The Periscope Post

Now sporting US President Barack Obama’s signature, the controversial healthcare reform bill is law.

But the fight over healthcare reform isn’t over by a long shot. This week, Senate Republicans are making a last ditch effort to change the bill by “gutting” the fixes package, the 150-page addendum to the law. The Washington Post reported today, “Because the fixes bill was written under special budget reconciliation rules, it cannot be filibustered. But Republicans vowed to take full advantage of their right to offer unlimited amendments, intending to sabotage the package and create turmoil among Democrats who are counting on its passage.”

If that doesn’t work, there’s talk of repealing the law, an effort that would require Republicans to make a pretty substantial showing at November’s mid-term elections. As for that prospect, American media is pretty well divided: Republican “sky is falling” tactics don’t always work, but then again, a substantial portion of the American public was against the healthcare bill.

And then there are the states proposing to challenge the legality of a law requiring Americans to have health insurance in court, aided by deep Republican and interest group pockets. Meanwhile, though the bill represented a lengthy and detailed attempt at reform, the thrust of its power is in how the now law will be shaped in Congress. The Washington Post today reported that interest groups are now ramping up their efforts to “steer implementation of the legislation to their advantage, including the writing of federal rules to govern insurance coverage, requirements for employers and the insurance exchanges created under the law.” Lobbyists who broke the bank trying to keep the healthcare law off the books are digging even deeper to redirect their efforts, rather than give up the ghost.

Finally, there’s whether or not the law will actually do what it says it’s going to do, given that it stays a law. Ruth Marcus, in today’s Washington Post, wrote, “If I were a member of Congress, my floor speech before casting a yes vote would have boiled down to: Gee, I hope this works. One of the astonishing aspects of the health-care debate is how little is actually known about the implications of a change this far-reaching. Everyone has a theory, and a model to match, but even some of the most fundamental questions remain the subject of debate.”

Some observers, however, claim that the Obama Administration needs to use its recently garnered momentum to move past healthcare and deal with some of the other major issues facing America. The New York Times, in one of its leading editorials today, lauded President Obama, “just over a year into a tumultuous presidency in which he was sometimes wrong-footed and often adrift”, for signing into law “the most momentous social legislation in many years.”

“But there is important business ahead — lots of it,” the paper added. “And while Mr. Obama deserves a break, he must build on this success, not rest on it.” So what should he tackle next? Jobs, financial reform, education, climate change, immigration reform, terrorist detention, and not necessarily in that order. And, the paper noted, “With rare exceptions, the Republicans are not going to help. Anyone who thinks otherwise should consider what Senator John McCain of Arizona said on Monday: ‘There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year.’”