Smelling The Roses

By Jove, I think they got it:

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama may rely only on Democrats to push health-care legislation through the U.S. Congress if Republican resistance doesn’t eventually give way, two of the president’s top advisers said.

“Ultimately, this is not about a process, it’s about results,” David Axelrod, Obama’s senior political strategist, said during an interview yesterday in his White House office. “If we’re going to
get this thing done, obviously time is a- wasting.”

Both Axelrod and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said taking a partisan route to enacting major health-care legislation isn’t the president’s preferred choice. Yet in separate interviews, each man left that option open. “We’d like to do it
with the votes of members of both parties,” Axelrod said. “But the worst result would be to not get health-care reform done.”

While I don't expect Obama to come right out and say exactly what Emanuel and Axelrod have said, I'm glad to hear that White House staff members aren't falling for this "We have to get bi-partisan support on everything" myth. The guy won a decisive victory after being dragged through the mud and gained a ton of political capital; use it!

And he better hurry, because According to the CBO, the overhaul will cost about a trillion, (but will cover all but 3% of Americans). Still there's plenty of angles to use for selling this to the uneducated:

1. Military: while the brave men and women who currently serve have a plan of their own, improving the health of other Americans can only help the military. Future recruits will be healthier and require less initial conditioning.
2. Private Sector: Healthy employees will take less sick days and work more hours, making businesses more productive and profitable.
3. Family Values: I find it difficult to understand why people who think that all pregnant women should have their child and not even consider abortion also believe that said children should not have enough health care to make it past infancy.
4. Religious: Jesus healed the blind, deaf and sick for very little cost. Why can't America?
5. Economy: If people have to choose between their life-saving medicine, getting dinner or buy a new car, they're probably going to go for the medicine. Take that out of the equation, and Americans will once again spend ridiculous amounts of money on things they think they need, things they think they want, and things they definitely could do without. The Invisible Hand shall live!