It makes sense. Even people as mentally slow as Congressional Democrats eventually realize that after negotiating and waffling around on this healthcare bill, cutting it up and taking out "offensive" bits to appease The Right, they haven't convinced a single Republican (even the ones whom they were negotiating with) to vote for the bill. Everybody knew that sooner or later the Democrats were going to ask themselves, "Why negotiate with Republicans at all?"
I'll give the Democrats some credit for trying: Even after an election where they were given almost untouchable majorities in Congress, they still made a not-so-insignificant effort to accommodate Republican desires. Republicans shot them down at every turn... and not with facts and figures and reasoned debate, but cries and lies of "death panels" and "Government-paid abortions" and "illegals getting healthcare".
From a purely political standpoint: Fuck them. Republicans lost last year and now it looks like they get to be ignored for a while. They had their chance to debate the healthcare issue like grownups from a minority position and they blew it. I'm not sorry at all about it: It's exactly what they deserve.
Maybe now the Democrats will get their act together and coalesce into a single-minded political party. That's probably asking too much. I'm sure that the chances for the Healthcare Bill passing are lower now due to this approach. (I don't know if that is a good thing or bad thing... I haven't followed the debate.) If the bill does go down to defeat because of it, at least the Democrats will come across in the end as principled... and not pansies.
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