Meanwhile, back on the farm
Immediately after posting the link to this morning's Wall Street Journal editorial at right, I read E.J. Dionne's own analysis of the Medicare drug benefit bill that passed Congress yesterday. It contained this gem:
While Clinton and Frank admire Kennedy, both think he "made a mistake," as Frank put it, in thinking a real compromise would emerge from the current system. "I think we started down this slope in June," Clinton said, referring to the vote on the earlier bill, which she opposed and Kennedy favored. Clinton had predicted that the already inadequate drug benefit in that bill would be weakened by Republicans in subsequent negotiations.That's right, we now have a two-party system comprised of "the big spenders", and the "spend even more!" big spenders. I'm getting a sinking feeling about this.
EDIT: HA! I didn't read far enough down. Dionne's column concentrates on the idea that the Democrats are wimps who let the more disciplined Republicans run roughshod all over them. A case in point:
Breaux and Baucus were the only two Democrats allowed to negotiate the Medicare bill with the Republicans, House Democrats having been totally excluded. Would Republicans have put up with such an arrangement?Dionne has apparently not be updated on the fact that the Democrats killed the Energy bill because several Republican Senators campaigned hard against it - you guessed it, on the grounds it wasn't fiscally responsible. The really ironic part is the Republicans who fought the Energy bill were the more liberal of the Republicans in the Senate, not the conservatives. Has the world turned totally upside-down?
Comments
I wouldn't say that the world has turned upside down, I'd say that there is quite the crafty political strategy being played out.
Education bill passed (dem platform/credit will be claimed by repubs)
Medicare bill passed (dem platform/credit repubs)
Tax relief passed (repub platform/credit repubs)
Energy bill defeated (repub platform/credit repubs for defeating it)
In a nutshell, the RNC has banded together and yanked out the democratic platform for next years election. Trumpeting the defeat of the energy bill is the only democratic victory, and it only went down because of republican resistance.
Posted by: John | November 26, 2003 05:30 AM
Hi John, and welcome!
I know it's pressure politics and high-stakes dealing, and everyone is trying to outstrategize everyone else, but sometimes it's hard to imagine how our two-party system doesn't splinter out into a hundred little special interest parties and raise the flag of a prime-minister-of-the-month parlimentary republic over the Capitol building. Sometimes you've just gotta wag your head and say those dead white guys knew what they were doing when they wrote the Constitution.
Posted by: Chris | November 26, 2003 07:04 AM