The Morning After

Ok, the House Democrats managed to pull it off and pass the Senate health care bill, no doubt promising all sorts of under-the-table favors to reluctant House members to buy their votes. And the Senate will no doubt pass the "fix it" bill this week to implement the changes the House and Senate agreed on. So now the interesting part begins.

First of all will be the legal challenges from the states, but most constitution experts expect these to fail. Historically the courts have generally held that Federal law supersedes state law.

Next will be the November elections, and it will be interesting to see if House Democrats pay the price for voting this through. If the election were held today, they certainly would, but American voters have very short memories, and if unemployment has dropped significantly by November, voters may well have forgotten this issue by then.

Finally (in a few years) will come the reality, when taxes go up, health care costs have not gone down, and the burgeoning federal deficit (driven by our expensive entitlement programs) begins to make it hard to sell federal bonds to roll over the debt, and interest rates begin to skyrocket along with inflation. But of course by then people will have forgotten this debate.

Well, we get the government we deserve, and are foolish enough to vote into office.