Last night, Democrats got the votes they needed to pass the Senate health-care bill — put over the top by a group of pro-life Democrats who had been threatening to scuttle it.
The bill is truly historic — the largest change to the health-care system in generations — but hardly the “radical” makeover the Republicans have made it out to be. It doesn’t contain a “public option,” much to the dismay of many Democrats, but it will provide health insurance to another 32 million Americans.
GOP pundits are predicting that Democrats will pay a pretty price in the voting booths for going against the polls that show Americans unenthusiastic about ObamaCare. But this is the same gang who heaped praise when George “I-don’t-read-polls” Bush pushed ahead with “the surge” in face of public opposition to the Iraq War.
One thing is clear: President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi both view health-care reform as their legacy — and both were willing to lay everything on the line for it.
They should be praised for following their convictions and fighting for reform. Obama, who had too long kept a distance, put his prestige on the line to push through the measure — and it paid off.
Democrats know they’re taking a risk — but a calculated one. With the bill finally becoming law, Americans will see its immediate benefits — and also realize how exaggerated the GOP claims of a “government takeover” really were.
This is hardly the first time Republicans have predicted that a piece of legislation would mean the end of America as we know — only to embrace it later when Americans come to love it. Take Medicare, the massive socialized government-run medical system the GOP has made central to its “Senior’s Health Care Bill of Rights.”
We’ve come a long way from 1961, when Ronald Reagan warned Americans that, “If you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Sound familiar? Now the GOP warns against Medicare cuts and points to elderly people who oppose “socialized medicine” (unless it is for them) as proof that Obama’s health-care plan is bad for America.
But Dems shouldn’t spend too long sipping the champagne. Last night’s victory was huge, but the fight is far from over.
Next, the Senate must pass the reconciliation bill. If the Republicans succeed with some parliamentary challenges, the House will have to vote on the entire bill again.
But the real fight begins the day after Obama signs the bill into law.
That’s when Republicans will step up their counteroffensive, and Sarah Palin will make baseless accusations from her Facebook page. If Team Obama is as slow-footed as it has been in the past, it’ll lose the PR battle, and Americans will hate the bill no matter how great it is.
If, on the other hand, the president stays engaged in the process and continues to sell the reform package — highlighting provisions that go into immediate effect — the bill could redound to Democrats’ benefit.
Polls show that people support most or all of the bill’s components. What they hate is the “massive socialized government health-care system” that can’t be found anywhere in the bill.
Americans will have no issue in taking advantage of key provisions such as allowing their children to stay on their insurance until age 26. You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone complaining about the ban on preexisting conditions or lifetime caps by insurance firms.
The Obama administration’s challenge now is to keep sharing stories of real Americans who benefit from this bill and beating back false accusations or exaggerations about what the bill does.
It has won the battle. It just needs to not forget about the war.
kirstenpowers@aol.com