Healthcare reform moving forward; some backroom deals remain intact

  The healthcare reform bill may be all but dead with the swearing in earlier today of Scott Brown but congress is still ready to move ahead with some form of healthcare reform, and there is one part of the bill that is not quite dead yet– the backroom deals that almost secured the bill’s passage before the Massachusetts rebellion two weeks ago.

  The last and most famous of these deals, Ben Nelson’s, has been sacrificed in order to continue to move this bill forward, but it looks as though all of the other deals may be kept in place on any healthcare bill that moves forward. Ben Nelson’s bill was probably the most scrutinized and opposed deal because it was the final deal; it was the deal that pushed the bill over the top in the Senate. But it was not the only deal and it was not the most expensive deal. But those other deals will likely be honored if this bill passes in one form or another.

  Mary  Landrieu secured $300 million for Louisiana while Massachusetts acquired $500 million and Vermont $600 million to offset increases that will be incured by the rising costs of Medicaid if this bill passes. And there are other deals, these are just the most obnoxious ones– Chris Dodd and Harry Reid are among others who secured deals for their respective states. Those deals may still be on the table if a new version of healthcare reform is eventually debated and passed.

  If some Democrats have their way, this new version of healthcare reform will be passed, with these deals intact, using reconciliation which requires only a 50 vote majority.

  It would seem to me that this idea would be political suicide to all politicians who go along with it; it is these types of deals that voters rejected in Massachusetts leading to the election of Scott Brown.  But then again at the State of the Union speech Barack Obama scolded congress and told them not to worry about the “continual campaign” and urged them to pass healthcare reform for the good of the nation, instead of worrying about re-election. He asked congress to put what he considers the good of the nation above their careers, forgetting that congress represents the people. He forgets that it is we who the congress works for, they represent us, and if we do not want this bill it is their sword duty not to pass it. But he wants congress to do what he wants to do, regardless of what the people want.

  Healthcare reform may be on life support but it isn’t dead yet, we have to keep our eyes open and we have to stay vigilant because the congress has a choice to make– do they represent the will of the people or the will of the president? We know what who they are supposed to represent, but do they know who they are supposed to represent? Will the lure of the remaining healthcare reform deals coupled with a lack of understanding about whom they represent be enough to push this bill forward against the will of the people?

  The people have spoken; the question is, is Washington listening to us or will they have to learn the hard way? They follow Barack Obama’s quest at their own peril.