Yes They Did

It's finally over. The House passed the health care reform bill approved by the Senate three months ago, and it goes to President Obama for his signature. Among the provisions in the legislation are bans on denying coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, the ability for grown children to stay on their parents' plans until they turn 26, tax breaks for small businesses to provide health insurance for their employees, and a one-way ticket to Costa Rica for Rush Limbaugh.

All right, I made up that last part, but even though the bill doesn't nearly go as far as many liberals want - no public option, no Medicare buy-in for Americans between 55 and 64 - Limbaugh finds the bill objectionable enough to leave the country and move to Costa Rica - a surprising choice for him, given his inflammatory rhetoric against Hispanics. In the meantime, before Limbaugh goes anywhere, he wants to see Democrats punished severely at the ballot box and, like many Republicans, hopes to see the bill repealed.

Hey, Rush, do you know the way to San Jose? Repealing the bill isn't going to be that easy. If the Republicans do win back a majority in one or both houses of Congress, they'll find it hard to repeal the bill in full if they find enough provisions to leave in place - and since at least four of them are their ideas, that's not likely. Republicans in the Senate hope to slow fixes to the bill through reconciliation with amendments, but the momentum is clearly against them now. Not even the threat of lawsuits against the legislation by eleven state Republican attorneys general (over the mandate that as many people as possible buy it) seems to be slowing the pent-up desire by Democrats to implement this bill and promote many of its provisions.

That's called "getting things done."

It remains to be seen whether this will soften the impact against Democrats in the midterm elections this November; the party holding the White House almost always loses seats in Congress in midterm elections, and while some of the provisions kick in immediately, there might not be enough of an effect to help Obama's party. But if the Republicans thought they had an issue on which to break the President, they're going to have to find another one. Except that Obama is now free to focus on jobs, which many people want him to do. Health care will be revisited eventually, maybe within a few years.

This is only the first step toward a government insurance alternative - the heralded "public option" - which in turn is a first step toward single-payer insurance.

In the meantime, let's create some jobs and regulate Wall Street.