Research

In his Politico Playbook today, Mike Allen got the inside scoop from Democrats as to “the real reason” the Senate is rushing through their government-run health care experiment:

EXCLUSIVE - -THE REAL REASON FOR THE RUSH: …Here are the five reasons Democrats say history won't wait: 1) Legislation is about momentum. If the latest compromise is allowed to languish over Christmas, it could fall apart. And if the process stops, it may never start again. 2) A sense of urgency: Lawmakers only make hard choices with their backs up against a wall. Big votes are almost always jammed up against a deadline for getting out of town. 3) Obama and congressional Democrats ran on competence, and they need to get this done. It’s getting embarrassing after eight months of maneuvering. 4) The White House and Democratic leaders want to pivot to jobs and deficit reduction with Obama’s State of the Union address, in late January or early February. 5) It’s going to take some time to unify the House and Senate bills, anyway. If the Senate isn’t finished with its version, the process could drag on for months longer.

Every single reason is political! That’s obvious to anyone who’s familiar with the legislation, since the “benefits” don’t start until 2014, there’s no policy reason that the bill couldn’t wait for a true open, honest and thorough debate. Democrat Senators spent all weekend talking about how much suffering would be caused if the bill doesn’t pass ASAP, but the only thing that suffers from delay are their approval ratings which continue to sink as people have more time to learn about this dreadful, government-run health care experiment. Furthermore. we’re not really in the business of providing strategic advice to Democrats, but it’s unclear exactly why Democrats think passing an unpopular bill will help their approval ratings, and not hurt them further.

Left unasked by Allen is the obvious follow-up question: If this is such a “hard choice,” and Reid’s so-called compromise could easily “fall apart” if Senators were actually allowed time to think about it, isn’t this good evidence the bill is bad for America? Good bills don’t typically need to be rushed through, bad bills do. This bill raises taxes, cuts Medicare, increases costs, and puts bureaucrats between patients and their doctors. The American people do not want that, but Democrats just aren’t listening