Health Care Reform Would Be “A Stunning, Historical Achievement”
“If Congress can complete work on health-care legislation and send it to the president (as of mid-January, the final bill is still under negotiation), it will be a stunning historical achievement and the most important liberal reform since the 1960s. It may also be the most underappreciated social legislation in recent history. Never in my experience has such a big reform been treated as so small. Never have Democratic members of Congress who are putting their careers on the line for something they believe in been so vilified as sellouts by influential progressives. And never have those progressives been so grudging in their endorsement of landmark legislation or so willing to see it defeated.”
The opening paragraph of Paul Starr’s article, “Underrating Reform,” in the March 2010 Prospect.
Hat tip to Kevin Drum (”Pass the Bill” at Mother Jones) who says, “Exactly right.” He also links approvingly to a James Monroe op-ed, “Democrats must find their voice on healthcare reform,” in this morning’s Los Angeles Times. Professor Monroe contrasts the response of two Democratic Presidents to health care reform setbacks separated by nearly five decades.
President Clinton and Democrats in 1994 “dropped the issue and walked away.” President Truman heard critics greet his health care plan with cries of “socialism!” and watched the loss of Democratic majorities in Congress in the off-year election before the 1948 Presidential campaign.
“If ever there was a time to retreat on healthcare, this was it. Instead, Truman … found his voice. He passionately embraced the policies he cared about, especially national health insurance. Fifteen times a day on his long, famous whistle-stop tour he would rise and scorch the medical lobbies and their congressional pals. Truman, of course, won that election. He never came close on healthcare reform, but he kept on fighting. As a result, he left his party a legacy, an ideal to fight for.”
We may see this evening, in his State of the Union address, which path Barack Obama intends to take.
(Photograph of Harry Truman from the Naval Historical Center.)
