I’m not just saying that because I’m from the Silver State either.
This morning on the Senate floor, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) said something epic, something that made the Republicans really mad.
Reid compared the opponents of the Health Care Reform to those who historically tried to block women from voting, the emancipation of slaves, and the like.
“You think you’ve heard these same excuses before? You’re right,” he [said]. “In this country…there were those who dug in their heels and said, ‘Slow down, it’s too early. Let’s wait. Things aren’t bad enough.’ ”
He continued to explain that when women wanted to voted, opponents said, “there will be a better day to do that — the day isn’t quite right.”
Before reading this article, I didn’t really have much of an opinion on Health Care Reform. I knew that it was going to be really big, really expensive, and whatever went into it, there would be a lot of people who would be really unhappy.
But I think Reid is right. This has the potential to be a landmark piece of legislation that will go down in history, if Obama and Congress can pull it off. And by pull it off, I mean that it is successful in the sense that people will actually benefit from it. And if it is successful, it will be a really big deal.
That is a lot of ifs.
The Republican response to Reid’s statement was embarrassing at best. They feel that the Democrats in Congress are under pressure and thus willing to push something through that is unwieldy and ineffective. While that is definitely a possibility, I think that it is hard to ignore the fact that there is no Republican alternative to the bill. They are upset that Reid is “calling them out” so to speak, in their lack of willingness to contribute, but also their efforts to slow the bill down as much as possible.
If nothing else, Reid’s comments livened up a normal day on Capitol Hill. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who is black, questioned Reid’s state of mind and demanded an apology.
Good work, Senator Reid.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1209/Reid_compares_health_care_foes_to_slavery_supporters.html
I wish I could have been there for that moment myself. Sure the analogy between woman’s suffrage and health care may not be perfect, but the idea behind it is the same. Americans are calling out their government for social injustices that they feel cannot be handled by invisible hands or waiting any longer. One thing I hear over and over from the right is that Republicans have offered alternatives to the bill on numerous occasions, only to be shot down by Democrats. But this gets me wondering if the idea of Healthcare is something completely different to Republicans in Congress, or if Democrats are truly not willing to accept any real alternatives.
I do not fully understand the implications of this bill, nor do I think anyone does. In light of our current economic crisis and wars over seas, Healthcare is something that needs true reforms that benefit the people of the United States. But anything that offsets the budget more would only bring negative consequences. So let us hope this historic legislation will be something that we can look back on and say, we thought it through, we considered the alternatives, we did the right thing.