Josh Marshall on Health Care Reform
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“So much of the what the GOP is trying to do is one big galactic psych-out. If you step back a lot of it amounts to, "Don't you dare pass that bill, or I'll shoot my foot right off!"”
“Since the politics makes sense and the policy does too, there's simply no reason not to push ahead to conclusion.”
“The whole show sounds at once genuine, completely disjointed and confused, somewhat endearing and also totally bizarre.”
“Let's stop dancing around it. On 'reconciliation' the Republicans are being such a gang of hypocritical liars it's shocking even for them.”
“[Arcuri] owns all the potential downsides of reform (and in his district there could well be a lot). The only question now is whether he gets any of the upside.”
“They need an argument. But this one is so vacant and baseless that I'd hate to see reporters falling for it.”
“The work on doing health care is done. Congress and the president could be on to jobs tomorrow if they just passed this bill today. The work is done. But voters are thinking it's going to keep on going.”
“The president is going to come under withering pressure to walk away from reform. It'll come from the left and the right, and in various different flavors. It will come from shocking directions.”
“Since the House is being forced to basically give way entirely to the senate [on health care reform], they need at least a fig leaf, something to preserve institutional and intra-party self-respect.”
“Considering how down to the wire this is, is it really worth holding up everything else contained in the bill when the point of contention, the public option, is as measly as it is?”
“[The protest on Nov. 5] was a perfect, real-time illustration of the current struggle within the GOP, with the party establishment trying to harness but also control and not be overrun by the grassroots mobilization on the right.”
“If the Dems pass a bill with mandates and subsidies for poor and moderate income people to purchase it but no public option or competition with the insurers ... it will be pretty much a catastrophe for the Democrats in political terms.”
“Why would a bill passed through reconciliation be 'inferior'?”
“The fact that 'public option' is so un-descriptive and opaque has only made it easier for Republicans to portray it as some sort of program for mass euthanasia.”
“Can Health Care Reform survive the fact that Arkansas voters have basically lost their minds?”
