A Note About The Blogroll

It should go without saying that I don't agree with the blogs on the blogroll all the time. Some, in fact, I have openly criticized in the past.

Recently, though, Political Animal, Steve Benen's blog, has been trying my patience. What makes it useful is that Benen keeps a close eye on the political goings-on in DC. His criticisms of Republicans are often on the mark. The trouble is that, particularly lately, he's become something of a shill for Democratic politicians.

A recent case in point has happened in the last couple of days. Yesterday, in an article on the health care legislative effort, Benen chose to close with this statement:

The train is leaving the station. If 217 House Dems and 51 Senate Dems are on board, the nation will finally have the health care reform we've been waiting for since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. If not, reform will die, the crisis will worsen, and Democrats will have committed electoral suicide on a grand scale.

The GOP's Silence On Reform

This is patently absurd. There are so many problems with this bill that even its supporters are usually left with arguments like "it's better than nothing" or "it's something to build on". It will leave millions of Americans still not able to get health care, even if its supporters' most wildly optimistic estimates are to be taken seriously, which is something I most assuredly do not. We are nowhere near being done with health care reform. In my opinion, we really haven't even started - but that's an argument for another day.

Benen compounds this absurdity today, when he wrote these laughers:

Remember, while several provisions of the health care reform initiative wouldn't kick in until 2014, some really popular measures would kick in almost immediately. Consumers would have all kinds of new protections, including a ban on discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, the elimination of rescissions, a ban on annual or lifetime caps, etc.

Bring On The Repeal Fight

As a reader pointed out in the comments to that article, there is no ban on lifetime caps. Plus, as I and other readers have pointed out to him countless times, there is no provision for enforcement of any of these supposed "new protections". Without such enforcement, the regulations mean nothing.

I don't write from the point of view of a partisan for the Democratic Party. I write from the point of view of a progressive, and a liberal, who is a citizen of this country. I want what I think will be best for my society and, not coincidentally, for me. If the Republicans would give me that, I'd vote Republican. What "makes sense" from some purely political perspective is something I don't care about. Such opinions are, in my estimation, not based on anything more than the prejudices of the person holding the opinion. What matters to me is whether the legislation will make the country better.

So, while I haven't removed Political Animal from the blogroll, I'd like to advise readers to take what they read there with as much skepticism as they would view Democratic Party propaganda. These days, there seems to be little difference.