Sunday, March 21, 2010

Health Care Debate? A magnificent Mardi Gras Masquerade!

It is a good thing I have health care insurance, because if anything adversely affected my health recently, it was watching the Congressional debate over health care on Sun. night! The self serving and disingenuous political posturing on the part of the GOP ( Grand Obstructionist Party) made me want to throw up!
The smug, syrupy, sanctimonious procession of platitudes dished up by the Boehner Republicans made me more than ill ...it made me want to punch the television set!
I am sick! Sick of this debate. Sick of the phony posturing by members of the same party that contributed over 1.3trillion dollars to the federal deficit by voting for the Bush tax cuts version I and II, and voting for the Bush proposal to pay Senior drug benefits through expansion of Medicare, (which also contributed over 300 million dollars to the deficit), with nary a whimper of whining that we couldn't afford it . Let alone not a whimper of protest to the expenditure of billions and billions on an unnecessary war in Iraq.
I am reminded of Ambrose Bierce's definition of politics as "the strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principle...the study of who gets what , why, when, where and how"! The GOP of today has taken the masquerading part to new height! They have become a veritable Mardi Gras of mendacious manipulation.
This bill is no panacea, but it is better than simply doing nothing! As imperfect as parts of it may be ...it is still a major leap in the right direction. I would have preferred a public option. I could even have lived with republican efforts at some serious Tort reform (and I am a lawyer). But the fact that this bill will actually trim the deficit by over a trillion dollars over the next decade seems not to matter to the Republicans at all! It is as if they were deaf, dumb and blind over the last 8 years of Bush! Now they believe that the government should finally stop spending money it doesn't have ?
Well, welcome aboard the deficit reduction express...better late than never! But where were you for the last eight years?
It all comes down to this...the Republicans are essentially saying , "I've got mine...the hell with you!"! The Democrats are saying , "I've got mine...can I help you get yours"? That's is really what it comes down to!
It seems that the more things change the more they stay the same! It has ever been thus! I think the American people are smart enough to see through this smokescreen of opposition , and understand it for what it really is----- raw, unbridled, partisan pretense wrapped in the flag of hypocritical hogwash. Hopefully the American electorate will give it the treatment it deserves…..a giant flush down the toilet of political history!

Health Care Debate? A magnificent Mrdi-

Monday, January 25, 2010

Hey Barry---time to channel Harry!

Memo to My President---

Some thoughts for inclusion in the State of the Union address----

The election of Scott Brown as Senator from Massachusetts is, in some ways, one of the best things that could have happened to the Obama Presidency. Largely because it is a clarion type of wake up call..the message can only be disregarded at great peril. And that message is simply this…The Republicans didn't win... the people did. They are sending a message that Obama needs to finally hear.

Both parties are bought and paid for by the very special interests that continue to triumph and defeat the "change we can believe in".
Both parties have become handmaidens of the status quo. The stimulus package and health care reform got so watered down by the special interests that the Democrats lost their base. The message is clear… It’s time to get back to the basics and start solving the problems of the American people.

Hey Barry…like the old Beach Boys song says…“Be true to your school! “ The only way to “push ‘em back, push ‘em back, push ‘em way back” is to know thy friends, and even more importantly, know thy enemies. Stop dithering…Stand up for what you believe in, and dance with the crowd that brung you! Until now, Mr. President, you have been too Casper Milquetoast.

The President was wrong in ditching the public option on healthcare, and
he has not been following the right path when it comes to dealing with the
Bankers. He and his friends are increasingly looking like the not ready for prime time players. He got rolled by the Olympic Committee...he got rolled by Pelosi and the House Democrats on the stimulus package, and now he's been rolled by the Republicans and Sen. Lieberman and the “ Democratic” senate on health care! Doesn’t the bible speak of casting the lukewarm like vomit forth from the mouth? There are times when you just have to stand for principle, and be true to your beliefs.

Unless there is a significant early course correction ...President Obama will increasingly become President Oblanda…. The Incrementalist Extraordinaire! That is not who we thought we elected! That’s why the Independents are divorcing themselves from him in droves, and the true believers are being left out in the cold. A principled stand is not a luxury...it is an imperative!


Maybe it is time to take a sheaf or two out of Harry Truman's playbook and stand for something! Tell them where the bear you know what in the buckwheat! Obama needs to stop dithering and start demanding ... And remember that jobs… jobs… jobs is not some esoteric concept! It is the bread and butter of political hegemony.

Being too cute by half gets us no where. Cleveland needs you more than Copenhagen, Mr. President! Stop channeling Adlai Stevenson, and start channeling Harry Truman. Obama may be from Illinois, but he needs to act like he’s from Missouri.

Give ‘em hell Barry! It’s time to channel Harry!

It’s the only way to get back in the driver’s seat, and it is still not too late!