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What works for David Lynch works for Bushbama...

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I don't remember much about Twin Peaks, but I recall the lines above being uttered during the “big reveal” concerning who killed Laura Palmer. I hear the line echoing in my head as I watch the Bushbama administration kill health care reform much in the same fashion as the Clintons did when Twin Peaks was still on TV. For those of you too young to remember either Twin Peaks or the Clinton administration (and who knows which one was more Lynchian) here's a brief recap.
In 1992, Bill Clinton rode into the White House on a wave of voter discontent over a mild economic recession and a president (Bush the father) who seemed oddly detached and gently retarded. The Democratic party controlled both houses of Congress, so technically nothing stood in the way of legislative health care reform. Madame Clinton was dispatched to Capitol Hill with a health care proposal. Discussions ensued but the news was not good: congressional Democrats had little interest in La Clinton's health care proposal and Republicans were openly hostile. The insurance lobby cooked up television ads to scare seniors with the prospect of a Stalinist state-run health care regime. If memory serves, no bill came out of committee, and we were left with plan “B,” today's HMO organizations run by such fine upstanding members of the community as Richard Scrushy. We heard excuses: “The evil insurance companies and Republicans killed health care,” and “they didn't like Hilary because she's a woman!” Really? The Democrats had majorities in both houses of Congress. With a little party discipline they could have passed any bill they wanted, and Ms. Clinton is only vaguely female. I am left with two possible explanations. First, the Clintons were utterly stupid and naive to believe their ham-fisted approach of sending the First Lady to Congress with a health care package would work, or they never intended reform to happen in the first place. I don't think the Clintons are stupid people.

Now here we are in 2009. A Democrat sits in the White House after riding a Tsunami of voter anger over a staggering recession and a president who seemed often to be halucinating or severely retarded (Bush Jr.) Both houses of Congress are once again firmly in Democratic hands (and the Senate is fillibuster-proof). Once again, there is no legislative or executive hurdle to passing a Democratic agenda. Time for health care reform! Well, not so fast. Even before Bushbama entered the White House we were being told to curb our enthusiasm. We had to be realistic, we were told. Just look at the economy! Well, Bushbama has thought nothing of spending upwards of two trillion dollars preserving the banking system, it seems a shame he's unwilling to do as much for health care. Most recently, Charles Rangel, the seemingly uninditable Congressman from New York, has proposed that a nerw healthcare plan be paid for by “racheting down” payments through Medicare. How convenient! The bill, as is, will be unpassible, and the evil lobbying groups will become the AARP. Methinks, my friends, that this healthcare plan is also designed to fail.

Don't misunderstand, there will be a health care bill passed. The bill will not, however, include a public option, decouple health insurance from work, insure the uninsured, control health costs or cost you less. The very best we can hope for is a reduction in the pre-existing conditions rule that allow insurance companies to refuse sick people Perhaps, if we're very lucky.

So where is the anger? My friends, isn't this what you voted for? What will you do when you get less than a tenth of what you were promised? Bushbama is betting you won't do anything. Rahm Emmanuel can calmly tell the “Meet the Press” crew that the public option could be a “trigger,” that is to say there will be no public option, because he already knows you will vote for his boss four years from now. No one bothers imposing party discipline on House Democrats because they already know who you are going to vote for in 2010. So Democratic voter, the question is this: at what point do you break the calculus? How many disappointments are you willing to weather before you signal to the current administration that there is a political price to be paid for offering the health care that every other civilized nation in the world has, and delivering nothing? At the moment we are right back in the summer of 1993, without Twin Peaks. Make no mistake, however, that in Congress, the great charade of health care reform is happening before our eyes, although few impassioned Obamoids can look up from their Dick Cheney Conspiracy Manuals long enough to notice. The will notice later when they have a bad diagnsis, or a child, or when they age. Make no mistake, this summer, it's happening again.