Ahhhh, Mom. Healthcare, again????

Ok, Atlanta officially has a new mayor by the name of Kasim Reed. I definitely offer my congratulations to him and all the other city officials elected in the recent run off for a job well done. I will have to postpone my other comments on or newly elected officials for a later post because I simply have to discuss this health care debacle. I am in utter amazement that the Democrats have managed to royally screw this one up. If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times, Democrats need to have a come to Jesus meeting, and I do mean ASAP!!! I am furious with Republicans for their complete sabotage of any and all legislation that has been put forth. However, I at least respect them for sticking together and giving the Democrats a resounding H*LL NO when it came time to vote on the issues (more importantly, I didn't expect any better from them). My disgust really lies with the conservative Democrats in the Senate. They obviously believe that if they don't side with Republicans on healthcare, they won't be re-elected to office. Let's take a moment to look at this situation, shall we?

A conservative Democrat generally comes from an area that has a more conservative constituency whether it be made up of republicans, independents, or democrats. Given the current climate for Republicans (meaning they are in control of NADA), it is safe to assume that they will be sticking together come the next election cycle. This means that a conservative Democrat can let go of any fantasies that there will be a bevy of Republicans lining up to cast a ballot for him/her because Republicans almost always tend to tow the line. This leaves independents and democrats. Independents are a toss up right now. There are many of them who have become disillusioned with both parties meaning they could just stay home. Now, more right leaning independents may vote for our conservative Dem, but they also may decide to toss their vote to the Republican (it's anybody's guess). The conservative Dem has a better shot with a more left leaning independent. However, our candidate's best shot for re-election would be with the democrats. The problem is that democrats are not known for towing the line like republicans. If enough democrats feel like a candidate is not supporting the party's agenda, they will pink slip him/her in the blink of an eye using a myriad of methods.

Now, I can respect anyone who has a legitimate difference of opinion on the way we should reform healthcare, but if a person does not like the way in which the bill is being drafted, he or she has to offer a viable alternative. This stance of just saying no in order to defeat this bill is disgusting and should not be allowed to go unpunished. Therefore, it is time that the Senate leadership (paging Harry Reid) haul some of these "troublemakers" into the back room of the Congress and tell them a few things. The most important being that come next year if they choose not to get on board with the healthcare reform agenda, they can expect to be looking for a new job. There will be no support coming from the democratic party monetarily or otherwise (and contrary to popular belief, they most certainly are going to need this party). Bottom line, if you can't support us now, don't even think about looking for us later. For independent senators such as Joe Lieberman (who actually flip flopped on this issue), he should expect to be stripped of his chairmanship as soon as is humanly possible. Although it is a little late, democrats still have time to get cut throat with some of these senators and "beat" them into submission.

The left is now saying that the bill should be dropped and picked up after the 2010 elections. I'm not sure if I agree with this stance either. It is quite possible that healthcare reform could be dropped and never picked up again. I don't think that the whitehouse and congressional democrats have come this far to drop the ball now. However, I do agree with progressives on the left who say that maybe Harry Reid needs to consider utilizing reconciliation to pass other parts of this bill such as the public option or medicare buy-in (by the way, where the freak are seniors on this buy-in option. You screamed and hollered about death panels, and all of a sudden you are mute on this issue. It is absolutely EGREGIOUS!).

Finally, president Obama has to get his head in this game. I can fully appreciate all of the other issues that are on his plate at this time, but we are at the do or die portion of this healthcare debate. Now is the time that he has to really step up to the plate and push this reform through. More importantly, he is missing a big opportunity to link healthcare reform to jobs. It occured to me after hearing the death knell ring for the medicare buy-in that President Obama and congressional democrats did not do a good job linking the buy-in to jobs. The medicare buy-in would have allowed seniors in their late 50's to early 60's to buy into medicare. Therefore, it would allow for people in this age range to have an affordable healthcare plan. One of the main reasons that people in this age range continue to work is so they can have affordable healthcare. If people in this age group can afford healthcare, they may just choose to retire earlier at least at the age of 62 (when you can start collecting Social Security). Retirement opens up jobs for younger workers who are in desperate need of employment right now. My own mother recently chose to retire early, but she almost stayed longer at her job because she wasn't sure about how she would afford healthcare (thankfully, other things fell in place which allowed for her retirement). My father could retire in a couple of years, but he will more than likely continue to work because he needs to be able to afford healthcare. The case needs to be made that in some instances healthcare and jobs go hand in hand. Ultimately, I understand that Republicans are playing the obstructionist role in this debate. However, democrats (including President Obama) are not doing themselves any favors by sitting back and letting them take over the stage (ala Kanye West at the VMA's) when it comes to this issue. Democrats have to get out there on the airwaves and help Americans understand that this healthcare bill is needed to move this country forward, and they won't rest until a GOOD healthcare bill is passed and signed into law.