I’ve studied a broad spectrum of commentary on the passage of the health care bill, and I side squarely with Jonathan Chait in calling it a triumph. Not for what it comprises in its messy compromises today, but for the strategic gateway it opens to the future. History will smile on it.
Chait best explains all the reasons why the bill constitutes what he calls “the most significant American legislative triumph in at least four decades.” Read the piece in the New Republic: And the Rest Is Just Noise.
Chait wonders why so few people can see the triumph for what it is. And part of the answer is that almost no one knows the details anymore of what’s in the bill, largely from the obscuring dust storm of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) that the Republicans and other special interests stirred up in hopes of killing all progress.
Beyond this however I think the greatest blow has come from seeing how hard it’s been for this administration and this congress to get anything done, even with a massive electoral mandate behind it. Following on the heels of the financial bailout, which saw bi-partisan capture of both legislative and executive branches by Wall Street, the agony of the health care process has shown just how paralyzed and broken our government has become.
