Obama won’t give up his lost health crusade
Barack Obama as Indiana Jones? Allow me to explain.
At the end of the trilogy starring Harrison Ford (let’s pretend moviegoers were never subjected to “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”), the swashbuckling archaeologist discovers the holy grail of holy grails: the actual cup of Christ.
But things go badly wrong and Jones soon finds himself suspended over a bottomless chasm, with one arm reaching desperately for the grail. The other is being held tenuously by his father, who wisely counsels him: “Let it go.”
If only the elder Jones could pay a visit to the White House.
Today is the big “bipartisan” health care meeting at which President Obama has agreed to hear Republicans’ ideas if they will just sign on to his latest health proposal, which is all of three days old and has yet to be scrutinized by the usual independent agents.
That’s the upshot of the meeting, anyway. Ever since Obama smoked a disorganized House Republican caucus at their televised debate in Baltimore last month, the administration has longed for a chance to repeat that very public schooling and regain the political high ground on health care.
Oh, the president claims to have included some conservative ideas in his plan. And it’s true that some of the lesser, unobjectionable ones are in there. For instance, the White House cites the “use of technology for real-time data review” as one GOP idea it’s adopted.
The alternative, one supposes, is to review data in real time without using technology.
Just kidding. But do data reviews, or tougher penalties for Medicare/Medicaid fraudsters, or “mechanisms to improve quality,” really qualify as meeting the GOP halfway?
Are these really compromises from Democrats? Ones that merit the support of Republicans — not to mention the majority of Americans who oppose Democrats’ various health proposals — for such sea changes as letting Washington bureaucrats control the prices of private health insurance plans, as Obama now wants to do?
The annals of price controls are, after all, littered with tales of success. Just ask Richard Nixon. Or Mikhail Gorbachev.
Like Indiana Jones’ outstretched arm, President Obama’s summit is a last attempt to grasp the oh-so-close liberal dream of a middle-class health entitlement. The public option is not listed in the plan, but its creation will be a fait accompli once private insurance plans are transformed into utilities whose every move requires Washington’s approval.
Competition will decrease once the feds can dictate what insurers have to cover and force their premiums into the narrow band between a government cap and unprofitability.
Americans might not trust insurance executives any more than they do politicians and bureaucrats, but the execs’ standing will fall even further once they have to answer for the decisions that politicians and bureaucrats make.
Liberals still carping that Obama abandoned the public option either understand this and are just posturing, or they’re blinded by ideology.
Even if the latest health overhaul goes down in flames — and there are legitimate questions about whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi can muster a majority for Obama’s proposal — health reform is not going to disappear for 15 years as it did after Bill Clinton’s reform failure. Should Republicans regain power, they can’t ignore this issue. GOP leaders appear to understand this.
A truly bipartisan approach would be to start from scratch and begin with the handful of smaller items that most people agree on, before moving on to more contentious measures.
It’s the left’s denial of this reality that has turned its “Last Crusade” into a “Temple of Doom.”
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149 comments Add your comment
BPJ
February 25th, 2010
2:50 pm
The GOP plans have been discussed extensively at today’s summit. The problem with the Republican proposals is that they would basically lower costs for healthy people (as long as they don’t get sick), and raise costs (often to unaffordable levels) for older, sicker people. There has been detailed, documented discussion of this over at the New Republic:
http://www.tnr.com/article/health-care/fairness-doctrine
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/why-the-gop-cant-solve-health-care
For reform
February 25th, 2010
2:54 pm
Why do republicans keep bring this moral issue of health care reform back to politics. It is a moral issue and something needs to be passed. The skyrocketing cost of health care will break the economy and me. We finally after 8 years have a leader as President rather than a rich oil tycoon. During the last 8 years the rich got richer and the middle class got poorer. Obama’s administration is not afraid to stay the course of their beliefs. I can tell from the comments that we are in Georgia where people refuse to listen with an open mind set.
Old guy
February 25th, 2010
3:09 pm
I am on Medicare and SS, not because I chose to be on them but because I was forced to pay for them for 45 years. SS is going broke because LBJ (I am a Vietnam vet) and the Demos stole the money from the trust fund to fund the Viet war. Don’t lecture us on taking “benefits” as Conservatives when we were robbed at gunpoint (by the Gov) to pay their way.
