Koz and Effect

Health Care

I’ve been staying out of the Health Care debate a bit, but I thought I’d draw attention to something that caught my eye today.

As we all know, the bill passed, and “Obamacare” is now law. I am not disappointed by this. While there are some provisions that make me wary (namely the fee individuals must pay if they opt not to get insurance) I think on the whole it’s good, even if things such as tort reform and removal of interstate competition restrictions didn’t make it in.

Part of the reason I think many of those important elements were left out was due to the decision of the Republican Party not to offer any backing or input on the bill at all. They offered their own separate version (which was introduced in a Motion To Recommit just minutes prior to the first house vote in December.) but the law that was passed did not have much Republican input, only opposition.

This was unfortunate. The bill that passed should not have been entirely unappetizing to the other side; many noted the similarities between the Democrat bill and Mitt Romney’s (a Republican) plan for Mass. Being a moderate in most issues myself, I would have preferred to see both sides work on this together.

Alas, it did not happen, and in an excellent piece, David Frum, a well known Republican speaker, commented on what he was a failed Republican strategy on something that should have been an opportunity to work together.

Alas, he was fired today.

It’s somewhat ironic, given what his piece said, and I’m increasingly disappointed that there is little rational thought from the right side of the political spectrum anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I feel the left is no more innocent than anyone else, but the increasing frequency that rational and moderate voices are being drowned out by cheerleaders, shock jocks, and angry grand-standers is disappointing and worrying.