Legal Commentary

The Great Progressive Achievement?

By Big Tent Democrat

I've been thinking about this formulation that has been applied to the health bill, most recently by Matt Yglesias, and I think it deserves some unpacking. When the phrase is used, it implicitly is limited to domestic programs. But I think it still seems very premature for such declarations.

Consider this - since LBJ (I assume the reference to "40 years" is to LBJ's series of legislative accomplishments in the mid-1960s (BTW, now that the President is irrelevant or impotent, what does that say about LBJ's accomplishments? Is he among the greatest in history?)), there have been 3 Democratic Presidents - Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, whose tenures covered 13 of the last 41 years. As a baseline, there is not much accomplishment to exceed. More . . .

Still and all, is the health care bill a bigger progressive achievement than the 1993 Tax Act? It is true that George Bush undid that achievement but who is to say that a successor to President Obama won't undo major portions of the health bill? Indeed, considering that the heart of the bill does not go into effect until 2014, how do we know any of it will even commence?

Beyond that, what of the creation of the EPA and other important enironmental legislation enacted during the Nixon Administration? Is this health bill definitely a bigger progressive achievement? After all, we know that those measures have survived for nearly 40 years and have worked on some level. We have no idea about the health bill.

In short, it is this type of hyperbole that, I at least, find annoying. The bill could do some good. How much good remains to be seen. It seems bigger than S-Chip (enacted in 1997), but we know S-Chip has survived the test of time. This health bill has not even survived conference yet.

I suggest the bill proponents hold off on the hosannas.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on December 24, 2009 (boomark / email).