Healthcare Reform: The End Game Is in Sight

Here we are less than an hour and a half until Barack Obama is set to deliver his healthcare reform speech to a joint session of Congress this evening, and I am just out of words on this subject. Well, nearly so.

Time to let the birds fly where they may.

What is true is that we haven’t ever come as far, or gotten so close to passage of a healthcare reform bill of some kind. Only the Senate Finance committee has yet to pass a bill out of committee. That’s the fractious one, the one being touted by Max Baucus (D – Maybe) who made sure to give Republicans an even footing on deciding what went into their bill and what didn’t – despite the fact that Democrats do have a majority in the Senate.

This one, the Finance Committee bill, when it passes out of committee, is the one that needs to fail, and well and truly fail.

My take on the whole thing is that there is more interest in passing a bill, any bill, than in passing a bill that will actually work to reduce healthcare costs, or do any real good in general. But in DC, this is the way of things when you lose the moral imperative. When the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry pass out hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to have some friends in congress who will vote their way when the time comes.

When duly elected congressmen vote with the lobbyists rather than with the people.

So, yes, I am getting myself ready for disappointment. It isn’t a huge reach. I know that President Obama will deliver a barn burner of a speech tonight. That is a given. The problem is the people who will be swayed by his words don’t have a single vote in congress. I think you will see people at home finally convinced that healthcare reform must happen once all of the lies are exposed.

The trouble is, the money has already been spent and minds are already made up in congress.

Republicans are banking that Obama will fail, and that will bring about their return to majority status in 2010, and a retaking of the presidency in 2012. I think Obama’s people are banking on passage of something, anything so they can declare victory.

End game then, should be to replace the Democrats who are bought and paid for by the healthcare lobbies with those who will vote with the people. A daunting task considering the enormity of the incumbents’ war chests.

Even more daunting when Republicans start pointing at the effects of whatever kind of healthcare reform passes and gets signed into law. When it is proven that nothing improved after passage of the bill, who are they going to blame? Why, Democrats of course.