Jerry’s Blog–Because Wit Happens

So the House has passed a health care bill.

And the Senate has passed a health care bill.

They’re having trouble reconciling the two bills, because 1) there is no helpful input from the Republicans (who still define “leadership” in terms of Bush, Cheney, and Palin), and 2) the Democrats are such an impotent embarrassment to our Party that even a lifelong liberal member such as myself is sickened by them.

The simple solution is this:  Baseball Arbitration (also known as Pendulum Arbitration).

Here’s how it would work:  the reconciliation committee sets a deadline for its work.  If there is no resolution by the deadline, the two existing plans–the House Plan and the Senate Plan–are submitted to…someone…who then picks one of the two plans.  One or the other.  Whichever this Someone feels is the better plan.

And that will be our new Health Care Law.

Who should the final arbiter be?  I don’t care.  Let the Republicans be the arbiter.  That would be fine with me, and would give them some input.  If they refuse to do so (based on their “principles”), I don’t care who makes the decision–Clarence Thomas? Samuel Alito? The President? Rush Limbaugh? A coin flip?  Me?–it really doesn’t matter.

Because thus far, the Democrats are showing poor leadership in the aftermath of having passed two “workable” health care plans, followed by nothing but head-scratching and nose-picking while they try and resolve the “differences”.  There appears to be a good chance that they’ll just “give up”, when Baseball Arbitration would get something done that would benefit the country.

Would passage of one or another of these plans–as the Republicans fear–be the end of civilization as we know it?  Guess what: Probably not.  Why not?  Because we have elections every couple of years.  The Dems will lose seats in the next one (as they deserve), and any parts of the new law which turn out to be horrible can be fixed by the new, wiser, and more-Republicany next Congress.  Go get ‘em New Guys and Gals!  I wish you the best.

But in the meantime, let’s get something done.  Baseball Arbitration would be preferable to…nothing.