Senate Already Pessimistic About Health Care

The worst part of the news that the Senate will have a really tough time passing the health care bill – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid even suggesting that nothing will get done this year – is that the impasse is with Democrats.

It’s disheartening and infuriating to see the Democrats not only straddling the middle of the road mediocrity, but actually being completely on the right side of the party lines.  We already have conservatives that are worried about the size of government.  They’re called Republicans – although, their track record of late really warrants them that term in the loosest of senses.

Republican Senator Olympia Snowe said that she would vote in favor of the bill, so long as the public option is altered so that it only goes into effect after a series of triggers require it.

That approach appeals to moderates such as Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. “If the private market fails to reform, there would be a fallback position,” Landrieu said last week. “It should be triggered by choice and affordability, not by political whim.”

Excuse me, Sen. Landrieu, it’s already been triggered by choice (lack thereof) and affordability (again, lack thereof) with the elections of the past three years that saw an overwhelming majority of Democrats in the Congress and in the Presidency.  It’s not political whim when those elected officials are doing what the people elected them to do.  In fact, to not do so, would be a failure.