The rift is growing between Democrats on healthcare reform

  I know that I shouldn’t allow this to happen, but I am beginning to get optimistic once again that the healthcare reform bill may be in trouble in the senate. The source of my optimism still revolves around the man that let us down with his vote to allow cloture on healthcare reform after he promised that he wouldn’t– Joe Lieberman.

  My optimism doesn’t come from Joe Lieberman himself, but rather from the politics that have been in play by Harry Reid to win Joe Lieberman’s vote. Joe Lieberman has been a staunch opponent of the public option and last weekend the Democrats thought they had reached a “broad agreement” that would technically kill the public option while offering a “buy in” to Medicare at the age of 55, coupled with a “national plan” that would have been run by private insurers. It was hoped by Harry Reid that Joe Lieberman would support this concession, he didn’t.

  In a closed door meeting between Barack Obama and Democrat leaders, including Harry Reid, Barack Obama told Harry Reid to cut a deal with Joe Lieberman. It has come to the point where none of the Democrats even care what version of healthcare reform passes or what is in it as long as they pass something. Today, Harry Reid supposedly agreed to drop both the public option and the Medicare buy in. This has apparently won the vote of Joe Lieberman.

  While this should be good news for Democrats, it highlights the growing rift in the Democrat party on healthcare reform. While Joe Lieberman may now be happy, and while the Democrats may have won his vote, it appears as though this win could be offset by the loss of another vote. Roland Burris– the man who bought Barack Obama’s vacant senate seat– is now expressing his displeasure with the compromise.

Senator Roland W. Burris, Democrat of Illinois, has vowed that he will not vote for a health care bill that does not include a government-run insurance plan, or public option.

  So it appears that while the Democrats gained the vote of Joe Lieberman, they lost the vote of Roland Burris. But the problems continue to grow for Democrats as Howard Dean is now saying that the Democrats should scrap this bill and start over from scratch.

This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill

  Howard Dean, for some reason, seems to hold a lot of sway with the leftists in the Democrat party, so if he starts calling for a “do over” it could spell trouble for the healthcare reform bill.

  This is where the true problem lies with the Democrats on healthcare reform, and this could be the unraveling of healthcare reform. Harry Reid and the Democrats are having trouble trying to find a compromise that will make everybody on the left happy. When they win one vote they alienate another.

 While the Democrats like to portray the Republicans as split, and while they like to portray the Republicans as the “party of no,” if truth be told, it is the Democrats who are split and who are turning into the “party of no.” The rift in the Democrat party is growing on this issue.

  But it isn’t time to become too hopeful, it isn’t time to relax on this issue. We must keep up the pressure because the Democrats still have a major card up their sleeve and they may be about to play it.

  The reason that I cannot become fully optimistic in the defeat of healthcare reform is the last part of that statement by Howard Dean, he is talking about using reconciliation to pass the bill thereby bypassing the will of some members of his own party. If the Democrats resort to this trick the bill will only need a simple majority to pass it instead of a super majority. The Democrat leadership does not give a damn about the will of the people; we already know this is true or the bill would already have been scrapped. But it now appears as if the leadership of the Democrat party do not give a damn about the will of some members of their own party. They are hellbent on passing this legislation one way or the other, regardless of the polls and regardless of the Democrats in congress who do not agree with different aspects of this legislation.

  This is the one and only time that I have ever agreed even partly with something that Howard Dean has said, and it will probably be the last time.

  Mr Reid, TEAR UP THIS BILL.