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With this week’s vote to repeal President Obama’s health care reform, House Republicans struck a blow for freedom.

They struck a blow for the freedom of hospitals to avoid financial penalties, no matter how many Medicare patients develop infections under their care. They struck a blow for the freedom of hospitals to avoid consequences, no matter how many Medicare patients are readmitted soon after treatment. And they struck a blow for the freedom of health care providers to receive unending annual increases in their Medicare reimbursements, even if they fail to improve their productivity by even a fraction of what’s occurring in other industries.

Take that, Big Government.

Coming from me or Jon Chait, this wouldn’t be worth a second glance. But it’s from longtime center-left political columnist Ronald Brownstein, who doesn’t normally engage in quite such obvious snark. It’s a sign that healthcare reform really is here to stay and mainstream Washington is already tiring of Republican game playing about repeal. It’s also, I think, a sign that if Republicans really do try to shut down the government come March, they’re not going to have much of anyone besides Fox News on their side.

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The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

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