The Health Care Struggle

Senator Sherrod Brown was quoted saying, "I don't want four Democratic senators dictating to the other 56 of us and to the rest of the country -- when the public option has this much support -- that [a public option is] not going to be in it." But where is all this support supposedly coming from?

Most of surveys show that the public is more against the public option than for it, and most of the Senators aren't even sold on the public option, they just wanted to have the debate on the bill. Senator Lieberman probably has the best view on the situation: "I don't want to fix the problems in our health-care system in a way that creates more of an economic crisis." Unfortunately, the Democrats seem to be deaf to all criticism.

A major part of the problem with the Democrat's process is that they are trying to push the reform through too quickly. Sure, they want to take advantage of the filibuster proof situation they are in, but the reform should be bipartisan. Both parties should be in agreement on the reform, otherwise the reform will be reversed the second that the Republicans gain back the majority. That will then result in years of going back and forth in the health care system, which is even worse for the people than the current health care system.

The Democrats, however, are not the only ones to blame. Rather than sit there feebly protesting to President Obama's plans claiming that he wants to turn the government into a socialist regime, the Republicans should be using their voice to change the parts of the reform they object to. Then they would be doing their job, making the country better for the people.

Simply put, the Democrats need to slow down to make sure they get this right, and they need to take some of the Republican points into consideration, and the Republicans need to give some points for the Democrats to consider.