Thursday, August 20, 2009

Eighty Is The New Sixty

The GOP has brought up a new angle of attack this week to oppose the "Democrats might go it alone on health care" play, and that's changing the entire rules of how reality is supposed to work.
It started about a month ago when Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he thinks reform ought to get 80 votes in the Senate.

Apparently, this is starting to catch on.

Speaking on Fox News last night, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) claimed that health care reform should not happen because it doesn't enjoy "bipartisan" support, adding that a bill cannot be bipartisan unless it garners "somewhere between 75 and 80 votes." [...]

Hatch is hardly the only conservative senator to float a 75-80 vote supermajority requirement for health reform. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who is currently blocking attempts to fix the health care system, told the Washington Post that "[w]e ought to be focusing on getting 80 votes." Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) demanded "a bill that 75 or 80 senators can support."

There are a few angles to keep in mind here. First, it's fascinating to hear partisan Republicans suggest it's incumbent on Democrats to aim for 80-vote majorities on major pieces of legislation. Funny, Hatch, Grassley, and Enzi didn't feel this way when they were in charge.

This to me says that Republicans are now honestly scared that the Democrats are going to actually be able to pass this legislation, and with the help of at least a few Republicans who aren't going to slit their own throats by voting against this landmark legislation.

I've said time and time again that Republicans will never help the Democrats pass health care reform. But this may possibly be an indication that at least in the Senate, that's not 100% true for all 40 Republican senators.

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2 comments:

  1. Matt OsborneAugust 20, 2009 at 4:40 PM

    I think you're reading this right. I'd also go further and say they're setting up a meme for 2010: when health care reform passes with a majority, even with a cloture vote, they can spend the election cycle saying it's a left-wing measure Obama shoved through against the popular will ("popular" being defined here as "Republican" will).

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  2. ZandarAugust 20, 2009 at 4:52 PM

    Agreed. The argument is a tacit admission that the GOP is already preemptively in damage control mode after they expect the bill to pass.

    If you expect the bill to fail, you say "Democrats don't have 60 votes in the Senate to pass legislation."

    You don't say that the bill "should be designed to get 75-80 votes." That's a weak-ass argument. That's the second mistake I've seen the GOP make this week on Obamacare, the first being admitting to the fact they don't want any health care reform.

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