On the one hand, PresBo vows to "continue the fight" on ObamaCare. On the other hand, Senator Dodd says that they should "take a break from health care" for a month or so. On the other hand, Rep Nadler says we need to pass the Senate bill and amend it with a reconciliation bill. On the other hand, Rep Ryan says the Democrats are crafting new bills to be passed under budget reconciliation rules.
We've long since run out of hands, but all of this boils down to two basic options. They can either ignore the mood of the country and push ahead with an ObamaCare agenda that was rejected in ultra-liberal Massachusetts, or they can LISTEN to the people and start over with less ambitious and more moderate proposals. So far, most Democrats are looking at ways to do the first... the second option isn't seriously being considered by many Democrats at all.
And all this is happening amidst a backdrop of voter angst and anger, in which the public is rapidly turning against the liberal Democrats' agenda. For example, 77% of investors view Obama as anti-business, 55% say that Congress should suspend work and consider alternatives, and 72% think the Massachusetts results were about ObamaCare and should be listened to.
Now we have to ask ourselves WHY are the Democrats so intent on ignoring what the people of this country want? Is it genuine concern for the country, or partisan interests? Unfortunately, it looks like it's mainly Democrat concern for the welfare of the party... to heck with the country, long live the party!
""We have to get a bill passed," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., because her party would have no excuse for failing to revamp health care when it controls Congress and the White House."Newsmax article.
Passage of reform is even more important for the future of the Democrats as a political party. Right now, Democrats see an electorate that is unsupportive of the current health care bill and is angry at Washington. The natural and immediate impulse is not surprisingly to ease up, particularly with midterm elections less than 10 months away. The fallout would be catastrophic and could represent an existential threat to Democrats as a political party.
New York Daily News article
I think you get the point. A major part of the rationale they are using to encourage Democrat Congressmen to push forward with the bill is that a failure to enact such a pivotal agenda item would hurt them badly in the upcoming November elections.
In other words, it doesn't matter what the people of this country want or even what is really good or bad for the country, at this point it's all about what is good for the Democrats.
I have news for you, Democrats, you can't be a success if you govern IN SPITE of the people. If you ignore us, belittle us, and continue to ram things we don't want down our throats, you WILL face a voter backlash.
We are the people you are supposed to represent, so stop denigrating and ignoring us. We are the people. Respect us.
Here's the curious thing...what would you regroup under? Health care is now doomed. The global warming legislation is doomed. The various attempts to go after Wall Street are pretty much a joke (especially since the Wall Street crowd can now toss money at election campaigns). So what's left?
ReplyDeleteAnother stimulus package? Shovel-ready of course? That didn't really solve much of anything in spring of 2009.
Educational reform? It won't help create jobs unless it's aimed at more teachers.
I think this is all pretty much a Fourth of July without any fireworks, ribs, fried chicken or beer. There's virtually nothing that you can dream up....to solve this issue of finding an issue.
Oh, and there's this funny problem...if the administration insults its far left crowd who bought onto this entire agenda and Obama-change in the first place...then you really lose what support you have left.
Basically...a lose-lose-lose situation.
I would argue that health care reform isn't dead, just this over-reaching, ultra-liberal, government-control version of "reform" is dead. If they were to say, "Okay, we understand you don't want this, so we'll try something else," it's still possible to pull a success out. Small bills containing targeted solutions to specific problems. Don't try to "use the crisis" to gain control of anything, just fix what you can.
ReplyDeleteI posted my first choice of bills to be introduced.
http://politicsalabama.blogspot.com/2010/01/start-over-on-health-care-reform-and.html
If doing that earns Democrats a victory, I couldn't care less. That the job gets done right is more important than who gets credit for doing it.
That's one way they could regroup... retreat from their weak position and try again with more moderate and less ambitious bills.