Politics 2000

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this week that the Senate will not pass a health care bill before the August recess. There’s only about a week left before Congress breaks until after Labor Day.

The House possibly could have met President Obama’s original request to pass reform legislation by August. The task was always going to be more difficult in the Senate. The job has now been delayed.

Even Obama has conceded that no bill will reach his desk soon. He now simply hopes Congress will continue to work toward passing legislation before the recess. He’d better hope there’s something passed by the end of 2009 that he doesn’t mind signing. Next year is an election year and the odds of anything even slightly controversial are slim.

The president must know that the chance of passing health care reform lessens each day. The same is true for almost any legislation. Given enough time, enough people can find something wrong with almost anything. At least enough wrong to stop action.

That’s why quickness was urged with the TARP bill last year, with the stimulus bill in January and with the cap-and-trade bill earlier this month. Waiting too long allows the lobbyists and special interest groups to marshal their forces. Proponents of legislation rarely want that.

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