I was up working at 4 AM Pacific Time so I got to watch live on CSpan as the Senate passed the Health Care Reform bill this morning. I have decided it's a good thing…or at the very least, it will become a very good thing with fixes and amendments yet to come. Conversely, I feel that not passing anything of the sort — and I see no reason to assume that the Republicans currently in power ever would — would be a bad thing. I am not as Liberal on all issues as some of my correspondents believe but, you know, they say a Conservative is a Liberal who's been mugged. A militant for Health Care Reform is a middle-of-the-road guy who's had friends go bankrupt or even (literally) die because they couldn't afford or qualify for health insurance. The statistics show it's a common malady verging on an epidemic.
Some of the criticisms of the bill strike me as out-and-out lies; of folks who'll say anything to kill it believing too fervently their own fibs. But some of the complaints are on-target and valid and will need to be addressed. For what it's worth, the Howard Dean contingent convinced me there are flaws but not that we shouldn't take what we can get now, commit to the goal and begin getting more people covered. An awful lot of human beings would lose their lives or homes while we waited for a bill that got all the bugs out…and it probably still wouldn't get more than 60 votes. Heck, if Joe Lieberman didn't see it as a way to make insurance companies richer, it wouldn't even get 60.
Jonathan Chait summarizes why he thinks this is a great bill. I'd like to be as enthusiastic as he is, and I hope he's proven right. Right now, I'm viewing it as just a real good start.