The Republican Call For “Starting Over” On Health Care Legislation Is Not A Reasonable Position.

Today’s Health Care Reform Bipartisan Summit began, following the President’s opening remarks, with Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, saying that Obama's plan is too similar to the Senate plan. His proposal was to put the current bill “on the shelf and starting from a clean sheet of paper." (He also wants the Democrats to forswear the use of reconciliation—a Senate procedure that the Republicans have defended and used many times—which could pass healthcare reform with a mere majority.)

Many independents on the center right may feel that such a request sounda reasonable. Why not start over and have the parties work together? The problem is, that the real point of this request is to kill the legislation altogether.

At the onset of the health care reform debate Senator Jim Demint (R-South Carolina) said that if the Republicans could “to stop Obama on this [health care reform], it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” Obviously this is not about the content or policy of health care reform (which had yet to be formed); it is about politics, pure and simple.

And since that day, Congressional Republicans have had a single goal for health care reform legislation—delay it to kill it. Kill health care reform to “break” Obama.

In substance, if not in Republican votes, the bill, as it stands, is a bipartisan bill incorporating about 160 Republican amendments. Obviously Republican complaints about lack of input are political not substantive, and starting over would not yield a superior bill. The only intent of calling for starting over on health care reform legislation is to kill any chance of passing such legislation.

One last thing to note is that you do not want this legislation stopped. Recent polling (Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Feb. 17-18, 2010) shows that a strong majority of Americans favor most of the major components of this legislation when listed individually. (A bare majority favors the “public option” and strong majorities disapprove of taxing “Cadillac” health plans and fining individuals and businesses that do not purchase health insurance.) And receiving information on these major components being in the plan a plurality (48%) approve of the plan (43% oppose it and 9% are unsure).

The continued distrust of the plan as a whole, despite strong support for most individual components, I believe, speaks to the success the Republicans have enjoyed in spreading misinformation about the contents of the bill (e.g. a government bureaucrat will decide what treatment you will receive instead of your doctor). Knowing the Republican myths will be dispelled following the bill’s enactment; Democrats must not be persuaded to shelve this bill. Instead they must push passage through as soon as possible, using reconciliation if necessary.