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PrintMarch 23, 2010
Just who have the Democrats 'defeated' by passing Obamacare?
This morning's LA Times stumbled upon a remarkable point in its coverage of the health care bill. In a Drudge-linked article entitled "After healthcare vote, Democrats turn to damage control." The first line of the piece reads:
Democrats may feel today as though they just fought -- and won -- the equivalent of a 100-year war.
This sentiment echoes one of the talking points among Democrats over the final days of the health care debate. "Teddy Roosevelt knew [passing universal health care] was right," thundered President Barack Obama at a Fairfax, Virginia rally last week. Speaker Nancy Pelosi's repeated "one-day-closer" mantra tells us that the Democrats believe they have in fact won a "100-year" clash.
But if the Democrats were waging war, who were they fighting? If Obama and Pelosi won, who did they defeat?
There are certainly the public enemies--insurance companies, doctors who saw off limbs and rip out tonsils to get fatter reimbursements--but the real reason socialized medicine has never passed is because the public has rejected it each time it is proposed.
Perhaps Obama, Pelosi and the others have won a war, but if that's true, it is the citizens of this country who they fought against; it is the American people who they have conquered.
