President Obama was almost a comedic figure in his attempt to subjugate the Republican delegation to his so-called Health Care Summit on February 25th. The dog and pony show was obviously an attempt to embarrass the Republicans and reinforce Mr Obama’s claim that they are the “Party of No.”
Instead of actually listening to the substantive ideas the Republican delegation, presented in a thoughtful and respectful manner, the President continued to claim that we must act with haste to pass the hideous Senate Health Care Bill. The President, who in normal times would be exceedingly aware of the poll numbers on his favorite issues, continued to call for passage of the Health Care Power Grab despite the overwhelming opposition of the American people. That opposition has been expressed in virtually every poll taken recently.
One little fact that seems to have been neglected by the entire corps of media stenographers slavishly supporting (covering) the Obama Administration is that while Republicans do indeed oppose the ridiculous attempt to take control of the American Health Care system, their numbers are far too small to actually pose any meaningful opposition, let alone actually hold up passage of the measure. The only reason the President has not already signed a Health Care Takeover Bill is that there is not sufficient Democrat support to pass the bill in either chamber of the Congress.
But the President revealed his real objective at the end of the day. After sitting there feigning attention and interest in the input of the Republicans, he made a statement that completely exposed his intentions. Mr. Obama said, “We cannot have another year long debate about this. So the question I’m going to ask myself and I ask of all of you is: is there enough serious effort that in a month’s time or a few weeks’ time or six weeks’ time we could actually resolve something?
“And if we can’t then I think we need to go ahead and make some decisions and then that’s what elections are for. We have honest disagreements about the vision for the country and we’ll go ahead and test those out over the next several months until November.”
It was a naked threat to Republicans and Democrats to pass the Health Care “Reform” or else he would have his minion, the hapless, bumbling Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, ram the bill through the Senate using the reconciliation procedure, a strategy that would by-pass the 60 vote requirement currently used in that body.
But, for once in my life, I find myself in violent agreement with a democrat president. If they attempt to pass this bill using the reconciliation procedure, we will find out in November what elections are for. If they try to pass this bill in opposition to the will of the American people, we may see the end of the democrat party as a viable political entity for many years. If that is the case, I say “Go for it Mr. President, go for it all the way.”
Bulldog, I partially agree with your assessment of the President's naked threat. It seems to me that he is wrong on every stance hs takes (e.g., closing Gitmo, civilian trial for KSM, commenting that the police acted "stupidly", etc.) While this move to resort to reconciliation to pass an obviously unpopular bill will prove to be another boneheaded decision, I fear the unintended consequences of the bill - higher taxes, more unemployment, more dependence on government, more money (benefits) to unions.
ReplyDeleteThe other fear I have is that the Republican party may believe that the November election outcome is predetermined as a win and is hardly worth fighting for. Nothing could be further from the truth.