American Patrol

The Senate Finance Committee yesterday passed their version of the health care reform bill, which for reasons difficult to discern has been deemed more important than the other four versions of the health care reform bill passed by other committees in the House and Senate. While this clears the way for the formulation and full floor consideration of a final bill, and is thus a procedural milestone in the eventual passage of health care reform, news reports and political reactions to the vote focused on the fact that Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) had voted in the affirmative, and Snowe has been assured a place at the negotiations that will determine the final Senate bill.

Reasons for this focus are also difficult to discern. Snowe's vote was not necessary for passage-- a 13-10 vote would have passed as well as the 14-9 tally that included Snowe. Nor, as the Senator made very clear in her remarks before the vote was taken, did her vote for the Finance Committee measure indicate overall support of the eventual bill-- to quote and paraphrase simultaneously, "far from it." Nor is Snowe's vote likely to influence the opinions of her fellow Republicans-- even the vote of fellow Maineac Republican Senator Susan Collins is not considered likely to change suddenly to the affirmative, and in the party at large reactions to her vote ranged from simple denunciation to a campaign to send bags of rock salt to her office in protest (rock salt melts snow-- get it? Children will play).

So why the fuss? Answers relying on the invocation of bi- or post-partisanship need not apply-- this was one vote, and the vote of a Senator who is marginalized in her own party to boot. Whatever the intent of this emphasis on Snowe may be, it's final effect is clear. It shows, yet again, that the health care reform effort, which gained the Democrats a great deal of support in the last election cycle, has devolved into yet another piece of postmodern political kabuki theater, loaded with nuance and gesture and, it seems at this juncture, likely in the end to signify nothing. Snowe's presence in the Senate negotiating process likely signals a willingness by the White House and Senate leadership to negotiate away even more of what may have made reform significant to the average citizen.

Why? No idea.

A Keen Grasp of the Obvious Award, with special merit and high distinction, to freshman US Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL), for his remarks on the House floor Tuesday night laying out what he saw as the Republican plan for health reform:

"It's a very simple plan. Here it is, the Republicans' healthcare plan for America: Don't get sick .... Republicans have a backup plan in case you do get sick... if you get sick, America, the Republican healthcare plan is this: Die quickly. That's right, the Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick."

His remarks unleashed a predictable firestorm of cheap offense-taking by both Republicans and the media. Grayson the next day responded to the Republican's inevitable request for a public apology by issuing one-- to the 45,000 Americans that a recently released Harvard Medical School study estimates die from lack of health insurance every year and their loved ones. Takers of cheap offense were, by implication, invited to go fry ice.

While even such usually reliable commentators as Rachel Maddow have contributed to the general media outcry over Congressman Grayson's comments, which at its mildest faults him for his characterization of the mass deaths from lack of health insurance as a "holocaust," Congressman Grayson's comments are, taken at face value, entirely defensible. "Holocaust," for example, is a Latin-derived word whose common usage, according to Webster's, refers to "a great or total destruction of life," and further characterizes its usage in reference to the Nazi pogroms (which is usually capitalized and accompanied by the definite article "the") as "idiomatic," meaning Grayson's usage was entirely justifiable and any offense taken at it was very cheap indeed. And while Grayson's were, as Maddow pointed out, comparable to floor statements by several Republican Representatives that equated the Democratic health care reform effort to a mass death threat, they were not in any sense equivalent. The Republican statements were made in complete contradiction to the facts of any plan the Democrats had offered. On the other hand, the Republicans, apart from the amendments they have offered to bills they have explicitly stated they will not vote for, have offered no plan at all. Filling in the blanks and lying are two different things.

While Grayson's initial statement made an important point, the reaction to it, and his reaction to that reaction, made an even more important one. While Republicans parse people’s sentences and loudly proclaim their bruised sensitivities, and Democrats stand on decorum and make a great show of being above the fray, tens of thousands of people are dying because the leadership of the richest country on the planet cannot muster the political will to see that their basic medical needs are met. In refusing to play either side's game, Congressman Grayson represented a majority of Americans who care less about watching their leaders play political patty-cake than they do about getting pressing issues resolved. In doing so, he may be one of the few true Representatives in the House-- I hope some of his colleagues will follow his example. Kudos to him. Here’s wishing him a long and fruitful career, both in politics and in satire.