As the debate over nationalizing health care moved to the Senate, it was clear that the biggest procedural hurdle to its passage would be getting all 60 Democrats to agree on cloture as a means of starting and ending debate. Obviously, that meant some give-and-take on various portions of the bill, and a lot of that occurred behind closed doors as powerful Democrats and equally powerful lobbyists argued over the public option, paying for abortions, and how to fund the bill, among other things.
Once the bill finally made it to the Senate floor for debate, the Republican strategy seemed to be one of suggesting amendments to “improve” the bill, figuring these sacrificial amendments would be defeated while making the point that the bill was poorly conceived.
Some conservatives, though, grumbled that amending a bad bill to pay lip service to free-market principles wasn’t going to improve the system should the bill pass – the overall victory would belong to power-hungry Democrats and their special interest allies.
One conservative in that camp was Erick Erickson of RedState, who argued that because the minority in the Senate is much more powerful than their House counterparts, GOP Senators had a number of procedural methods at their disposal – IF they have the guts to use them.
In a brilliant, powerful article that quietly burned through the right-side blogosphere over the weekend, Erickson wrote not only a fiery call to action for Republican Senators, but a great rundown on some of the tools of delay at their disposal.
Please be sure to read this terrific article: FIGHT!
Lo and behold, this week Republicans started to do exactly that.
On Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced a 767-page amendment to the Senate health care bill which, for all intents and purposes, converted the bill into a vehicle for single-payer nationalized health care. Generally amendments, regardless of size, have their required reading waived by unanimous consent – but in this case, Oklahoma’s Sen. Tom Coburn objected to this waiver and demanded the amendment be read. By one estimate this reading would’ve taken 38 hours, so not long into this process Vermont’s Bernie Sanders withdrew his amendment.
Notice Erickson’s influence–his fingerprints, if you will– on this? After the powerful impact he has had on both NY-23 and on behalf of Marco Rubio in Florida, it is not a stretch to give him such credit.
Obviously there may come a day when slash-and-burn tactics such as these are used to thwart items near and dear to a conservative majority, but as Erickson argued in his commentary: killing this bill is worth the fight. And utlimately, in the end those tactics will only go so far as the people will allow them to go.
Those that gathered on Capitol Hill Thursday to call on the Senate to reject the Democrats’ eventual plan for socialized medicine – many of whom were also veterans of the similar appeal to the House in October, the 9-12 Taxpayer Rally, and TEA Parties across the land – can only do so much from the outside. But the true leadership on this issue has to come from the inside, and Republican Senators should know this change in tactics is a beautiful thing indeed to all of us who believe our liberty is worth fighting for.
If this health care debacle is to pass, let it be known that the Republicans in the Senate fought it kicking, screaming, and with every weapon at their disposal. Polls clearly show that the people do not want Obamacare, so the minority should have no qualms about battling to the end.
It now looks like they may be willing to fight tooth and nail to kill socialized health care. If so, Erick Erickson has earned no small debt of gratitude.
