The junior Senator from Mass. describes his obligations to the American people: “F*** you!”
Thursday, January 21 2010
My resolution was to blog less this year – so far, so good – but this new guy makes me angry:
[Senator-elect Scott] Brown has not disavowed his support for the state’s law, which retains majority backing in Massachusetts.
Instead, he argued on the campaign trail that Massachusetts had taken care of its own uninsured, and it would not be in the state’s interest to contribute to an effort to cover the uninsured nationwide.
“We have insurance here in Massachusetts,” he said in a campaign debate. “I’m not going to be subsidizing for the next three, five years, pick a number, subsidizing what other states have failed to do.”
He’s not opposed to health reform, you see – he’s just opposed to everyone outside of Massachusetts getting it. Kevin has a good post on what this means for reform, even if I don’t agree 100% with his viewpoint (though he gets points off for keeping incoherent company). For one, I am less than optimistic that whatever reform does happen will be more “progressive”; on the other hand, if it doesn’t get passed I have a reason to keep this blog alive. I had hoped to shut down once health reform was resolved to my satisfaction, but I am beginning to fear the process might yet outlive me.
On a broader note: those folks cheering Brown’s victory need to realize this is not a triumph of democracy. In a truly democratic system, the party affiliation of the 41st most conservative member of the Senate would not matter one tiny whit. But in the system we have, the Senators representing as little as 11% of the population can filibuster policy that benefits the other 89%. You may or may not think that’s a good thing, but it’s definitely not a democratic thing.
At least Scott Brown is pretty clear: he isn’t joining the Senate to do anything good for the American people. His state has health reform, and the devil can have the rest of us.
(via Matt Yglesias)
