By John Kerry - April 26, 2010
It's practically a rite of passage. No serious legislation ever makes it very far in Congress before it's declared dead - at least once, sometimes two or three times. Here's just a few headlines and statements from pundits from the last couple years about a major reform effort you might remember:
Health Care Bill Dies? (
July 2009)
Health care may be 'dead' if Scott Brown wins (
January 2010)
The health care bill ... is dead with not the slightest prospect of resurrection. (January 2010)
Health Reform Is Dead. (
January 2010)
"I suspect serious health insurance reform is over for yet another generation." (
January 2010)
I could go on and on, and the Senator in me tempts me to do exactly that, but this isn't the time for a fillibuster.
No, I raise these examples to make a simple point: Congress defied the cynics and naysayers and passed historic health care reform.
The Senate is more than capable of relegating the recent gloomy headlines about comprehensive climate and energy reform to the place they belong at the Newseum - right next to the 1948 Chicago Tribune headline that declared "Dewey Beats Truman."
Look, passing legislation is never easy - it's supposed to be that way. The bigger the reform, the tougher it gets. And there are always countless places along the way where it looks like it's difficultbecause, well, because it is difficult. Almost all of the snags get worked out without anyone noticing them, but sometimes, they get noticed, and you know what happens.
But here are three things I want everyone to know.
First, Lindsey Graham has invested enormous amounts of time with Joe and myself, bringing people to the table, and doing the hard, grinding work it takes to get a bill this far. It's been a real team effort between the three of us.
Second, there's a larger team effort that's also important. I had a lot of conversations yesterday and today with key folks from an historic and unprecedented coalition that were going to stand up today and support our proposal. Some unlikely partnerships have been built. And the good news is, I heard from all of them this weekend saying to us, "don't give up - keep this moving forward." It's because they're so committed that I know we can get this done this year.
Third, and lastly, the best damn message I heard this weekend came from Tom Friedman on Face the Nation. Tom had written a column for that morning which urged, "if there is going to be a Green Tea Party, it will have to emerge from a different place -- the radical center, a center committed to a radical departure from business as usual. Acting on that impulse, Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman had forged a bipartisan climate/energy/jobs bill that deserves an energetic centrist Green Tea Party to support it."
And by the time most people picked up that Sunday newspaper, they were reading that our efforts were stuck. but a couple hours later, there was Tom Friedman again on television, reacting to the not so great news - and he summed it up best - and made it clear this isn't a Washington parlor game, this is bigger than the Senate and bigger than politics:
"The result is, Bob, right now in Beijing, they're high-fiving each other. Oh, yeah, baby. This means the Americans are going to be paralyzed on green tech, okay, for another couple of years. China is already leading the world now in wind production. China is already leading the world in solar production."
We need to get back on track for exactly those reasons Tom identified. Because this is about something bigger - it's about our country - and our leadership, America's leadership. So don't get too caught up in the inside-the-Beltway parlor game of declaring reform efforts "dead." We're still pushing, we're still talking, we're still fighting, it's very much alive - and I won't quit until they're high-fiving on Main Street America not Beijing, Tehran, or Caracas.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
