Massachusetts Must Not Derail Healthcare Reform
The upset victory of Scott Brown in yesterday’s Massachusetts special election to fill the U.S. Senate left vacant by the death of Edward Kennedy is being widely hailed as a rejection of President Obama’s domestic agenda in general and of the health care reform effort in particular. I do not know if that is the case or not but what is clear is that simply opposing the health care bill moving through Congress without offering a viable alternative amounts to little more than an endorsement of the status quo. And the status quo is simply unsustainable.
One year from this month the first of 78 million Baby Boomers will start becoming eligible for Medicare creating a projected unfunded entitlement of nearly $70 trillion. Last year we tested the limits of consumer credit in the U.S. and found that we had exceeded it -- which contributed to the subsequent chaos in our financial markets. Embracing the status quo of our health care system means that we are literally testing the limits of China’s willingness to continue underwriting U.S. deficit spending. I don’t know what that limit is but I can tell you it isn’t anywhere close to $70 trillion. And we surely do not want to exceed it – nor do we want to mortgage our children’s future to our major international competitors.
My point is that gaining a 41st Republican U.S. Senator may mean that the current effort to overhaul our health care system can be stopped but it does little to move us toward a definitive solution to a crisis that threatens the fiscal stability our nation; and is leaving our children with a staggering burden of debt. We can hope for the best in Congress, but it is clear that we cannot rely on Washington DC. We in Oregon have the opportunity -- indeed the responsibility -- find a way to move our political dialog beyond partisan gridlock to the hard but indispensable work of building a more sustainable future. Once again, it is time for Oregon to lead that way.
