Massachusetts upset should prompt Congress to turn to jobs

THE capture of Edward Kennedy's Senate seat by a Republican, Scott Brown, is more than "one of the biggest upsets in Massachusetts political history," which is what The Boston Globe called it. It is as if the voters of Massachusetts pulled an emergency brake on a train, breaking the momentum of the health-reform bills chugging through Congress.

That momentum had been slowing already. Many people thought a bill would pass last August, as a tribute to Sen. Kennedy. Instead, separate House and Senate bills made it over the top only in December. Out of 435 votes, the House had three to spare. In the Senate, Democrats had to offer Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, political boodle in order to get the bare 60 votes needed.

With Brown's election, the Democrats lost their 60th vote.

Meanwhile, poll after poll had shown that the American people had become worried about how reform would affect them. By late last year, more Americans opposed the effort than supported it. They wanted their leaders to worry about the economy, and jobs.

The reply by supporters was that reform is complicated, that people didn't understand it, and that once they had a taste of it, they would like it. It hasn't turned out that way in Massachusetts. Of the 50 states, that is the one with its own health-care reform, including an individual mandate to buy insurance.

Congress should set the botched health-insurance proposals aside and get on with issues that touch directly on economic recovery, starting with financial reform. When Congress takes up health care again — and it will — it should do it in a manner that is less partisan. Future health-care reform should also be focused more on the problem of rising costs, which is what contributed to Tuesday's upset in Massachusetts.