Whoa! 

Howard Dean yesterday and today has been been making some good sense on the desire of Democrats and President Obama to pass anything they can possibly label as healthcare reform in order to claim they kept a campaign promise.  This isn’t necessarily news.  For weeks and months they have been watering down the bill to bring along members of their own party and attempt to snag a few Republicans along the way (which hasn’t been working all that well) while still calling the product healthcare reform.  But it’s certainly a problem when a Doctor and former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee says it.

When this all started healthcare reform meant a public option, if not a single-payer system, to Democrats.  Today, it doesn’t mean anything near that, at least in the Senate. 

During an interview with Good Morning America’s newest co-host George Stephanopoulos, Dean said this: “We’ve gotten to the stage, George, you know this better than most, in Washington, where passing any bill is a victory. And that’s the problem. Decisions are made about the long-term future of this country for short-term political reasons. And that’s never a good sign.”

He is absolutely right.  If Democrats are successful in getting this passed it will be a watered down version of what they originally wanted but every member that votes for it will run in 2010 on the fact that they were the first Congress and President to pass “meaningful” healthcare reform.  Problem is, that’s far from the case.

You can read the transcript and see Dean’s interview here.