A blessing in disguise?

On the eve of the first anniversary of Obama’s historical inauguration, an also historical upset in Massachusetts resulted in the US senate seat which had been held by the late Edward Kennedy for nearly half century to be won by the Republicans. Massachusetts, traditionally one of the safest Democratic states in the country which gave President Obama over 60% of its votes, chose last night as its senator the Republican Scott Brown in what was perceived as a wave of voter anger over the health-care plan of the Obama administration, the Wall Street bailouts, the high unemployment and other priorities of the president. The result left the Democrats stunned and eliminated their filibuster-proof of 60-40 majority in the Senate which throws in doubt the future of the health reform plan. Obama and the Democratic leadership have now to make a decision among several options: one of them is to vote on the bill before Brown takes his seat; other which apparently happens to be the White House’s preferred option is for the House to approve the already-passed Senate version of health reform, thus avoiding the need for another vote in the Senate; the third option would mean a two-step process – passing the Senate bill in the House in step one, then passing a second bill to fix the things in the Senate bill that House members don’t like. The Senate then would have to pass this second bill in a reconciliation process – meaning it would only need 51 votes. None of these options is regarded as satisfactory by everyone. Already some senators and congressmen have spoken against them. Thus Senator Jim Webb said: “I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.” And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in a statement released Tuesday night warned that it would be wrong to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened. We could be pessimistic and say that all this does not augur well for the so needed health-care reform to take place now, or we could think that this has been a blessing in disguise. The Obama administration and the Democrats could begin again, without the damaging rush and make plans for a bipartisan reform that forgets politics and special interests such as Pharmaceuticals, and Health Insurance companies and helps Americans. Was not that what Obama promised: Hope and Change? We are awaiting the delivery.