At equilibrium, the political support for health care reform exists

By Money Matters Editors

Political scientists and public policy types have this phrase they use to describe the temperature for public policy during normal times: ‘at equilibrium.’

Ignoring for the moment that nothing economic or political since the onset of the financial crisis can be considered ‘at equilibrium,’ the phrase describes a political condition on the ground in Washington when there isn’t a crisis, a gaff, a major mistake, an international event, a point of fear/hysteria, or some other idiosyncratic event that can hinder (or help) a policy's chance for passage. And in case one hasn’t noticed, there are a lot events that can distort equilibrium in Washington, and the health care reform debate is a good case study.




The long, slow journey of politics, and progress

Every few days of so, it seems, there’s a new scare tactic data point to distort equilibrium, enabling an extremely conservative segment of the U.S. electorate – and a decided minority of voters – to present road blocks to health care reform. Examples include: ‘death panels,’ ‘pulling the plug on grandma,’ and alleged ‘Medicare rationing.’

But lately there’s been a growing sense in Washington that despite the above, when the political climate reverts back to the mean – and is ‘at equilibrium’ – lawmakers sense a strong support for health care reform in the nation: it exists and is palpable.

A veteran, Washington, D.C.-based public policy colleague and friend of this Money Matters Editor on Friday said he believes the broad health care coalition senses it, too.

Of course, that’s not to say that Representatives and Senator can’t chicken-out at the last minute: that’s always a risk, but the point here is that support for health care reform is strong, and that “there’s an 80-90% of era-changing legislation being passed this year,”  he said.