Risks For Senate Republicans in Opposing House “Fixes”?
Maybe, but not nearly so great as those
for House Democrats Voting For them
Maybe, but not nearly so great as those
for House Democrats Voting For them
In an odd bit of political analysis featured on AOL, Russell Berman says Senate Republicans are taking political risks in preparing to fight the legislative fixes that House Democrats have demanded:
As the House moves toward passing sweeping health care reform, the threats from Senate Republicans keep coming. The latest is a promise to force a battle royal in the Senate over legislative fixes that House Democrats have demanded in exchange for their vote.
But what will be left for the GOP to fight? The brewing showdown could turn the political tables upside down, forcing Republicans to defend backroom deals and tax hikes they have spent weeks criticizing.
Um, Russell, hate to break it to you, the Republicans won’t be defending backroom deals and tax hikes, they’ll be fighting the backroom details and tax hikes contained in the House “fixes” Borrowing a Democratic National Committee talking point (I call it that because he’s just rephrasing what he quotes a DNC spokeswoman as saying (though without her language accusing the Republicans of doing exactly what her fellow partisans have been doing to get this passed), Berman says that “by preventing Democrats from changing the new law, Republicans could find themselves in the position of ensuring that the most disputed elements of health care reform remain intact.”
So, by Berman’s logic, Senate Republicans should support fixes cooked up in back rooms on the other side of the Hill?
Yeah, there are some good things in the House amendments (or whatever they’re calling them), like repealing the Cornhusker Kickback, but there’s lots that’s lousy. Look, the Senate bill is bad enough, but the House fixes, taken as a whole, don’t make it any better. Yeah, they’ve got a good provision or two, but, as a whole, it’s bad for our economy, bad for our health care system and bad for system of government.
For the Senate GOP, there are far fewer risks in fighting the House fixes than there are for the House members who vote to pass them. Just look at the polling data for key Democrats in the current debate.
And the Republicans who fight these unpopular fixes, should it come to that, well, they’ll find their poll numbers skyrocketing, nomatter how much the Democratic establishment and their media lackeys try to bring them down.
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From the Berman AOL piece:
Say it hasn’t come to scare-tactics, outright lies and desperate procedural tricks !This has been such an open, transparent, textbook perfect process until now.
I miss the whole “logic” about how fighting the parts endorses the whole. I need Tano’s explanation in order to get the “message.” The Berman/Hoffine talking points confuse me.
Comment by heliotrope — March 19, 2010 @ 8:51 am - March 19, 2010
Gee guys, what is so complicated here? The Senate bill has the “Cornhusker Kickback” in it, and the “Louisiana Purchase” and a bunch of other stuff like that. Once the House acts, all this will be the law of the land.
But the Dems have a bill of amendments to get rid of that stuff. One would imagine that sane Republicans – having lost the central fight and seeing the Senate bill as the law of the land – would want to support the bill of amendments so that what they see as a horrible bill could at least be marginally less horrible.
But oddly enough, Republicans seem to be gearing up to OPPOSE the bill of amendments – thus working to keep the Kickbacks and Purchases on the books.
Are y’all seriously unable to understand this???
Comment by Tano — March 19, 2010 @ 10:48 am - March 19, 2010
But the Dems have a bill of amendments to get rid of that stuff.
Why would the Obama Party have amendments to get rid of things for which they already voted and which they clearly support and endorse?
You lie, Tano. The Obama Party has no intention of getting rid of any of those things. They were endorsed, supported, and blessed by Barack Obama, the Obama Party members of the House, and the Obama Party members of the Senate.
What the Republicans are doing is simple; they are holding the Obama Party responsible for its lies. No wonder the Obama whore at the DNC is twisting and screaming as it is made more and more obvious the lies, duplicity, deception, and outright criminality endorsed by the Obama Party.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — March 19, 2010 @ 11:12 am - March 19, 2010
Tano says:
This from the Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Bush lied/people died, tax cuts for the rich, Halliburton screech freak.
Tano says, simple logic says roll over rover and take the reaming like a trashed and abused dog.
Well, Tano, just because you chain the dog down and hump him mercilessly does not mean the dog likes it and hopes he will have your baby.
Comment by heliotrope — March 19, 2010 @ 11:50 am - March 19, 2010
The fix is no fix. It is still there as law. Once passed, it will stay as law. Reconciliation is a band-aid that can be revoked by a simple majority. Nothing good will come from this monstrosity’s passage.
Comment by anon2273892 — March 19, 2010 @ 12:22 pm - March 19, 2010
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