Just now on MSNBC, Eliot Spitzer said, “this isn’t health reform, it’s health expansion”. That is exactly right. Reform failed in Congress, but expansion is currently on its way to becoming law. And, as Spitzer says, expansion isn’t a bad thing, but stop trying to sell it as reform.
Of course the Democrats will never admit that. Their platform has been reform, and if they try to call it “expansion” then that gives the opposition fuel for one of their favorite claims – socialism. However there is a bad side to that. The Democrats trying to bill this as “reform” is putting off the base, the people who have fought for real health care reform all their lives. They are left with the feeling that this is it. Once this is done we won’t get anymore, and that’s a sediment that can very well be true as I have laid out over the past few days.
If Democrats had a problem getting the votes to pass the most progressive parts of the bill now, it sure won’t be easier later when their numbers aren’t as great. I certainly hope the people out there pushing the “fix it later” meme aren’t really expecting the Senate to see a 65 or 66 seat Democratic majority. We’ll cure cancer and most diseases before that happens.