event Blue Dogs in the Senate defect however, and fail to accept the decidedly more progressive House version, effectively killing the bill for the duration of the current session of Congress, I would take my case to the American people in 2010. Sometimes failure can be used to your advantage. Here is how I would then precede:
Currently, the first option on the table is to pass a bill few Democrats like, which most independents are uncertain of, and which will become the only issue upon which the Republicans will be able to effectively campaign on in 2010.In that event, history suggests their efforts may be quite successful. Why even go there?
Or, I could press for the less flawed bill from the House which will assuage my base while providing a kitchen table issue for my party to build a platform around. As president, I would then use the issue to build political support for my policies in wobbly districts in 2010, with the goal of hanging onto independents. It’s a nice thought, but it won’t happen however, not with Nelson and Landrieu and Lincoln and Lieberman gumming things up.
Which brings us to our final option. A third option is to hope for the aforementioned gridlock, and a dead bill. Here’s why:
In that event, I would focus on the economy and financial reform in early 2010, with the goal of lowering unemployment to around 9 to 8.5%, circa summer 2010 and the midterm campaign season. At that point, I could use the improved economic outlook to pivot back to HCR in the summer campaign.
Then, I would criss-cross the country making the argument that we have prevented a Great Depression, the stimulus plan worked and the Treasury recouped a 20% profit on the bailouts (current estimate), the Iraq pullback remains on track, no new attacks on US soil have occurred (hopefully) even as we closed Gitmo, effectively ending the Cheney torture regime it represented, and we tried and failed on HCR but we lacked a legitimate partner on the other side to work with.
Give us a few more bullets however and we’ll properly slay the beast that is the insurance racket. Obama is a salesmen, he can sell that better than justifying the shitty bill we currently have in place.
Instead of defending a bad bill that few like, I would hitch my party's fortune in 2010 to the mantra; "Do you want to go back to the Bush economy." I'll take that fucking Pepsi challenge with the American people any day over the more asinine debate that will be, in essence, to what degree does my HCR bill suck. Only a little, or a lot?
Republicans will own that issue like nothing we have seen this side of the Contract with America and the case of the Oval Office blowjob. And that’s where it will lead to as well if they take back the Congress in 2010.
Investigations into much ado about nothing will be the primary order of the day, and bull shit wedge issues such as; "do you, or do you not support federal funding of abortions for your lesbian daughter who hates guns, America, and Toby fucking Keith but blames terrorism on poor table manners?" Fox viewers want to know.
The result of defeating this bill as it currently stands thus would be; my base would feel less deflated, perhaps even energized once again. Additionally, independents would not be scared off by the rhetoric coming from the right along the lines of "bloated government spending", and I could make the rounds in wobbly districts, advocating that we need even bigger margins in the Congress, and in turn, I will deliver the goods on HCR in 2011. On a silver platter in fact.
And then I would sit back, light a cigar, and watch as the only issue minority leaders Boehner and McConnell have to fall back on in 2010, the flawed and corrupt (see Nelson and Landrieu) Obama HCR bill, dissipate before their eyes.
If you listen closely you can hear their brains melting over the prospect of not having a flawed HCR bill to run against in 2010. What other issue do they have to run against? Gay marriage, Lady GaGa, Jon or Kate, what?
The alternative is to go with the flow and pass a shitty bill no one but industry insiders wants, demoralize my base, frighten the life out of know-nothing independents who are ready to shit themselves over the words "taxes" and "big government spending," or "socialism," while effectively handing the no idea Republicans an issue to campaign on while simultaneously sullying my own ideology.