YES, WE DID!!!! House Passes Health Care Reform

Wow, I couldn't stay up to night, but I just read that health care reform has finally passed through the House or Representatives. No, it's not perfect, but it will save lives and it will save money. Why and how did it happen? It finally happened because of leadership by President Obama and because of the grass roots in America. It was about real democracy, people that cared about other people and taking to the streets.

It means good triumphed over evil. Truth triumphed over lies. Commonsense won out over hysteria. Hurray for America. We can still get hard things done.


Former Bush speechwriter, David Frumm put it in perspective for Conservatives

Waterloo

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But:

(1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs.

(2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now.

So far, I think a lot of conservatives will agree with me. Now comes the hard lesson:

A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves.

At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994.

Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton’s 42%. The liberal block within the Democratic congressional caucus is bigger and stronger than it was in 1993-94. And of course the Democrats also remember their history,and also remember the consequences of their 1994 failure.

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