And no, you get no credit for what is a superficial posture response, “courage.”

Really.

I'll bet you don't like your martinis dry, either, DLS.

Note that the failure of the Baucus bill (more than what was anticipated) means the final legislation is likely to be somewhat to the left of it (in the direction of the House legislation). That doesn't mean that extremists like Pelosi (making wildly unrealistic statements, suitable for GOP campaign ads next year) can expect to get all they want. It's merely a shift more in the House legislation's direction and a trade-off against more rejection by Blue Dogs and the GOP in the Senate.

There is no reason at this time to expect the Dems to continue to be so bad they can't get anything done, or produce legislation so bad that Obama vetoes it (and it is not overridden, all of which could be set up as a stage-managed script for manipulation of public opinion in the case of failure).

It is?

What's the other side?

It's a handy demon, though. “Bu$ine$$” and “Profit$”

Changing intermediaries, from insurers to the federal government, and exchanging one set of problems for another has always been the obvious consequence of a federal takeover. One of the problems will be cost containment (in the 1990s, the hope was “managed competition under a cap,” for example). Medicaid represents the best-known set of problems providers and patients will face (though it will be more complicated when everyone's controlled by Washington and there's no distinction any more between government beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, and no more ability to shift costs to recover what government doesn't pay). We will additionally see curtailment and denial of treatment eventually, be it due to “appropriateness” standards or openly for cost control. (The idiotic leftist tantrums about concern about “death panels” and such only shows the ignorance or depth of dishonesty of those people; we have had the equivalent of “death panels” since the 1960s, at least, and contemporary liberalism includes an unhealthily strong support of euthenasia, so it is natural that normal people are suspicious of medicine being taken over by similar people with elitist as well as political leftist backgrounds. Illogical anger and scummy slander directed at everyone else does the angry lefties no credit here — apologies, the intent to actually learn more about the subject, and healthy wariness about too-ambitious as well as naive statements by takeover advocates are overdue.)

That's because the Dems themselves increasingly don't know. That's even crediting more of them than actually merit credit, and assuming they actually have read the legislation “they have worked” on.

The challenges remain not to lose public and more-sensible Dem and GOP support for whatever is worked out, as well as rein in the most loony of the lib Dems, especially in the House. So far, the record is of failure, and though they're currently dysfunctional to the point where they still are not coherent, the Dems might calm down, grow up, set priorities, and actually get legislation done.

And of course, if they continue to fail, they can continue to blame Sarah Palin, etc, at their continued loss.

Check this question out at pollingreport.com. After 5 months' worth of your incessant handwringing over Republicans, half the country still doesn't know what the hell you are talking about when it comes to healthcare reform.

If you really want to know where the problem lies, the answer is looking back at the collective you in the mirror.

Your Blue Dogs must be put to sleep.

Let's stop kidding ourselves and face some serious and uncomfortable facts here, okay? Any chance of serious health care reform is about as dead as the nails the GOP has spent the last nine years hammering into their own coffin. And the biggest irony? It was killed by a coalition of “Conservative Democrats” – or DINOs: Democrats In Name Only – which begs the musical question: With donkeys like these, who the hell needs elephants?

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

Go Nancy! If there's one thing we've been short on in this reform effort, it's intransigence. You are a skilled legislatrix indeed.

You made me spew Pepsi on my keyboard you evil man!