It’s one of those great frustrations. Despite overwhelming support nationwide for a health care bill with a public option, the magical 218 vote number in the House still isn’t a guarantee. According to Hoyer, it may come to a vote by tomorrow, at which point we will learn what the divide is between us and our elected officials.
House leaders are moving forward with a bill that would provide health coverage to 36 million Americans who wouldn’t otherwise have it by expanding Medicaid, requiring everyone to purchase a plan and offering government subsidies to help low and moderate income families pay for premiums. Republicans have criticized the cost of the measure and taxes that would be imposed on high earning individuals and small businesses.
Plus, you know, the whole “taxes for abortions” thing.
Right now the entire debate, and I mean the entire debate, is about cost for the GOP. Lives saved? Quality of care? None of that’s particularly important. As I sit here I just saw an ad about opposing health care reform from a right-wing group, and it was entirely centered on the economy. Which is an interesting twist, really. It used to be all about how bad the care would be, but apparently that didn’t get any traction so now it’s economic issues.
It’s a sad time when people will vote against saving lives because it’s expensive, even after continually voting to continue a war regardless of cost.
