More Healthcare Scrutiny

She lied, you say --- prove it without perjuring yourself.  Do that and you'll be invited to join Sarah and Glenn on Fox.  Just kidding.  You'll be invited for saying it, whether you can prove it or not.

You decry the quick vote as a lack of scrutiny?  Tell me, would the vote had been any different had the senate bill been scrutinized for an extra day? Or a week or month? Don't think so! The vote would have been exactly the same. Not convinced?  Well, it's been about 3 weeks now that the Senate bill's been out and scrutinized.  Has anyone changed their mind or regretted their vote? Republicans reject the proposals in the bill on principle.  Reading the fine print was not going to change their minds.  The democrats, on the other hand, largely agreed in principle but differed on details.  They met for weeks ironing out those details.  Did they need more time? No, they knew what was in the bill because they wrote it themselves and sat in on all the meetings! If the democrats are guilty of anything in rushing this through the senate it is simply this: EFFICIENCY.  To their credit they got the senate bill passed without wasting their time trying to convince the unconvinceable.

You keep hammering that this bill was not scrutinized before passed.  This would of course be true if Congress has actually passed the final bill.  The house and senate bills are not the final product, only steps along the path.  If the final bill becomes law before the public is aware of what Congress is proposing, then yes, shame on us all. 

The contrasts you made between the Healthcare bill to Medicare and Prescription drugs are bogus. First off, as discussed, there is no final healthcare bill yet to contrast with the Medicare and Prescription Drug bills! Second, there were a number of Congressmen who had cried bloody murder while they were in the process of making those Medicare and Prescription drug bills before there was consensus on the final versions of each.  That is no different that what we have seen to date in the healthcare bill.  Third, there were all manner of closed door meetings, compromises made & deals struck during the making of Medicare and Prescription Drugs. So far the Healthcare bill process is no different.  That's not a crime or a shame: even a moment of reflection should be enough to convince you that some closed door meetings are essential during the trial and error of reaching a consensus in a large group.  Closed door meetings and deal striking can be a breeding ground for corruption, but they (the meetings, not the corruption :)  are necessary in the process of negotiation and compromise.  I would guess that blaming Democrats for having them speaks more to conservative mistrust of Democrats than in the process of bill making itself.  I doubt seriously that closed door meetings and deal striking and consensus building on a Republican bill, driven by conservative principles, would be at all objectionable to Republicans.

Lastly, weeks and months of debate and effort went into developing a consensus within Congress on healthcare, just as occurred in Medicare & Prescription drugs.  The only difference is that this time the Republicans have stood firm in their opposition to a principle that the majority of people back: we as a nation will benefit by giving as many people as we can access to affordable healthcare.  It's no surprise that all Republican congressmen see in it the destruction of the free market and socialized medicine.  This is as it should be: they represent their constituents, the majority of whom feel likewise.  So they did not join in this process of making this bill and now make every attempt to derail it.  I've got no problem with that.  But a healthy majority of Congress, backed by a majority of their constituents, agree with this principle and DO see the debate in those terms.  What makes the current incarnations of this bill unpopular with this majority is not the principle of having near universal, affordable healthcare.  It is rather that the bills are watered down to the point that they are only marginally effective in providing access to affordable healthcare.  And why is it so watered down?  Because the Congressmen writing and re-writing these bills have been listening and responding to criticism of the proposals they have made.  So here's what has me baffled: how have the public, press, and Republican congressmen for months been able to scrutinize and spew detailed criticism of these proposals if they have been kept such a secret by the Democrats all this time?  This could only happen if Democrats have been, oh, what's the word...TRANSPARENT.

I totally get Republicans objecting to this Healthcare bill on principle.  There's no hypocrisy or dishonesty in that, and they should be vocal in their opposition (they are the opposition party, after all).  But Republicans who decry the processes and procedures of how this bill is being made really ought to think twice before lobbing stones from their glass towers.