I love this David Brooks’ comment:
What it all amounts to is this: the Democrats have put on the table a bill that expands coverage without increasing the deficit too much. This bill is not ideal by any Republican standard, but it does contain some promising provisions which, especially if expanded, could improve the health care system and ease the suffering of the lower middle class.
That bill may now be shredded by Democratic opposition and turned into something completely monstrous. Republicans thus have a choice: Engage with that bill (and make it better) or watch a worse bill get enacted into law.
In politics you don’t get to choose your options, you only get to select from the available options. If the Republicans just say no, America’s health care system will be worse off, by their very own standards, than if they engage and try to improve the bill. End of story.
Our politics of polarization may lead us to a less desirable bill. In the old days (who knows when they ended) the Republicans would help make the sausage.
Of course the Republicans are no worse and no better than the Democrats. The party out of power now just says no – oops screams no – and looks for political advantage. The Republicans do have some good ideas and could help mold the inevitable health care reform package. Unfortunately that will only happen in an alternate universe.
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