I have only confidence that the Gov will drain us all if it can!!!
Jess
February 25th, 2010
3:19 pm
For reform,
The people in Massachusettes apparently refused to listen as well. Either that or they listened and didn’t like what they heard.
Just because you attach the word moral to an issue, it doesn’t come without a price. I’m reading a book now by a Harvard economist. He contends the US government is currently bankrupt. He has seen no one who could demonstrate how our government could meet it’s current obligations, including entitlements, service on our debts, and essential govt. services even in the mid or long term. This is a definition of bankrupt.
Repubs. I think understand this. Dems. either do not or do not care. At the core this is a financial issue.
CJ
February 25th, 2010
3:23 pm
“…the US government is currently bankrupt….Repubs. I think understand this.”
Repubs had the White House and Congress, turned surpluses into deficits and nearly doubled the national debt in record time.
Repubs got us into this mess. Why anybody would take them seriously on budget matters baffles me.
Linda
February 25th, 2010
3:26 pm
CJ@3:23, Why do you think Reps “got us into this mess?”
Allen
February 25th, 2010
3:32 pm
For those convinced that health care reform is unpopular: a fair number of respondents have objections to the bill because it is insufficiently liberal for their tastes (no public option, etc). Further, the component parts of the bill consistently poll well.
People are more attuned to politics than policy, and an endless partisan debate covered through a media that fetishizes conflict has not been kind to reform’s image. And it’s certainly not that the Democrats were blameless here.
Jess
February 25th, 2010
3:34 pm
CJ,
This argument is getting stale. Had Obama come into office and shown even a glimmer of fiscal dicipline, you may could hang onto to this story a little longer. Fact is he has driven us further into debt, and much faster in one year than Bush did in eight. And yet he is still throwing huge spending proposals at us every time we turn around.
This will all have to end one day. You do understand this I hope.
Jess
February 25th, 2010
3:36 pm
Linda@ 2:49
Very good post. You have captured the essence of this entire debate.
Allen
February 25th, 2010
3:40 pm
Kyle, though the math in the House may seem daunting, I think it’s premature to be counting votes. I simply meant that, politics aside, the Democrats are in the legislative red zone (to stay with the trend of making fun analogies).
Kyle Wingfield
February 25th, 2010
3:45 pm
They might have been there at one time, Allen, but they keep getting 15-yard penalties…
Swede Atlanta
February 25th, 2010
3:46 pm
I have no doubt health care reform will pass this year. I suspect it will prevent the worst abuses of the health insurance companies, e.g. pre-existing conditions, dropping people because they get sick, etc.
That the Republicans and Democrats can agree on. But as I have listened to the debate today, unless the Democrats pass a comprehensive package through Reconciliation, the situation under the Republican “go slow” approach will get worse and worse.
Without covering millions of uninsured Americans whose premiums would go to spread risk out over more individuals, premiums will go up. You have heard Anthem Blue Cross say their rates are going up 39% because healthy people are dropping out. So once we make insurance companies actually cover sick people, they will say well the costs have gone up so I am going to raise rates 50%.
At the same time those uninsured will continue to be subsidized by those of us with insurance so premiums will continue to go up as the uninsured get care in the most expensive place possible, the emergency room.
At the end of the day without a comprehensive approach the entire deck of cards collapses on itself. The 95% of people polled and responding (not 95% of the American people – there is a big distinction) that some posters have referred to that love their current coverage will see their coverage reduced, co-pays and out of pocket increase and see premiums skyrocket.
You either tackle this from a comprehensive perspective (which yes may take thousands of pages to document) or the situation will just continue to get worse.
Jefferson
February 25th, 2010
3:52 pm
1 insurance company, that is the solution.
lmno
February 25th, 2010
3:52 pm
I want a single payer system.
Blackberry Cobbler
February 25th, 2010
4:01 pm
51% may have voted for Obama…………………. BUT, that was a year and a half ago AND is irrelevant to this debate.
The MAJORITY of America is AGAINST the Presidents/Democrats health plan. PERIOD.
So what are we suppose to do, bend over and take it like a man just because Obama won the election. This is stupid, ignorant, and hardly insightful thinking.
The majority of Americans including some who voted for Obama don’t want this!!
Some of you folks posting on here leave little doubt about how much common sense you have.
