Investor’s Business Daily
October 13, 2009
Politics: After hemming and hawing for weeks, Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe did what many knew she’d do: support the abominable Baucus health care overhaul.
The GOP has a big problem. Some who march under its banner don’t really accept the basic philosophy it espouses — one of low taxes, small government and support of the Constitution. Snowe is one of those.
Her decision to vote “aye” on the Baucus bill, which passed out of the Senate Finance Committee on an otherwise partisan 14-9 vote, was called a “surprise” by some. It wasn’t.
She’s done this for years, undercutting her party and lending support to the opposition. Don’t look for some transcendent reason.
“My vote today is my vote today,” Snowe said, clarifying nothing. “It doesn’t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow.”
Nothing like standing firmly on principle.
What’s galling is Democrats could have passed this without Snowe’s help. By lending her voice and senatorial prestige, she weakened her party’s otherwise resolute stance against the health care bill. In short, she gave Democrats badly needed bipartisan cover to ram Baucus — or something worse — down all our throats.
As we’ve said before, the Baucus bill will lead, inevitably, to higher taxes, lower-quality care, rationing and the intrusion of government into the most sensitive decisions we make. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will cost $829 billion over 10 years, but economists expect costs to soar north of $1 trillion.
There are lines in the sand for both parties, and this bill should be one. A person can’t support Baucus and still say he or she’s for small, or limited, government…
Read more here.
