They Took Health Care Reform Out Back and Shot It in the Head

I made the comment yesterday that following the miraculous and historic election of Scott Brown (R-MA - just had to type that to see what it felt like!), they (meaning the Democrats) took 'health care' reform out back and shot it in the head.

Basically, with the restoration of the Republican minority's ability to filibuster any attempt to pass an obnoxious 'health care' reform package, the impetus for all Democrats to fall in line and support the bill disappeared. Those few Democrats that were not happy with the bills being debated, for whatever reason, now no longer feel compelled to respond to the arm twisting from the Democratic leadership. Thus, you are now seeing enough Democrats backing away from these bills that there is no longer enough votes to pass them. Just like in 1993-94, the 'health care' reform process is dying the slow death of progressive overreach, as well as the fact that the hyper-liberals can never gain enough support for a bill that is communistic enough to suit them. Couldn't be happening to a nicer piece of legislation.

I think we must all continue to listen for the footsteps of the process coming back to life, zombie-like. But the chances are slim; the momentum has been reversed, and all the steam is leaking out of the engine that was driving it forward. The Republic is saved, at least for now.

Referring back to my call for brinkmanship, I am a little concerned that this 'victory', such as it is, might result in defusing the anger at the overreach and overspending of the Democrats. This is something we simply must not allow to happen. Even though this process may have been stopped for now, we must go on as if it has not. The only difference is that where before we had the threat of imminent socialism, we now have only the spectre of the threat. Don't think for a moment that if the progressives are not beaten back now, that they will not very quickly be back for another attempt to try again.

It is helpful that that Democrats cannot help but give us new ammunition to replace that we just lost. The Democrats are now debating a bill to increase the federal debt ceiling by another $1.9 trillion dollars to a staggering total of $14.3 trillion.

The Democrats complained that George W. Bush ran up massive deficits. As you can see here, Bush raised the debt by $1.885 trillion in his first term and another $3.014 trillion in his second, for a total of $4.889 trillion in his 8 years as President. President Obama has increased the debt by $1.573 trillion in his first 365 days as President; when combined with the $1.9 trillion increase now under debate, he will have reached $3.473 trillion in under 13 months.

That's 71% of Bush's increase in essentially just his first year!! And no substantial improvement in economic performance or unemployment has come from it.

I'd call that some pretty powerful ammunition, wouldn't you?