Waiting for the miracle: health care “reform”
I’d planned a long post on what’s happening today, as the Pelosi Congress wheels and deals and tries to pass its gargantuan health care reform bill that, if implemented, would radically change this country in ways that promise to be very negative (and if even half of this is true, extremely negative).
I’ve only read bits and pieces of the approximately 2000-page bill. But most of what I’ve read, combined with most analyses of it that I’ve seen, have convinced me that this is—if not the “worst bill ever,” as the Wall Street Journal declared it the other day—then certainly one of the top contenders for that honor.
But really, is there that much more to say at this point? Virtually all of us here have been following this in some detail for a while. Now what we do is wait to see how the vote will go.
I suspect that Pelosi will manage to wrangle enough compromises and simultaneously threaten enough Blue Dogs that it will squeak by, giving the rest of them cover to vote “nay” once the requisite 218 “yays” are reached.
Then we’ll wait some more, while the Senate ponders its own bill, and perhaps stops this monstrous juggernaut and puts a more reasonable plan in place.
So I decided instead to write about waiting. We’re all waiting, and so is Nancy Pelosi. What follows are the lyrics to Leonard Cohen’s “Waiting For the Miracle,” rewritten in her voice (notice how little I had to change to make it fit).
Enjoy it—if you can:
WAITING FOR THE MIRACLE
People, I’ve been waiting,
I’ve been waiting
night and day.
I didn’t see the time,
I waited half my life away.
There were lots of conversations
and for sure I had me some,
but I was waiting
for health care reform,
for the miracle to comeI know you really hate it,
but, you see,
my hands were full.
I know it must have hurt you,
to have heard my load of bull,
to have to stand
beneath my window
with your placards
and your drum,
and me I’m up there waiting
for health care reform,
for the miracle to come.Ah I don’t believe you’ll like it,
you won’t like the result.
We’ll lie to pass it quickly,
then you’ll watch as we exult.
The leaders say “just trust us,”
but if you did, you’re dumb,
when you’re waiting
for health care reform,
for the miracle to comeWaiting for the miracle,
there’s nothing left to do.
I haven’t been this happy
since the end of World War II.Nothing left to do
when you know
that you’ve been taken.
Nothing left to do
when you’re begging for a crumb.
Nothing left to do
when you’ve got to go on waiting
waiting for the miracle to come.
And now, if you want to wash that bad taste out of your mouths, here’s the original:
How grotesquely pitiful and narcissistic to contemplate the notion that government is responsible for providing health care for every citizen, ugh!!
As Samuel Johnson noted, the knowledge that one is to be hanged in a fortnight concentrates the mind wonderfully. That is the situation for Democrats from moderate and conservative districts. A vote for this monstrosity of a bill will be their undoing. The Republicans have almost a year to dissect the bill for the most odious parts to hang about the neck of the Democrats who vote with Pelosi.
The Republic is doomed. This is “Bread and Circuses”.
I’ve a friend who’s hoping that the bill passes by only a vote or two to prolong the agony as it dies slowly during all the horse trading and amending in committee.
Based on what I read at NRO, there are 177 Rs (all of them) and 24 Ds solidly against for a total of 211, leaving 224 Ds mostly for, with the possibility of further defections and abstentions.
Fingers crossed.
Many experts predict that the Senate will kill this turkey of a bill. If so, there will be some Democrats in the House who fell on their sword for nothing.
Remember in 1995, when the Senate – we were told – considered itself the moderating force to prevent new and radical ideas from the House from moving too quickly? You don’t hear that anymore. I wonder why?
Well, no I don’t wonder, actually.
nyomythus – citizen would be a significant improvement on this bill, remember?
I do understand that to progressives it does seem the most natural thing in the world for the government to provide health care. France has got a pony. Sweden has got a pony. All the kids in our neighborhood have a pony. Therefore there must be something wrong if I don’t have one. Not that I can think of any logical reason why I deserve one, but that’s not the point. The other kids have ponies.
Mr. Frank,
While I don’t disagree with you in principle, to call this bill a turkey seems like inappropriate humor. This is a monstrosity, and it bids fair to destroy us. No laughing matter, that.
But I’m with you in your sentiment.
Huxley,
If this thing is passed through the House, the Dems in the Senate will find a way to use the dreaded “nuclear option,” which they castigated the Republicans for contemplating with respect to judicial nominations in time past, to pass it (or something near enough like it) through that body. These wizards will have succeeded in using our own Constitutional system against us. I know you like to think that the Constitution, and the system it has emplaced, protects us against any and all destructive revolutionaries. But I’m not so sanguine. We’re in a helluva mess. This is a coup d’etat, in relatively slow motion, for all to see. Tell me, how do you think we stop it?
I see on C-SPAN that they’ve passed it.
Oh Lord.
Now what?
We’re going to have to fight. It’s coming, nearly as surely as the sunrise tomorrow.
Oh Lord. Waxman has just yielded to His Lordship, Rangel, he of the Sterling Character and Reputation. I’m sick. Really. These guys are gag-inducing.
Sorry. I know neo’s blog isn’t particularly intended for such comments. But still. . . .
Now they’re resolving to condemn the Iranian hostage-taking in the 1970s. How worthwhile that is. How worthless these people, to a man, are.
Here’s my take on this, which will surprise no one: We are no longer a self-governing people.
So–I hope everyone has plenty of money laid aside to pay the government-mandated health-insurance premium. Because if you don’t, you’ll go to jail.
The die is cast.
Civil war is coming, and there is no way to stop it.
Death to tyrants!
betsybounds: Let’s not forget the women. Pelosi, for one.
I’ve started a new thread.
rickl – actually, I rather doubt that civil war is coming.
So long as there is a chance for political compromise or resolution, a civil war won’t happen. Watch out for the future, however.