According to the New York Times discussions led by Senator Ted Kennedy have gotten underway on health care reform. Participants in the discussions include representatives from labor, manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce, the health insurance industry, AARP and a variety of non-profit organizations with an interest in the issue.
One major player is missing however, in spite of pleas from the business and health insurance lobby they come to the table. Who are they? The Republicans, that's who.
According to the New York Times article "so far Republican aides have stayed away from the sessions, saying they felt they would be relegated to a secondary role, with no opportunity to set the agenda or choose outside participants." Well, it is likely true the minority party in Congress will have a "secondary role", kind of like Democrats had a "secondary role" when they were the minority. Minorities usually don't play as big a part as the majority. If they did we would have to reverse the definitions of those two words.
That said, their lame excuse for not participating in discussions leads me to believe when health care reform is rolled out we will hear something like the following from Republicans on Capitol Hill: "This reform effort is not bi-partisan and we were excluded from the process." Sound familiar?
0 comments:
Post a Comment