Have Democrats Learned Their Lesson ?

The Democrats finally got their health care reform package passed, but they made some mistakes with that bill that made it not only more difficult to pass, but also more unpopular with the public. One of the biggest mistakes was delaying passage of the bill in an effort to get Republican input and try to create a bipartisan bill. What they didn't seem to realize at the time was that the Republicans had absolutely no interest is bipartisanship.

Instead of creating a bipartisan bill, the delay only allowed the Republicans to crank up their propaganda machine. They told a multitude of lies about health care reform (such as the creation of death panels and the destruction of Medicare). And while claiming they wanted to talk about compromise, the Republicans just spread more lies.

Eventually, many people began to believe the lies (which weren't being adequately rebutted by Democrats) and the bill became more and more unpopular with the public (even though I think most people will eventually like most things in the bill).

The Democrat's mistake was in thinking the Republicans had the best interests of the American people in mind. That just wasn't true. The only thing the Republicans are interested in is demonizing President Obama and increasing their chances of regaining power, and if they have to lie and obstruct to accomplish that, so be it.

Now the financial reform bill, which would re-regulate Wall Street, is pending in Congress and the Republicans are trying to do the same thing with it that they did with the health care reform bill. They are making a play at talking about the bill while cranking up the propaganda machine again and filling it with outrageous lies. They are hoping that they can delay the bill long enough with talk to get a large segment of the population to believe their lies (like claiming the bill just amounts to another huge bailout).

But it looks like Democrats are in no mood to fall for the same trick twice. Senator Schumer (D-New York) said the lies will not go unchallenged this time. He said, "On the health care bill, we allowed too many lies to get out there without rebuttal because we thought they were so obviously untrue. But we've learned our lesson. The minute these things come out of the mouths of some of our Republican colleagues, we rebut them, and we rebut them again and again."

Majority Leader Reid (D-Nevada) agrees. He's decided that since the Republicans are putting out huge lies about the bill, the time for talk is over. He's scheduled a vote for Monday to close debate on the bill. It's not clear that the Democrats have the votes to close the debate, but win or lose the vote, it is the right thing to do. If they win, they are much closer to reforming Wall Street. If they lose, then they expose the Republicans as being opposed to reform and doing the bidding of the big banks and brokerages on Wall Street.

The American public is very angry with Wall Street right now, and they're not going to like the Republican attempts to kill reforming the financial industry. But the lie that the bill is another huge bailout must be quashed instantly, and one thing that must be exposed is the $1 million a day that Wall Street is spending lobbying against reform (much of it going into Republican campaign coffers).

Have the Democrats learned their lesson from the mess surrounding the health care bill? I certainly hope so. There's too much vital legislation that needs to be passed (Wall Street reform, immigration reform, energy reform, etc.). It's time for the Democrats to step up and start playing hardball. They must vigorously expose the lies and stop allowing the Republicans to play the delay game.

The people voted for change. It's time for Democrats to deliver it.