Congress Goes for Rationing

“Democrats choose Death Panels…” announces the Comedy Channel’s Jon Stewart with mock horror, “…for themselves!” It’s a very funny bit. The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty plays it straight as she reports: “Ultimately, some candidates, including incumbents, will have to be left for dead so that the parties can spend where it might still make a difference.”

Then, there’s Michael Barone in the Washington Examiner. Mr. Barone has probably forgotten more about American politics than most political commentators will ever know. The editor for 40 years of the Almanac of American Politics knows political panic when he sees it. He nails the word “triage,” saying that leaders of the House majority party are prepared to effect “a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority.”

The current liberal majority in Congress assured its members that the 2,000-page health care legislation they were demanding would become more popular with voters after it was passed. That has not proven to be the case. The president’s health care legislation has become more unpopular the more voters focus on it.

Barone reports that no member of the majority who voted for the president’s signature legislation is running ads touting that fact. A significant number of majority party members who voted against Obama’s bill are running campaign ads stressing that opposition. This is clear indication that the votes they cast for nationalizing health care are not campaign pluses, are in fact anchors around their necks. And the waters are rising.

I’m struck by the fine irony here. This is the group that pooh-poohed Sarah Palin’s talk of “death panels.” Ridiculous. Never happen. This is America, after all.

Yet look what they resort to when some of their political bodies are on life support. What is this “triage” except a form of rationing? They are taking scarce resources, in this instance campaign cash, and they are giving it only to those who are showing signs of political health.

It is any wonder that town hall meetings last summer erupted into grassroots anger? Is it any surprise that Congress as an institution is saddled with a 71% disapproval rating? (Well, that’s better than it was in August. Last month, 72% of Americans disapproved of their lawmakers.)