US Elections

The party of no and no and no...

By Nina Blackwell in San Francisco

24 July 2009

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As the healthcare debate continues on Capitol Hill, it's business as usual for the party of "no." As the President returned to the stump in Ohio to make his case and Democrats worked overtime to develop a bill that would pass both the House and Senate, Republicans and conservatives preferred to raise questions about the President's citizenship and the state of racial relations in the US.

Several prominent Congressional Republicans have made it very clear that they intend to block healthcare reform, doing so, not so much in the interests of the nation, but more in the interests of their party in 2010. And we have no reason to doubt that they will do anything but try to block and deny - Rep. John Boehner today refused to provide any timeline for releasing a Republican healthcare proposal, calling instead on the Democrats to start again on theirs. (Perhaps they have learned their lesson from the last time they released a "plan"?)

Not content to simply demonize the Democrats and the President on an issue that is of critical importance to all Americans, conservatives like Liz Cheney are busy stirring the pot of conspiracy by continuing to question the President's citizenship. Others still like Rush Limbaugh are happy to fan the flames of racial hatred in the wake of the Sotomayor nomination and Professor Gates' arrest.

Sadly, it appears that Democrats are doing a good enough job all by themselves of muddying the waters over healthcare reform. Perhaps that was the President's fault when he left the details up to Congress. Or perhaps the system really will work and we really will have a bill that has been well thought out and will pass through both Houses of Congress. My money is on the latter.

Republican strategy is clearly to stand on the sidelines of healthcare, throwing grenades and hoping that it all fails, dealing a blow to the President from which he cannot recover. They have clearly learned from the lessons of the Clinton Administration, when they successfully opposed healthcare reform and were rewarded handsomely in the mid-term elections.

The problem is that if affordable healthcare is something that Americans want, then Republicans could be blamed for its failure.  More likely however is that the President and Democrats will be blamed, especially if they cannot stand together and reach a consensus on this critical issue.

On the flip side, the problem for Republicans is that the more they push back, the more it will bring Democrats together behind a strong, smart, savvy President who is committed to bringing healthcare reform to the nation.

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