For reform
February 25th, 2010
4:02 pm
Jess, I seem to recall that when Bush passed the bank bailout bill there was no money then but the Bush bailout seemed to be ok. Is this not spending money we don’t have. I think both parties are guilty of this. If we don’t insure the uninsured the Healthcare cost are going to go up because of uninsured being forced to use the ER. I think that people need to stop bashing the Commander and Chief of the United States and start working as elected officials. I’m done.
Linda
February 25th, 2010
4:07 pm
Health insurance is not insurance.
Auto insurance is insurance. It does not cover tires, tuneups or brakes. It covers losses, accidents, theft, etc.
If health insurance covered only illnesses, accidents, etc., the costs would plummet. We should pay for all routine doctor visits, tests & medicine. Americans would be incentivised to shop for health care services as we do for other products & services. We would finally know the costs of care. We would learn that we can obtain lab work up to 80% cheaper. We would question the necessity of tests. We would ask for itemized statements. We would seek estimates.
The overhead for general practitioners would decrease (passed partially on to patients) since insurance paperwork would decrease.
Anyone who can afford to drive a car could afford health care insurance.
Swede Atlanta
February 25th, 2010
4:12 pm
Blackberry Cobbler
There are two problems with attaching any value to current polls:
(1) Misinformation about what is even on the table
(2) Polls are designed to give the results the pollsters want
(1) Misinformation
Between the 24/7 misinformation cycle, stirred up wingnuts who are just angry period (they might need a laxative) and an environment of strong partisanship, the American people don’t know what is even on the table.
People think there is a proposal to nationalize healthcare. Wrong!
People think there is a proposal for death panels. Wrong! Oh wait they exist today at your friendly local private insurance company
People think they will be forced to a public option. Wrong!
I could go on and on. Those opposed to ANY reform have been much more effective in lying and spreading fear and those who advocate sensible reform. I have to hand it to them they have been successful.
But just because the American people believe something doesn’t make it so.
(2) Polls
I have read numerous polls that claim XX% of Americans favor(or oppose) YY.
Then I go to the poll and read the questions and it becomes very clear that the poll results don’t correspond to the “headlines”. The results of polls are significantly affected by the types of questions that are asked and how they are asked.
For example, are you in favor of a government run health care plan? is very different from are you in favor of a public option that individuals could choose to participate in as an alternative to private health insurance?
If you ask the first question many people would say no because implied in the question is that they would be forced to participate and would lose what they have now. The second question is actually asking a relevant question as a public option, if offered, would be just that.
So I put absolutely no value in polls on this topic because most Americans don’t have a clue what is actually proposed and two polls are notoriously misleading.
CJ
February 25th, 2010
4:21 pm
I’d bet money that the folks on this blog complaining about deficits under Obama were silent about deficits under the GOP.
Obama deliberately ran up the deficit via the stimulus–as he should have–to fill hole in the economy created by rapidly falling demand in the private sector. On the other hand, Bush and the Republicans had the benefit of a relatively stable economy during all but the first half of his Bush’s term, but they ran up record deficits anyway. They did it via a tax cut that was nearly twice the cost of the Obama’s HCR proposal, adding half-trillion Medicare entitlement without paying for it, large increases in agricultural subsidies (welfare for millionaires) without paying for them, and a misbegotten war in Iraq. Yet they have to gall to complain about deficits under Obama while simultaneously voting against pay-as-you-go legislation and blocking a vote on a deficit reduction commission—two long term deficit reduction measures that they supported until Dems put gave them a chance to vote on it.
Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the GOP is no more fiscally conservative than the Soviet Union was. And if recent history and recent votes don’t convince you of that, then nothing will.
Blackberry Cobbler
February 25th, 2010
4:22 pm
Whatever, Suede.
You obviously just pick and choose what polls you believe and don’t believe just to suit your own beliefs.
Whatever.
Another old man
February 25th, 2010
4:26 pm
It’s bad enough that our elected don’t give a rat’s what happens to us, it seems we don’t either. I never thought I’d live to see a day when Americans would want to deny health coverage for others. Back in the 60’s I thought I was putting my life on the line for my fellow Americans, you jerks won’t even pony up a few bucks for others.
S.R.
February 25th, 2010
4:30 pm
The people who take care of themselves by working and buying health insurance are against this mess called “reform.” The losers who don’t work, don’t pay taxes and want everyone to take care of them are the only ones who want it.
