Plus Ca Change

I have to wonder if there are any people left who still believe that November 2008 actually changed anything. Sure, the Democrats enjoy overwhelming majorities in both the Senate and the House and control the White House, but the charade that is health care reform is no different from their performance during the eight years of Chimpy McFlightsuit. No lessons have been learned; no spines have been hardened. Instead we get the same old policy of giving in before negotiating.

Wait, maybe that isn't quite right. Perhaps the Democratic idea of negotiation is to give up. To sell out your principles rather than to fight. I mentioned someplace else that the Democrat's idea of a tough negotiation is taking their ass raping without lube. And that seems to be about right.

What else can explain Dem leadership's worshipping at the shrine of Broderian bipartisanship? How is it that Kent Conrad and Max Baucus, Senators who together represent just .52% of the US population, are the arbiters of health care reform? By what freakish turn of events does a member of Congress who feels the need to state that he won't vote for a bill with death panels, which shows that he is batshit fucking insane, get any say over health care, let alone a near veto power?

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. We now have the President's own HHS Secretary insisting that a public option is not a requirement. Are you kidding me?

The likely result of this entire debacle will be some milquetoast "reform" that fails to address any of the very real problems with our current health care system. And we can all thank our ineffectual, no wimpish, Democratic leadership in DC.

Say what you will about Bush/Cheney/Rove, but if they were given the kind of majorities the Democratic Party now holds, they'd have outlawed abortion, invaded Iran and lowered the top marginal tax rate to 20%. So, I suppose there may be some who are grateful that Obama and company are not Bush. But simply being better than Satan really isn't enough to make me want to believe.