Sullivan on Obama, Massachusetts and Health Care

Andrew Sullivan makes two related points on the Massachusetts Senate election and its implications for health care reform and Obama's Presidency in The Daily Dish.

Fellow Atlantic blogger James Fallows notes that Senate Democrats represent roughly 63% of the US population while GOP Senators represent roughly 37%. Fallows' point is that it now appears that the representatives of 37% who oppose health care reform may trump the representatives of 63% of the population that support it. Sullivan comments:

I believe this health reform bill is as good as it will get in confronting a real and pressing problem. But the system we have is designed to prevent change. And that's the underlying reality here: if the governing political party is not united, and the opposition party is determined not to improve legislation but to kill a presidency, and exploit populism for purely partisan purposes, then it's very, very hard to pass major legislation.

Where do we go from here? Sully agrees with Jonathan Chait of The New Republic.

There are only two options on health care: Something that involves passing the Senate bill through the House, and nothing. There's no fantasy moderate bipartisan alternative. Once Congress gets that through its head, I think -- I don't know but I think -- they'll make the obvious choice.

He urges Obama to allow the post-election frenzy to die down this week and then press this point in his State of the Union address next week:

So let this process play out. Let Obama use SOTU to argue that nothing is not an option and if the Republicans prove they really do want nothing, then the argument for passing the Senate bill gets stronger...I see no reason why Obama should not put the GOP on the spot now and ask them how they would solve the problems we face. One aspect of this is health insurance reform; the other is tackling the debt. Put them together in the SOTU and demand action.

The truth is: Obama has the better argument. He's right in understanding that the sheer tasks of government have made it hard for him to press this message day after day after day as the Democrats negotiated with themselves endlessly. So let the impact of Massachusetts sink in, expose the nihilism of the opposition, take the black eye as a necessary evil in such a turbulent time ... and fight on.

The Republicans have chosen to oppose health care reform without bothering to offer any plausible alternative. Given the fact that 40 thousand people die each year because they have no insurance this is irresponsible and, yes, nihilistic. I agree that Obama should make them pay for this by pinning the unacceptable status quo to them since they have effectively embraced it.

--Ballard Burgher