Swede Atlanta
February 25th, 2010
4:31 pm
Blackberry Cobbler
Absolutely I pick and choose polls. Given the thousands of “polls” that are quoted I don’t have enough days in a lifetime to review the results of every one. But I have looked at at least 20-25 polls from various organizations over the past 9 months about health care. I have taken them from left-leaning polling organizations to the far right.
And consistent in my findings is that the questions from either extreme are skewed to get the result they want. Poll questions from what I considered to be fairly reliable and arguably neutral sources were somewhat better but the headlines promoted by these companies, both for and against health care reform, didn’t match up with the results of their questions.
So I have become very skeptical of polls. I could construct and conduct two polls asking the same participants and come to completely different results based on the way I ask the questions.
Swede Atlanta
February 25th, 2010
4:44 pm
S.R.
You are either misinformed or you are intentionally misleading people (my parents taught me that was lying).
I take care of myself and have good health insurance through my employer. I have paid income taxes since my first full-time job over 30 years ago. I have worked without interruption for those 30 years. So don’t make generalizataion
And I want reform for any number of reasons
- It is morally reprehensible that we live in one of the most wealthy nations on earth and we cannot find a way to make health care affordable for everyone. Sending them to the emergency room is not the same as providing them with health care
- We cannot continue to subsidize people who do not have insurance through higher premiums and higher costs (the costs of the uninsured are passed to us in our premiums and the fees charged by providers)
- We cannot continue to have tens of millions of Americans getting health care through the most expensive channel available – the emergency room. Not only is it the most expensive place but by the time they go to the hospital emergency room the cost of treatment has skyrocketed
- We cannot afford to have and I consider it morally reprehensible to have insurance companies refuse coverage based on pre-existing conditions and dropping people because they get sick
- We need to cover as many Americans as possible to spread the risk over a larger pool and long-term reduce insurance costs
I know that despite having worked hard and saved I am but one step removed from financial ruin. If I were to be laid off and lose my health insurance I could not obtain affordable insurance based on a genetic heart defect. If I didn’t have insurance and contracted cancer or needed some other major surgery or treatment I would have to declare bankruptcy, lose my home or both.
That’s why I want reform.
Allen
February 25th, 2010
4:47 pm
Kyle, I think we may be talking past one another. My point is that the biggest obstacle to reform was mustering 60 Senate votes. The remaining obstacles are relatively small.
All that remains is for the House to pass the Senate bill. If changes are insisted upon, many could be made through reconciliation, requiring only a majority in the Senate.
After the election of Scott Brown, I think conservatives have indulged in hubris and paid surprisingly little attention to this simple reality. It goes without saying that the Democrats may not succeed. But they are tantalizingly close.
It’s like a basketball game where after a buzzer beater, the crowd rushed the floor and the team broke out the champagne in the locker room…only to be called back to the floor and realize that the other team never left and has a decent chance to win. (Nice 15-yd penalty comeback, though)
Linda
February 25th, 2010
5:00 pm
Swede@3:46, Do the auto insurance companies abuse Americans for pre-existing driving records & dropping people because they are accident-prone? Do hazard insurance companies abuse us for pre-existing hazardous conditions in our homes & dropping us because we’re accident-prone? What about life & credit life insurance companies? Is this not how ALL insurance companies have always operated?
@4:12, You said there’s “misinformation” & implied the polls are biased, called angry Americans “stirred up wingnuts,” needing a laxative & not knowing “what is even on the table.”
Thank you for proving what I wrote @ 2:49 when I said, “Liberals blame the American people for lack of understanding. For the last year, liberals have demonstrated that they believe their constituents are too ignorant to know what they want & need…” These wingnuts you demonize are Americans/Dems/Inds/Reps/taxpayers/voters & they might be smarter than the Liberals think.
CJ
February 25th, 2010
5:00 pm
A local friend just wrote the following on Facebook:
“[Name Here] is dreading her impending surgery bill after receiving a letter from her insurance company telling her that they won’t pay their bit on last month’s endoscopy because they determined that an anesthesiologist wasn’t necessary because the gastroenterologist could have told the nurse how to monitor the anesthesia – y’know…, because he had nothing better to do during the procedure.”
Food for thought to those who, foolishly, like their insurance company.
LA
February 25th, 2010
5:27 pm
Obama lost the debate.
