The healthcare reform debate; politics at its worst

  While reading one of my favorite blogs, Political Realities, I came across a post entitled “Senator Ben Nelson will vote yes.” I left a comment on the article, to which one of the authors of the blog, Mike, wrote a reply that got me thinking.

  He said:

I’d add that the backroom negotiations have made it perfectly clear to Senate Democrats that it is not in their best interest to support any Obama initiative right out of the gate. Why should they when the Republicans appear united in opposition to any Obama proposal thereby making every one of the 60 Senate Dem votes required and therefore negotiable. Why say “yes, I’m in favor of that” when you can say instead “yes, I’m in favor of that provided I get x, y, and z” for my state? And are House Dems now supposed to blindly vote yes as they watch hardline Senate Dems gain individual benefits for their states as a “reward” for their incalcitrance? It’s truly politics at its absolute worst.

  This is an angle that I hadn’t even thought about. While I find it extremely exciting that the Republicans have seemingly become unified against this president’s agenda, there is actually a downside to it.

  Because the Republicans can be counted on to vote against almost anything that the president introduces, it renders the Democrats’ individual votes in the senate even more powerful. As Mike asks,”Why say ‘yes, I’m in favor of that’ when you can say instead ‘yes, I’m in favor of that provided I get x, y, and z’ for my state?”

   Also, as Mike states, it make all of the senate Democrats’ votes negotiable. They hold a position of power and can use that power to gain more “concessions” for their states at the expense of the other states. We have seen this on display with Mary Ladrieu, Ben Nelson, Chris Dodd, and Harry Reid. Instead of voting for or against a bill on the merits of the bill, their vote is now for sale.

  It is sort of ironic that the unity in the Republican party– unity that was missing for far too long– could actually do more harm than good; not because of their unity and not because they are on the wrong side of the issues, but because it gives certain Democrats bargaining power that they would not otherwise have. With every single Democrat vote needed to pass any bill on the president’s agenda, it makes their vote worth more– figuratively and literally. Democrats have the votes to pass whatever they want to, but some Democrats are using the unity of the Republican party as a bargaining chip against their own party to drive up the cost of legislation in order to help their re-election bids.

  There is no reason that any Democrat should not hold out to gain “concessions” through what Harry Reid thinks of as “negotiating,” to not hold out would be irresponsible. Why not get whatever you can while you can? We cannot blame these senators for going after everything they can get, if my Democrat senator was as shrewd as any of those listed above, instead of being the rubber stamp that she is, perhaps New Hampshire could have won a deal much like some of the other states. I am not condoning this type of thug politics, but what good reason does she have for not trying to lessen the burden of her taxpaying constituents while so many of her colleagues are doing the same?

  As Mike said in his comment, this is politics at its absolute worst. Instead of voting on the merits of a bill and putting the country first , these politicians are using their political capital to “bring home the bacon,” but all that it is doing is raising the price tag of healthcare reform and putting a larger burden on fewer tax paying Americans.

  What this tells me is that we need to elect more Republicans to the senate in 2010 in order to offset this pork barrel money grab, and diminish the selfish power that is being wielded by certain senators in Washington at the expense of others. Even one more Republican senator would weaken the bargaining power of these senators who are looking through a prism of  “what are you going to do for me” instead of looking at what is best for the country.

   Of course, this would also serve to give the “usual suspects” in the Republican party; John McCain, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins to name three, more power to try to cut a deal with the Democrats so there is only one thing left for us to do.

  It is time to take the power away from those in Washington and put it back where it belongs, in the hands of the people. We have the final say next year, we need to make it count.