Sweeping Health Care Plan Passes House.

After all the shit that's been thrown at it, this feels very, very sweet.

After a daylong clash with Republicans over what has been a Democratic goal for decades, lawmakers voted 220 to 215 to approve a plan that would cost $1.1 trillion over 10 years and that Democrats said would provide relief to Americans struggling to buy or hold on to health insurance.

“This is our moment to revolutionize health care in this country,” said Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and one of the chief architects of the bill.

Democrats were forced to make major concessions on insurance coverage for abortions to attract the final votes to secure passage, a wrenching compromise for the numerous abortion-rights advocates in their ranks. They hope to make changes to that amendment during negotiations with the Senate, which will now become the main battleground in the health care fight as Democrats there ready their own bill for what is likely to be extensive floor debate.

Only one Republican voted for the bill, and 39 Democrats opposed it, which I honestly feel will be something which they have done to their eternal shame.

During the private meeting with Democrats in the Cannon Caucus Room, the president acknowledged the political difficulty of supporting major legislation in the face of unanimous Republican opposition and tough criticism from conservatives.

But, those present said, he urged them on, saying, “When I sign this in the Rose Garden, each and every one of you will be able to look back and say, ‘This was my finest moment in politics.’ ”

Obama is getting nearer to achieving this than any previous president. We all know why the Republicans oppose this bill, it is because it undermines their belief that big government is useless.

If Obama succeeds in getting this bill passed, then he destroys forever that central plank in Republican philosophy, which states that government should get out of the way, that big government is automatically bad, and he will have established the notion that people as a collective can do things for each other cheaper and better than private insurance companies.

More importantly, he will have overturned a healthcare system which resembles the one we all remember from Dickensian London, where one's right to health care is based not on need, but on one's ability to pay.

This is the one area where the US has ranked behind the rest of the world. They have been paying more than any other nation on Earth for a healthcare system ranked 37th in the world by the World Health Organisation.

Obama has moved a step closer to ending that.

The paucity of the Republican argument was best summarised by this guy:



He decided to make the argument of "what Maddie wants". He's obviously oblivious to the fact that Maddie doesn't know what she wants, as she's still of an age when she shits in her own diaper.

But that's how pathetic the Republican argument now is, Shadegg is reduced to putting his own words into the mouth of an infant. It's beyond shameless...

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