February 19, 2010

Is it even possible to hit reset button on Health Reform?

Most would agree that so far health care reform talks have been rather partisan.  The democrats tried to get their own party to come along because they did not need a single republican vote to pass it.  Of course when Senator Brown from Massachusetts was elected this all changed.

Now the media, politicians and the public are calling for bipartisan talks.  The President is going to hold a "health care summit" next Thursday the 25th.  He has invited both democrats and republicans to the table to bring forth their ideas. Of course, the hope on the left is that they will be able to get one republican senator to come along and the fear on the right is that this will not be an open discussion but rather a lecture to republicans to come on board.  Either way it does not matter.  Most agree that nothing will come out of these talks. Some are calling for Congress to start the entire process over.

I believe that truly starting over cannot be accomplished.  Both parties already know what they want and what they do not want.  At this point, everything has already been on the table, everyone knows each others stance.  Starting over would simply lead back to where we are now.

So what happens next? 
3 Options: 1) Passes with a republican on board; 2) Passes through some sort of reconciliation tactic -needing only 51 votes in Senate, House would still need the 218 votes or 3) The bills die

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