Worlds most deliberative body deliberates healthcare reform

Last week senate started debating the healthcare reform bill. Most of the senators agree that this might be the most important vote they will cast in the senate but listening to the debate one does not get a sense of the importance and urgency of the debate. Here is an example of the focus of the debate from last week.

Republicans brought out their big guns to oppose the "big cuts in medicare". They derided almost $500 billion of proposed cuts in medicare. They read thru countless letters sent by seniors who urged them to oppose this bill which will, in their view, bankrupt medicare. Listening to them defend medicare, you will not get a sense that same senators are tooth and nail opposed to any "government involvement in healthcare" and were earlier lambasting medicare for being an entitlement program which is full of fraud, run by "government bureaucrats" who want to come between you and your doctor.

Democrats on the other end read thru their own letters sent by their constituents on how insurance companies are "robbing" common man to pay millions of dollars in compensation to their CEOs. They did not stop there. Senator Blanche Lincoln from Arkansas actually proposed an amendment which will limit the deductibility of executive compensation for insurance companies to $400,000. You wonder why $400,000! Her argument is that if it is good enough for the President of United States (US President makes $400,000 a year), it should be good enough for insurance companies executives. This amendment will raise around $650 million in new taxes which she plans to use to "save" medicare.

This is the tenor of the debate in the most deliberative body in the world when it is debating possibly the most important bill of our generation and you wonder why people are cynical about politicians...