In comments to the post below, serial catowner says:
Edwards is saying the same thing a lot of people say- Congress is tickled pink with their socialized medicine but won't let the rest of us have it. I get this as a forwarded e-mail from my elderly mother quite regularly.
If the "big thinkers" in the Democratic Party want to lose the next election, they should just keep up the backbiting and quibbling. The average voter may not know much about healthcare, but almost all of them think the Congress gets a real sweetheart deal in this regard.
First, I'm glad to know this sort of thing has made the e-mail forwards. But we're also getting into what's worthwhile about this stunt: It's probably better if Congress opposes it.
There are two applause lines that the Democratic health care proposals have been designed to enable: The first is, "if you like your current insurance, nothing changes for you." The second is, "you will get insurance exactly like what members of Congress have." These are the arguments Democrats are relying on to sell their plans. They are arguments that weren't true for the Clinton plan in 1994. They are true now.
What Edwards' stunt does is dramatize how much Congressmen like the health care they currently receive. How far they'll go to defend it. And how hollow the inevitable protestations of dangerous, socialized medicine really are. If Congress wants to block this bill, the follow-up point, which can be made in a speech to the nation, is "if your health care is so good, why shouldn't every American be allowed to have it?" What Edwards wants to do isn't take away the health care of Congress, but expand it to the country. They can battle that approach, of course. But it's not going to be popular. And Congress-critters don't like to do unpopular things.
