Senator 41

Scott Brown's victory in the race to fill the Senate seat previously occupied by the brothers Kennedy (first Jack, then Ted) from 1953 to 2009 (but for a brief interlude from 1961 to 1962) is the political equivalent of pigs flying.  Republicans make up less than 12% of all registered voters in Massachusetts.  In the 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama outpolled John McCain by more than 26% in Massachusetts.  Yet Scott Brown defeated his Democratic challenger, Martha Coakley, by a margin of 52% to 47%.

Brown's victory gives the Republican Party 41 seats in the Senate.  So long as those 41 Senators stick together, they can use the Senate's rules to block cloture on any debate (which requires 60 votes), thus preventing legislation from being placed before the Senate for a vote.  The seating of Senator-elect Brown in the Senate will place portions of  President Obama's agenda in jeopardy since all 40 current Republican Senators voted against Obamacare and will likely vote against any plan to pump more "stimulus" dollars into the economy.  Brown ran on a platform that emphasized the need to continue the war on terror, to provide tax relief and to control Federal spending. On Obamacare, Brown promised to vote against cloture in the Senate. The voters of Massachusetts understood that a victory by Brown would be a major roadblock to the agenda of the President and the Democrats in Congress, and yet they voted for Brown anyway.

My liberal friends have been harping all day that Brown's victory does not reflect overall discontent with the Democratic Party's agenda for America.  They argue that Coakley was a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign.  They argue that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee did not come through with any support.  They argue that the Coakley defeat represents disillusionment by the Democratic base because President Obama and the Democrats who run Congress have not been "progressive" (read that as ultra-liberal) enough.  But the polling numbers tell a different story:

• 78% of Brown voters strongly oppose the health care legislation before Congress
• 61% of Brown voters say deficit reduction is more important than health care reform
• 88% of Brown voters say it’s better to pass nothing at all than to pass the health care legislation pending in Congress
• 76% of Brown voters said that they were voting "for Brown" and not "against Coakley" 

In other words, the push by President Obama and the Democrats who control Congress for bloated and ineffective health care "reform" defined the Massachusetts election, and the person who vowed to stand in the way of the Democrat's plan won the race in convincing fashion.  In the face of the evidence from the Massachusetts race, coming as it does on top of the recent GOP victories for the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, how can President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid be so tin-eared at to believe that they should now double-down their efforts to pass Obamacare at all costs?

On the other side of the aisle, the Senate GOP should take advantage of this situation to propose health care reform that makes sense.  I agree with my liberal friends that health care needs attention, but why does that have to translate into swallowing either the Democratic House or Senate bills that are now being considered?  Why can't we address the glaring problems that everyone agrees on rather than making secret backroom deals and passing out boxes of goodies to constituencies like Big Labor just so it can be said that something has been done?  To this end, I would propose that the Republicans in the Senate, with the enlisted help of some Democrats such as Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu, propose legislation that will address the following narrow issues:

• Place significant restrictions on pre-existing condition exclusions
• Restructure Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates
• Provide reimburseable tax credits to low and lower-middle income individuals and families to be used to purchase health insurance
• Place limits on exemplary damages in medical malpractice tort cases
• Permit insurance companies to sell health insurance across state lines

Republicans could use this opportunity to take the lead on health care.  A limited debate focused on these issues would not have to detract from the serious work that needs to be done to foster job creation in the current economy and to protect American citizens from the curse of Islamic terrorism.