President Barack Obama signed a health care bill just this past Tuesday that will for the first time cement insurance coverage as the right of every U.S. citizen and begin to reshape the way virtually all Americans receive and pay for treatment. Obama said, "After a century of striving, after a year of debate, after a historic vote, health care reform is no longer an unmet promise. It is the law of the land."
Thank You.
It as literally a lifesaver for countless Americans. The extension of health care coverage to 32 million who now lack it is to be achieved through a complex cocktail of new mandates for individuals and employers, subsidies for people who can't afford to buy coverage on their own, consumer-friendly rules clamped on insurers, tax breaks, and marketplaces to shop for health plans.
Many thought you couldn't do it -- me, too. And when you said not to bet against you, I thought you were blowing smoke.
Take your victory lap, Mr. President!
And where are our friends, the loyal opposition? David Frum, former speechwriter to President George W. Bush:
"Conservatives and Republicans suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.
"It's hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they'll compensate for today with a big win in the November 2010 elections.
"No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the "doughnut hole" and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents' insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there; would President Obama sign such a repeal?
"We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.
"So the defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it's mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it's Waterloo all right: ours."
