Health Care at Last?

It looks like we may be less than 10 days away from the House passing the Senate's version of the health care reform bill. A fix-it bill will then follow. This may finally be about to happen.

It should never have taken this long. Reconciliation was an available vehicle last summer, when the term "health care reform" was still popular. The inability of Democrats to unite and advance their agenda (or defend their plans) has led to all kinds of political hooey. Now the cost of passing the bill is much higher than it would have been last summer, or so it appears to pundits.

Of course, this is all just so much inside baseball. The biggest issue with Jane Q. Voter is the economy. The second business is that the federal government doesn't seem to work. HC reform addresses latter. I guarantee you that Obama will see a bump in the polls when HC reform passes, as will Democrats generally, because of the old saying that "nothing succeeds like success." All the shrill cries of socialism and death panels don't really resonate when the bill is already passed and none of the bad stuff happens.

This bill really is it for the Obama administration's first term. Failure here will doom them, perhaps to only one term. Success will breed more success in all kinds of other areas, as every other mountain is so much easier to climb. "At least they get shit done" is worth a whole lot these days, both with independents and with a thoroughly disappointed left.

And we forget how quickly public opinion can shift. Liberals who dumped on Harry Reid for months suddenly cheered when he broke the GOP filibuster last Christmas Eve. It's going to be a big party if they pass HC reform in the next 10 days or so. And everyone is going to want to feel invited.