TPM: Main Health Care Reform Objective is Now Embarrassing Republicans, Not Health Care Reform

Health care reform isn’t exactly about health care reform anymore. TPM commentator Brian Beutler (who has also written for the left-leaning magazine The American Prospect) is quite comfortable with the fact that the Obama administration’s proposed bipartisan health care summit will probably do little to promote the cause of universal health care. In his most recent column, Beutler admits that he harbors no hope whatsoever of seeing the talks work toward any progress on the topic, and yet seems confused that some liberals would have some reservations about the tactic.

“A lot of people in Washington, liberals, Democrats, even some pundits–are asking a question: Why is President Obama wasting his time with yet another summit. After all, he tried this a year ago and…well, just look how well that’s paid off.”

Not to mention that the Republicans even showing up to this second round of talks is not a certainty. These issues are only problematic, though, if the goal of the Democratic leadership is to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill.

For Beutler and many liberals in government and media, this is no longer the case. And neither, he argues, is it for the Obama administration.

“Times have changed and now Democrats see an opportunity not so much for bipartisan co-operation, but for the President to magnify the differences between his own party, and the hell-bent-on-obstruction GOP.”

In other words, the summit is only an opportunity for the President to contrast the marketable openness of his party with the stubborn insistence of the opposition– a chance to embarrass the Republicans. And the left has been stripped of all its shame about it. The GOP leaders sense this; House leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor sent the White House a list of preconditions for the summit that may guarantee it will never happen. While this should come as no surprise, it is unexpected to see the left openly admit that health care is no longer a priority in the health care debate, and that they feel justified in having abandoned it. Beutler employs the examples of Senators Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell, who were heavily involved in the process of drafting the health care bill in their chamber, to illustrate the radical swing to the right that Republicans took during the process. All of his accusations– that McConnell opposes Social Security, that Grassley stood in the way of a public option in the Senate bill, et al–are true, but this doesn’t justify the shift in thinking on the left.

Beutler’s take on the matter, justifying the obsolete nature of such a summit by pointing out what a nuisance it will be for the Republican PR machine, is a complete victory for the Republicans. The mindset of the opposition is no longer focused on the original intent, but only at humiliating their adversaries in retaliation for blocking their initiatives. It takes a great deal of effort and dedication to achieve the vast health care overhaul the Democrats were initially hoping for, and very little to distract from that objective. The liberal media (and, according to Beutler, the Democratic leadership) is preparing to invest their time in making the Republicans look bad while the Republicans keep their eyes on the ball and take aim at the issues that concern them. The ends–health care reform legislation– have become the means to lowering the stock of the enemy. And adding insult to injury, the Republicans are fully aware of new paradigm, meaning there’s a good chance they won’t even take the bait.

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