The New York Times' David Leonhardt addresses how the health care bill addresses "wealth inequality."
EJ Dionne points out that this health care reform bill is essentially a Republican plan, preserving the private insurance industry and creating a better insurance market. Dionne: "Here is the ultimate paradox of the Great Health Care Showdown: Congress will divide along partisan lines to pass a Republican version of health care reform, and Republicans will vote against it." (The mandate, for example, was a Republican invention.)
Jane Hamsher: "The health care debate was essentially a fight between political parties, not political philosophies. And the public understood that."
Of course, there's no way the current Republican party could have passed any kind of health care reform. Nor did they when they held the reins of power that last decade.
And according to a March 22 Gallup poll, a majority of Americans think it's "a good thing" that Congress passed the health care bill.
Krugman: "Actually, it's not clear whether public opinion has changed all that much: a substantial fraction of those who disapproved of the reform did so because it didn't go far enough. Anyway, true to form, one of the key talking points of reform's opponents - that passing reform was an outrage because it denied the clear will of the people - turns out to be completely bogus."
Maybe that's why Republican Senators are already scrambling away from calling for repeals of the bill. The new strategy? "Fixes" to the bill. What kind of "fixes," you ask? Why, tax cuts for the rich!
Sadly, conservatives now rush to defeat health care reform in the courts. I'm guessing this goes to the SCOTUS, where that court's conservative justices have never shied away from changing the law for political gain.
Here's a shocker: angry rightwing extremists send death threats to Democratic Congressional representatives after the healthcare bill passed. Joe Klein:
"Right-wing extremists are threatening Democrats who voted for health care reform with violence. This, after Congressman John Lewis was called a "nigger" and Barney Frank was called a "faggot." This, after Congressman Randy Neugebauer called Bart Stupak a "baby killer" and, essentially, refused to take it back. The Republican Party has to be very careful about where it's headed. After all, it was protesters shouting "baby killer" at U.S. troops in the 60s that helped put the Democratic Party in the American doghouse for 40 years..."
It's nice to see the Beltway crowd suddenly realize this stuff; only wish they had looked at the warning signs months ago, before they elevated the kooky splinter movement to national prominence.
