The surge of Republican ads putting down health care reform as another 'government takeover' of the rights of the people as well as the now shameful so-called 'blue dog democrats' timidity on this issue is beginning to wear thin. Meyerson in today's WaPost gets to this and calls attention not only to the other industrial nations that figured universal care for its populations of legal residents long ago, but the idea that the US has been known to get things done (Soc. Sec., Medicare, etc.) over the objections of the moneyed interests. The idea that a hardly excessive tax on the wealthiest could help pay for this is beyond some folks' ken. Weird place. The health debate is heating up, and may well be Obama's biggest test so far. Some of us have fought for this change for so long we are blue in the facebook. Er, how's that pard? Got to go downtown to check on my blood pressure, might have to wait, but might not...I just hope the Dems can see their way to supporting their new president in this one and leave the Republicans in the outback. Worry over re-election can come later, and I'll just bet the 45 million uninsured will be grateful enough to have a regular provider for their health care that they will join the civilized world in keeping in office those who actually work for the people. BP

Watching the centrist Democrats in Congress create more and more reasons why health care can't be fixed, I've been struck by a disquieting thought: Suppose our collective lack of response to Hurricane Katrina wasn't exceptional but, rather, the new normal in America. Suppose we can no longer address the major challenges confronting the nation. Suppose America is now the world's leading can't-do country.

Every other nation with an advanced economy long ago secured universal health care for its citizens -- an achievement that the United States alone finds beyond the capacities of mortal man. It wasn't ever thus. Time was when Democratic Congresses enacted Social Security and Medicare over the opposition of powerful interests and Republican ideologues. In fact, our government used to actually pave roads, build bridges and allow for secure retirements by levying taxes on those who could afford to pay them.

To today's centrist Democrats, this has become a distant memory, a history lesson they cannot grasp. The notion that actual individuals might have to pay to secure the national interest appalls them. In the House, the Blue Dogs doggedly oppose proposals to fund universal coverage by taxing the wealthiest 1 percent of the nation's households. Their deference to wealth -- whether the consequence of our system of funding elections or a byproduct of the Internet generation's experience of free access to information and entertainment -- is not to be trifled with.

Harold Meyerson
The Can't Do Blue Dogs
Washington Post
22July09