Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

On House floor, Inslee suggests confidence will grow in healthcare reform bill with time

Minutes ago, Representative Jay Inslee spoke briefly on the floor of the House of Representatives in support of H.R. 3590, the monumental healthcare reform bill that is on the verge of being passed by Congress. Inslee's remarks were as follows:
We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union ... that is what got America started. And when we form a more perfect union, it is always a continuous, and controversial process; social security, Medicare, civil rights, at those times it was always controversial.

But Americans are going to grow confident in this for two reasons. Number one, we know all Americans should have a choice in healthcare. It shouldn't be the government's choice, it shouldn't be the insurance company's choice, it should be individual Americans choice, and that is what they will get today. Number two, we know that a nation is truly healthy only when all of its citizens have healthcare. Today we will have choice, today we will have healthcare, today we are forming a more perfect union in the tradition of this great country.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer kicked off debate on the bill earlier this afternoon, after the House agreed to a resolution setting the terms for the debate. There's been talk that Republicans will try to delay or prolong the vote on final passage, but they seem rather dejected now that they know that Democrats have the votes. A Talking Points Memo reader observes:
It's fascinating to watch the debate. All of the Rs have very long, very disappointed, very glum faces. None of them seem able to even conjure up a bit of good old-fashioned outrage for a decent rant. They know what's coming. They know they can't stop it. They look defeated.

As a decades-long C-SPAN junkie, I don't think this debate will have nearly the kind of fireworks that we might have been expecting. After all of this, I believe this is going to end with a whimper. There's just no heart in the Rs for a fight anymore. I wonder if the same is true with the tea partiers. Will they be angered or deflated?
It's certainly a curious sight to see. It's taken so long for Democrats to get their act together than the right wing seems to have gotten it into their heads that nothing was going to happen (or could happen if they shouted their objections loudly enough), especially after Republicans won the special election in Massachusetts to fill Ted Kennedy's position in the Senate.

What's becoming clear is that this debate hasn't just severely tested Democratic endurance. It's also taxed Republican mettle as well. It's only natural that they appear weary and exhausted after unsuccessful fighting so long and so hard to bury progress in a graveyard. In concert with their noise machine, they have been unanimous and disciplined in their opposition, while Democrats have struggled mightily to whip their own in support of President Obama's top legislative priority. Democrats may have stumbled badly along the way, but they're going to finish this marathon, and Republicans are powerless to stop them.

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