Poor old Charlie Brown…
Although Brown intellectually knew that Lucy had demonstrated a repeated propensity to whisk away the football at the penultimate moment, leaving him tumbled head over heels, he was ever hopeful that she would hold true the very next time. Charlie Brown just knew that – if he had the opportunity – he could kick the tar out of the ball, through the uprights and on to victory. Poor old, deluded Charlie Brown….
Health reform advocates are feeling more than a little like Charlie Brown these days. Once again, Congress has squandered a substantial pro-reform majority across the country, in effect jerking away the reform football at the last moment. Even in Washington, DC, ground zero for the dreaded and despised lobbying hordes, groups of all political hues and interest stripes had ponied up reform proposals and were negotiating in good faith and comity towards workable reform that would neither bankrupt the country nor strangle retailers and other employers. But, Congress – specifically the current Congressional majority – has blown it. Poor old, deluded health care lobbyists and general public….
Like Lucy’s habit of pulling away the football, Congress has shown a frequent propensity to overreach: to create landmark legislation without the basic pedestal needed to support it. The open question now is whether it is too late for Congress and President Obama to give up on their grandiose ambitions in order to make solid progress towards reducing the cost of health care and coverage. Or, as Larry O’Donnell – the Clinton era Democratic Senate Finance Committee staff director – has opined, health care reform is dead but for bluffing and posturing for the foreseeable future.
We would still like to see that pared down bill that makes solid progress on cost and coverage, but unlike Charlie Brown, we are skeptical that the Congressional majority and the Obama Administration will hold true and help bring achievable reform to a successful conclusion. We’ll hope – perhaps against hope – that our skepticism will be proven wrong. Hard-fought experience teaches us otherwise.