Last night, while most of you were sleeping, the Democratic Party took a long step forward towards passing their health care rationing bill. The details are arcane Senatorial procedure, but two things must be taken away from it:
- No Republican Senator – no Republican Senator; not even the ones typically called ‘RiNOs*’ – voted to ration your health care and make you a criminal for not wanting insurance.
- Every Democratic Senator – every Democratic Senator; even the ones thought ‘reasonable’ or ‘bipartisan’ – voted to ration your health care and make you a criminal for not wanting insurance.
This is the way that it is. If you disapprove, well, the following Senators cast the 60th vote for health care rationing and criminalizing lack of insurance:
Evan Bayh
Michael Bennet
Barbara Boxer
Christopher Dodd
Byron Dorgan
Russ Feingold
Kirsten Gillibrand
Daniel Inouye
Patrick Leahy
Blanche Lincoln
Barbara Mikulski
Patty Murray
Harry Reid
Chuck Schumer
Arlen Specter
Ron Wyden
…so feel free to make your disapproval known unto them, from now until November.
Moe Lane
*A term that has pretty much devolved into ‘Republicans who I don’t like’ at this point.
Crossposted to RedState.
But but but… I thought there was no difference between the political parties, and they’re all the same, and we need third party candidates, etc. etc. etc.
I don’t imagine we’ll be hearing that for a while. Then again…
Of course the Republicans assisted in getting things improved just enough so that it would get 60 votes. While I’m happy that they hung together in the end, I’m pretty grumpy about that.
The thing is, as far as an insurance mandate goes, I’m not necessarily opposed to one in principle. If, say, you didn’t carry insurance and you ran up a huge medical bill, you got your pay docked until it was paid off (and if that was the rest of your life, so be it), I’d have absolutely no problems with that. Just treat it like a tax bill you never paid. But what they actually put in there? No.