Posted by
Mike Bates on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 12:16:39 PM
On CNN's American Morning today, anchor Carol Costello
advanced a
theory on who's responsible for the Let's Make a Deal environment
permeating the Senate as it stumbles to completion of a health care
bill. Here is part of her exchange with CNN political analyst and GOP
strategist Ed Rollins:
COSTELLO: Might (the) Republicans blame in part
themselves for this, because none of them were going to vote? Didn't
they sort of force Senator Reid's hand in making some of these
sweetheart deals?
ROLLINS: Senator Reid could have made a sweetheart deal with the
Republicans months ago. They could have knocked down walls and let
insurance companies deal across state lines. There are a lot of things
that Republicans...
COSTELLO: But the public option is out --
Yes, if only those intransigent Senate Republicans has been more
accommodating, the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase,
expanded Medicare coverage to “individuals exposed to environmental
health hazards recognized as a public health emergency in a declaration
issued by the federal government on June 17," and other special
considerations wouldn't have been necessary.
Costello ignores that the public option is far from the only
objection Republicans have to the Senate bill. There's the feature of
mandating Americans buy insurance. There are the projected
expenditures and savings figures that are as patently bogus as the
shovel ready jobs number "Sheriff" Joe Biden spouts. There's the
problem that, other than the sweetheart deals, details on the plan and
its implementation are as thin as a certain former community
organizer's résumé.
And that's just for starters. Yet Costello wonders if Republican
senators might be blaming themselves for the travesty. If only they'd
set aside their principles, Democrats might not have been reduced to
such flagrant bribery.
Sure, Carol, we believe that.