Delusion Thy Name Is Democrat

25 Mar, 2010 by Melissa Clouthier

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The coming two-week congressional break was long dreaded by Democratic leaders, who feared the political fallout of having members go back home without a health care law to tout.

That’s not a worry any longer. Perceptions have turned so much that Democrats are now eager to head home and talk about the impact of the new law, House Ways and Means Chairman Sandy Levin said today.

Levin, D-Mich., said on ABC’s “Top Line” that Democrats are looking forward to defending and explaining the health care reforms they enacted.

“I think the health bill will be very much part of the debate, and we’re very happy to go — we’re anxious to go home and talk to our constituents about it,” Levin said. “But clearly jobs is a major, major issue as well, and we have to address the jobs issue.”

“I’ve been talking to a lot of my colleagues who are in very marginal seats, I think five, six, seven weeks ago they would have been worried about going home, wondering whether or not they were going home to immense unpopularity of an issue,” Levin added.

“I think they now feel that they stood up, the vast majority of them, to their credit. This is a bill that has so many positives. I go home and the people tell me about preexisting conditions, they can’t get insurance. I go home and people say to me that the costs are going out of control, and they are going to lose their insurance. This bill address costs, it addresses also preexisting conditions, it assists people who are uninsured.”

“So now there’s a feeling we can go back home, be proud of what we have done, understand there’s more to be done to implement it, but I think there had been a turning,” Levin said. “What helps most of all are the facts in the bill, and so we’re going to go home and talk about the facts. And I think that the more we talk about the facts and not some of this overblown rhetoric, the more people will understand this is a positive step. It’s in the best traditions of our country.”