Healthcare

Chris Matthews made me crack under pressure yesterday on “Hardball” when he asked the question (incessantly, I might add), “Why didn’t Republicans pass a national healthcare plan when they had control of the Congress?”

I said, simply, like a tortured prisoner, “Because we don’t support government-run healthcare.”

He really got me. The left wing blog-world noted triumphantly that I spilled the beans. Read more...

No heart attack from digging out. That was a good thing, but there was little to do but spend the weekend mostly hunkered down inside. There were no newspapers, no delivery, but who missed them? We could read them just as easily online. And then, those of us who didn't lose power had plenty of TV to help pass the time.

As the anchors and frozen reporters repeated ad nauseam what we already knew, that it sucked outside, it would not have been much of a surprise to see a crawl at the top or bottom of the screen informing that the meeting of the Global Warming Action Group had been canceled. But the weather coverage was just one of the highlights.

At a press conference last October, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was asked: “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?”

She replied with that wild-eyed self-assurance that grew more shrill and extreme as we got to Christmas: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”

President Barack Obama wants us to know he doesn't quit, but his plea for healthcare reform last night wasn't so urgent. He made the case for it, to be sure, but he talked about waiting for temperatures to cool. Let's be clear, as Obama likes to say: The Democrats are out of time. Any pause for the cooling of temperatures means fewer votes for a bill.

Below are three big questions the president needs to answer in his State of the Union address. They all relate to long-term deficits. One of the questions addresses an actual way to fix the deficit. The other two are mere distractions.

1. Why is the spending freeze necessary?

President Barack Obama needs to explain why the spending freeze isn’t a gimmick to make it appear like he’s a budget hawk. Advocates of Obama’s agenda rightly believe a spending freeze is exactly the type of political gimmick the president would normally denounce. The White House is saying this isn’t an across-the-board freeze (meaning not every program will see a freeze). The president needs to provide concrete examples of programs worthy of a reduction and those worthy of an increase. He also needs to say why military procurement wasn’t included in the spending freeze. Also, why aren’t revenue measures included along with a spending freeze?

As President Obama and his advisers begin to digest the shock of Tuesday's defeat in Massachusetts, and devise a way forward, it is clear they have accepted only so much culpability at this point and have yet to shake their denial.
 
Yesterday Robert Gibbs held his press briefing and made several television appearances, top adviser David Axelrod also made the rounds, and the president himself gave an interview to ABC News. All three acknowledged the anger Americans are feeling, and which helped Scott Brown (R) win the seat held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) in Massachusetts, just as it helped Republicans beat Democrats in gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia in November.

Isn't it ironic that Ted Kennedy's death resulted in the self-destruction of healthcare reform? When Kennedy first learned of his imminent mortality he should have resigned his Senate office immediately. At that point his coveted Senate seat for 47 years would have been filled by a liberal Democrat. His hubris caused him to believe that only he could see healthcare reform to the finish line. Now, in place of an administration's successful healthcare reform, it is in shambles and eventually will be dead and buried.

Apparently after his Massachusetts humiliation, President Obama has seen the light and he's heading back to the future ... back to 1992 and that mantra, "It's the economy, stupid."

His peeps aren't saying so, but it looks like they're about jettison healthcare and cave, after telling us that comprehensive reform was vital to the nation and engaging the opposition in a brutal political war.

Now, however they want to couch it, it appears they're preparing to beat a hasty retreat, looking for some face-saving way out while leaving the millions of uninsured to fend for themselves.

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard takes viewer questions and comments about the Massachusetts special election to fill the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's (D) seat, and what the potential Republican win will do for healthcare reform in Congress.

For Bay State Democrats, “Plan A” is still to defy media expectations and elect Martha Coakley the next U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

But just in case they don’t succeed, Democrats in Washington have to have a backup plan for healthcare reform. Otherwise, once Scott Brown got to Washington, he’d vote to kill it.

There are four options, two of them totally unacceptable.