Another Election- Colbert and Stewart To The Rescue?

I wonder if all the ghosts and spirits of Halloween can stir up some miracle for many of the Democrats on Tuesday. I doubt it.

It looks like the balance of the legislative process is going to shift back to the right- the House and many Governors will likely be Republican when all of this is over. There is still a chance (an outside chance) the Senate may move that way as well. Many of the pundits have speculated that this shift will simply result in a partisan stalemate in Congress we have never experienced before. I suppose you can just add it to the list. We haven’t experienced a lot of this before.

George Will (Conservative columnist from the Washington Post) argues this is the way the Founding Fathers intended things to work; partisanship is natural and the different bodies making up our structure of government were never intended to be bosom buddies. They were intended to provide the checks and balances required to protect our freedoms and the rights and responsibilities outlined in the Constitution. Disagreement is good. Partisanship is simply the result of having political parties with different ideas. He thinks the process is working.

But, I wonder.

I wonder if the Founding Fathers envisioned a legislative process paralyzed by politics when the country needs it most.

There’s enough blame for this to go around to everyone. It's time to fix it.

Yes, the Democratic leadership went too far when developing some of the policies important to its agenda. They didn’t have a choice in some areas- in others they did.

In health care they went too far given the circumstances we were dealing with as a country. They very likely figured they had only one shot at reforming the mess we have today and had to go for all the marbles- and that assumption cost them. The process was ugly and the final product was so complex and undefined almost everyone remains confused about what it is. The responsibility for communicating the “messaging” about the big picture has been assumed by cable news since everyone else has done such a poor job. And, most of the population does not like the content of the messages we’ve been hearing. As expected, the focus on reforming the insurance market and getting everyone covered under some type of coverage has overshadowed the real reform that could save billions of dollars and many lives over time.

While the effort may have been too ambitious for the country at the moment there are still many things included the legislation that make a lot of sense. Unfortunately, we remain focused on all the bad stuff and very few even hear about some of the other positive steps.

Payment reform that rewards value as opposed to volume when setting reimbursement approaches for care delivery is a huge step forward. Coordinating care more effectively between care-givers, improving technology use, enhancing the focus on wellness and prevention as opposed to sickness, and expanding community health initiatives are all critical areas needed to fix what we have. They don’t get much play in the world of politics today but should remain a focus whether in a law or not.

The elections on Tuesday will (once again) shake-up the political make-up of our democracy at all levels. These elections may very well impact whether we can, in fact, be successful in reforming our health care system to protect our economic foundation down the road. I hope and pray that after these elections the two sides can work together toward a common goal of creating the health care system that is accessible and affordable for all citizens whether it’s included in actual law or not. It’s just the right thing to do.

After we digest the results on Tuesday maybe we need to look for an alternative approach. If they can’t do it in Congress, maybe we should ask Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to help out.

It seems like they make more sense than anybody these days.