He has just proven himself to be a one-term president.
Tort Reform
February 25th, 2010
5:28 pm
I always get a good laugh when a partisan pundit talks about “tort reform” as an alternative to a public option. Tort reform is such an impossibly complicated can of worms that it simply does not belong in the discussion of rx reform at all.
Tort reform? The very idea is so immature, and involves such a simpleton’s view of risk assessment and law and the actuarial tables and everything, that it makes me laugh hysterically like Tracy Morgan thought it up. There are too many strings attached and it would involve too many other legal matters and too many other industries across the board that no compromise is even possible. It is categorically impossible to enact any tort reform. Tort reform is a non sequitur response to the discussion. It’s total obsfucation pure and simple.
Tort reform? Comedy gold! I’ve got milk coming out of my nose! (Who do I sue?)
LA
February 25th, 2010
5:28 pm
“Food for thought to those who, foolishly, like their insurance company.”
Nothing like a good sob story like the one where the democrat senator told the GOP how she knew of someone who had to wear her sisters used dentures.
Tort Reform
February 25th, 2010
5:29 pm
LA has proven himself to be a 50 comment per day troll! He should be president. We’d never get rid of him.
bwa
LA
February 25th, 2010
5:38 pm
“LA has proven himself to be a 50 comment per day troll!”
So because you don’t agree with me, I’m a troll?
redneckbluedog
February 25th, 2010
5:39 pm
Lost…? Really….? We’ll see about that. Dems are in a tight spot…do nothing or ram it through…what is the most politically expedient at this point…?
JD
February 25th, 2010
5:43 pm
CJ,
You are soooo wrong.
I have never found a Brit, and this includes many, who favors the system in England over the current system in the US. Rationing, denial of care for elders versus the younger and virtually every distateful element of health care is present in England.
If truly there is 15% of the population without health care then the solution is to provide care for the 15% – not implode the entire system, as the Dems propose. The 15% includes illegal aliens and they should not be covered. Even at 10% there is not sufficient medical personnel to care for another 25 to 30 million people. There are many means to control costs without the intervention of government.
Just as the current economic mess is purely a result of government meddling in the economy, the primary factor in health costs is also a result of government meddling.
So CJ, where are the Doctors and Nurses going to be found to provide this additional care? Will the US then be like England where there is effectively no professional nursing care and few Doctors who actually speak English?
All of this Liberal propaganda sounds just fine until the nuts and bolts part of the plan reveal that the Obama proposal is just a lunge for power by making more and more voters dependent upon government, and the dollars make no sense. The entire claimed savings in the Senate plan, over the first and second ten years, is essentially derived from the Medicare “savings” estimate. Congress has been making such claims for as long as I remember and yet the waste is still 100’s of millions of dollars. Why is this Congress, and any future Congress, any more adept at eliminating waste than in the past? They are not!
If all of the other developed countries have such wonderful plans why do their citizens come to the US for care? Answer: Because the US has the best care – even the uninsured have better care than those in your fantasy land of “other developed countries”.
Liberals know no truth and practice no truth – this entire Health Care/Health Insurance (pick your liberal terminolgy of the moment) Reform is founded upon lies and misrepresentations. Man up Liberals, or woman up if appropriate, and acknowledge you are nothing more than government groupies. You all hate the US for the abundance, the success, the military might, the brave men and women who gave you the right to dissent, the freedom and all that has made the US the greatest country in the world.
Liberals were taken in by a charlatan – and if you do not recognize this now you have no cognitive power – and are unable to admit the POTUS is a failure at every step and his lust for bigger government and more power in DC will destroy the Democrat Party.
Linda
February 25th, 2010
5:59 pm
Tort@5:28, As long as we have new mommies suing OBGYNs for stretch marks, we have problems in our health care system.
Linda
February 25th, 2010
6:08 pm
JD@5:43, Do you think the Dem health care insurance reform bill has much to do with health, care, insurance or reform? I’m having trouble finding much relevance.
“…will destroy the Democrat Party” along with America.
Jess
February 25th, 2010
6:39 pm
JD,
I lived and worked in London for three years. Actually they do not have to move to have the American system of health care. A large number of Brits have private health insurance, and most of the better employers in England offer this as a benefit just as they do here. Almost anyone who has the means is in the private system.
