Health Care: A Giant Win For Obama

I’ll be honest: I didn’t read the Health Care bill. I didn’t attend a Tea Party or or a Town Hall. On any given day, I couldn’t tell you the state of the public option or Sarah Palin’s views on death panels.

In many ways, therefore, I’m a regular voter. Most people, even accounting for inflation, weren’t involved in protests over health care, and didn’t make calls for Obama. Most people didn’t watch C-SPAN all day yesterday. Most people don’t pay attention, but get their information tangentially. With the exception of the C-SPAN thing, that’s me.

And, as a regular voter, not a Capitol Hill wonk, it’s hard for me to see the House vote on health care as anything but a massive victory for President Obama.

Universal health care (and particularly single payer) has been progressive Xanadu for decades. It’s a plank in the platform of every Democrat running for office in an even moderately progressive district, from Congress to City Hall. It’s been on the radar of every Democratic President since FDR – and was famously attempted most recently by a just-elected Bill Clinton.

Clinton struggled for two years, but, despite polling showing over 70% of Americans supported reform in late 1994, the effort failed. Of course, Obama has more Democrats in the House than did Clinton. One more, to be precise.

What Obama did right has gotten lost in the artificial smoke of Republican opposition. Among many lessons he learned from Clinton’s effort, he allowed Congress to control the process, creating a strong sense of ownership among Democratic leaders. Nancy Pelosi, who deserves enormous credit, fought as hard as she did because this was her bill, too. Obama needed warriors on his side that were as fervent as his opponents – especially as those opponents were dragged into the murky mire of the extreme right.

Let’s not forget: the bill has a public option. Four months ago, the public option was as welcome in Washington as a pre-existing condition. People wondered, after the town hall fury, if anything would pass, much less that. But here we are.

It didn’t come cheap. The Catholic Church and other anti-abortion leaders pressured moderate Democrats to strip funding for the procedure before passing a final bill. It was a low point in a fascinating day, and it demonstrates exactly why, even if they had nine ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justices, Republicans would never want abortion to be banned – it’s their best wedge.

220-215. One Republican — the most recently elected — crossed party lines. Dozens of Democrats did, too. When and if a bill comes out of conference, there will be another fight on the floor, just as there will be fights on the other side of the Capitol.

There’s only one reason, though, that health care was on the Congress’ agenda this year: President Obama put it there. He put it there in the face of staggering odds. He did work visibly and behind the scenes to assure that it was viable. And, yesterday, a crucial, unprecedented battle toward implementing his vision was won.

In the eyes of this detached observer, that win belongs to Obama. And it’s a big one.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.