Kissing Butt Instead of Kicking It

The state of health care in America
The state of health care reform in Congress
Take your pick or take both. True in any case. ====>>>>

"Where did we get the idea that the only good health care bill is a bipartisan bill? Is bipartisanship more important than whether a proposal is practical and effective?" E. J. Dionne asks in the latest Truthdig. The questions get to a theme I've been humming since a few weeks after Obama took office. It's perfectly obvious that the Republican party is not the least bit interested in bipartisanship. If it were, the party would come to some agreement on fundamentals, the core goals, with the Democrats, and the bipartisanship would involve compromising on the details.

But on health care, as well as on every single other issue that's been addressed by the Congress, the Republicans simply stonewall, say no. They refuse to acknowledge that the Democrats have any core goals or espouse any fundamentals that they can agree with (other than worship of the military.) The great divide on health care is whether the government should be involved in the reform at all.

Despite evidence that by any stretch of the imagination has to be regarded as overwhelming, the GOP continues to insist that relying on the market is the best way fix a health care system that has been brought to its knees by the market principle of profit. And it continues to trumpet the absolute falsehood that what the Obama administration proposes is "socialized medicine."

Here's what I fear: whatever "reform" happens is going to be worse (if you can imagine such a thing) than what we have now, because Obama doesn't have the cajones to stand up not only to the Republicans, but also to the weak-kneed blue dogs in his own party. It's obvious to me that Obama would much rather kiss ass than kick it.