Democrats send mixed messages on the future of healthcare reform

  The election of Scott Brown has predictably thrown the healthcare debate into chaos. Flustered Democrats do not know which way to turn, or the best strategy in reviving the healthcare reform bill– or whether to revive it at all.

  On one hand, we have several Democrats who have stated that they believe  it is time to slow down, and rethink the bill altogether. There is talk that some Democrats believe it is time to start over, while others– Ben Nelson– have stated that the Democrats took on healthcare reform too soon and that there were other priorities that the congress should have focused on. Perhaps he is sending a signal to his colleagues that the focus should turn to the economy and jobs while putting healthcare reform on the back burner.

  And then there is Chris Dodd, who feels that perhaps congress should take at least a month off from the healthcare debate in order to regroup and start again. Dodd is also stating that there are other issues that can be focused on during the break in the healthcare debate.

  There seems to be growing sentiment in congress that the election of Scott Brown has sent them a message; and that message is to slow down, perhaps start over, on healthcare reform. Democrats are nervous, they never expected this turn of events and they feel that if the discontent of the people is so great that this could happen in Massachusetts, it could happen anywhere.

  Even the president has suggested that it might be time to scale back the healthcare reform bill, to make it smaller, in an attempt to pass it.

  While many members of congress, and even the president, are sending us this message,  there are those in  the party leadership– namely Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid– that are sending us a different message. They seem to be ignoring the message that the people sent them. According to this article, even as I write this, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are having closed door (transparency?) meetings over the weekend in a last ditch effort to save the healthcare bill.

  Their plan appears to differ from the suggestions being made by many people in their party. It looks like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are trying to strike a deal that the senate could pass using reconciliation– which requires only a 51 vote simple majority rather than the 60 vote super majority.

  This would be done by putting the changes to the current healthcare bill in a separate bill that together would give the president his much wanted “victory” on healthcare reform.

  I have to wonder whether the Democrats are just throwing up trial balloons in an effort to see if anything gains positive reaction from the public, or are they really this divided on the issue? I think it is a combination of both. Democrats in the House and Senate had a growing divide between them before January 19th; the election of Scott Brown on January 19th has scared them to the point that they do not know in which direction to turn.

  Some Democrats are looking at re-election and are taking the message that Massachusetts sent them seriously, while their leaders are looking at alternatives to pass healthcare reform in spite of the people’s message. While the priorities of many Democrats have shifted in wake of Scott Brown’s election, it appears the party leadership is still moving forward, oblivious and blind to the will of the people, solely focused on giving Barack Obama what he wants instead of giving us what we want.

  Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid do not seem to care that passing healthcare legislation by using reconciliation would be political suicide for their party, but the rest of the Democrats probably do. It will be interesting to see if Pelosi and Reid pursue this avenue fiercely and if they do, will the rest of the Democrats follow their lead?