EDITORIAL: ‘They pass 70-30, or they fail’
By Grand Forks Herald | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Significant Democratic support.
If the House Republicans' food-stamp reforms fail (and with them, the Farm Bill), that will be the key reason why.
The
The reason why the
Famously, it passed in 2010 without a single Republican vote, and that fact has haunted the policy ever since.
Obamacare's partisan origins mean the act is anything but "settled law." It remains hotly disputed, with one party and half the nation hoping for its failure and pressing for its repeal.
That's no way to pass health care reform, as Republicans well know.
Nor is it the way to pass food stamp reform. Such changes don't work well unless there's healthy "buy-in" from both parties. Republicans wanted that in 2010 and were furious when Democrats wouldn't yield. The
By the way, this is not a new insight. It's simply an accurate one. "Maybe you eke out a victory of 50-plus-1," said presidential candidate
(But) "Then you can't govern. We've got to break out of what I call the 50-plus-1 pattern of presidential politics."
And fully 20 years ago, then-Sen.
Politico.com tells the story:
"Moynihan repeated one insistent warning: Sweeping, historic laws don't pass barely. 'They pass 70-to-30,' he said, 'or they fail.'"
In 1996, welfare reform made Moynihan's grade. It passed the House 328-101, the
Food-stamp reformers including Cramer should have held out for that kind of support.
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