The national system, although adequate for minor care, or emergency care, is horrible if you require advanced tests such as MRIs or if you need non life threatening surgery. My neighbor waited 6 months for an MRI to tell her she had a torn cartledge in her knee, and then 9 months for surgery to repair it.
No More Progressives!
February 26th, 2010
9:25 am
Tyler Durden
February 25th, 2010
9:24 am
“Wow. Hard to even justify reading Kyle anymmore. Apart from the odd departure (which is refeshing but oh too seldom), you just regurgitate GOP talking points and deflect any attempt at real debate from posters. If we wanted another angle from the echo chamber, why not just stick with Wooten?
Once again: if you get your news from Fox or someone talking on the radio, it’s not facts: it’s hyperbole for entertainment.”
One would logically wonder why Tyler bothers to read Kyle. Tyler, it seems, has never listened to any of the news outlets he decries (Fox, Rush et al) but adopts the lefty party line that they’re all liars, entertainers, boorish bullies, etc.
Which brings into question the empirical accuracy of Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Chris Mathews. Do you really want to go there, Tyler?
I thought not.
No More Progressives!
February 26th, 2010
9:29 am
LA
February 25th, 2010
5:27 pm
Obama lost the debate.
He has just proven himself to be a one-term president.
I would say that the debate was a little lacking, and Obama bored everybody to tears with his sophmoric, boring lecture.
And yes, a one-termer for sure.
What’s the unemployment rate today, anyone???
LA
February 26th, 2010
9:46 am
“What’s the unemployment rate today, anyone???’
Real unemployment is about 18%.
More bad news for the democrat party.
CNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights
A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/26/cnn-poll-majority-says-government-a-threat-to-citizens-rights/?fbid=YoEQphL_7Rm
LA
February 26th, 2010
9:48 am
No More Progressives!
If you take a peak at Bookman’s blog, there is a particular person who actually wrote that Republicans committed mass suicide yesterday…….then she proceeds to copy and paste a partisan article from HuffPost.
Liberals=delusional.
No More Progressives!
February 26th, 2010
9:49 am
Here, Tyler. This is a clip of the infamous radio host Ed Schultz, advocating that “we rip Dick Cheney’s heart out…”
http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2010/02/msnbc-talker-lets-rip-out-cheneys-heart.html
Such class on the left………………………………
No More Progressives!
February 26th, 2010
9:51 am
I read that, LA. It served as my morning amusement.
Bookman is a hoot, isn’t he? I’m surprised he hasn’t applied for a job at MSLSD.
Maybe he has.
LA
February 26th, 2010
9:58 am
No More Progressives!
I’m more surprised that Cynthia Tucker hasn’t had her new boss, Chris Matthews, bring Bookman on his low rated tv show.
Oh, you should also post the Ed Shultz “voters should cheat to win in Mass” sound bite.
Liberals always claim that conservatives are racists, nazis and liars yet they lie, have members of the KKK in their party AND support communism.
Hmmmmmmmmmm
John
February 26th, 2010
9:58 am
If you think that the health insurance market place will solve health care without inferference from representatives of the public, think Toyota. THere is a respected company that most people had faith in, but now even Republicans are asking for government oversight.
LA
February 26th, 2010
10:18 am
“but now even Republicans are asking for government oversight.”
You got evidence of this?
Jefferson
February 26th, 2010
10:28 am
Are you sure his crusade is lost ??
No More Progressives!
February 26th, 2010
11:01 am
LA
February 26th, 2010
9:58 am
I’m more surprised that Cynthia Tucker hasn’t had her new boss, Chris Matthews, bring Bookman on his low rated tv show.
Misery does love company.
How many viewers does Mathews have now? 127? Really gettin’ up there!
Cutty
February 28th, 2010
4:04 am
Enough red meat for the homers Wingfield??I’ve yet to read an article that explains why bipartisanship is so important NOW. Wasn’t a very big deal pretty to Obama stepping in office, and reconciliation was a ‘tool’ of the Senate when the GOP was in the majority. Don’t see how its different now. Republicans have the sheep fighting against their own interest.
Here in Georgia (a little closer since all politics is local), the citizenry who ship their kids off to Georiga Universities will be paying higher tuition, for larger class sizes, fewer classes, and overall less service. Bit I guess if Sonny and Cagle are in charge everything is ok.