A certain someone asked me a few months ago whether I thought Obama was really a liberal president. Of course I answered yes. He then asked what Obama had done so far in office to make me think that. After my usual sch-peel of, “well, what has he done period?” I listed a few minor policy changes that I view as far left.
Admittedly, after that conversation I thought it over again and decided that I may have been wrong. (I didn’t tell him that, but I guess the cat is out of the bag now) Despite what I may have been quick to think, at that point I felt that Obama had been a surprisingly centrist president.
But now, a few months later, I retract the ridiculous notion that Obama was actually going to govern from the center. I’d like to take that thought, set it on fire and throw it out the window.
As always it comes down to health care reform. We’ve all heard the sob story by now; the Democrats can’t get it passed and the Republicans are being nuisances. Cue the image of Obama sitting in the Oval Office shaking his head at his bickering kids. Poor Barack. No one wants to play nice.
When Bill Clinton proposed HillaryCare he faced similar opposition. Republicans didn’t like it, voters didn’t get it and even some Democrats wouldn’t support it. Sound familiar? So the bill died and Clinton worked with both Democrats and Republicans to come up with less radical alternatives that made both parties moderately happy. In other words, he started tweaking his policies and governing from the center rather than the left.
Obama, it seems, has yet to read that memo. Unlike Clinton he’s breaking out the defibrillator and shocking his flawed bill back to life. Again. Despite his plummeting approval ratings, lost elections and experts saying that the reform would be detrimental to the economy, he marches on.
The White House released a spruced up health care plan which fails to fix the real issue. Americans have one main concern with health care – the rising costs. Obama’s plan, chock full of regulations and mandates just doesn’t solve that problem.
His televised summit with the Republicans seems like a great way to convince the public he’s trying to compromise with both sides. The reality is he’s clearly intent on passing this bill quickly. There has been talk about using reconciliation, which would allow the Democrats to pass parts of the bill with only 51 votes.
Columnist David Corn commented that it is time to “crash the bill” over the finish line. Do American’s really want a major overhaul of their health care system that has to be drop-kicked over legitimate concerns in order to be passed?
Obama needs to scrap his plan and start from scratch. He should host a summit with Republicans but actually listen to what they have to say instead of showing up with a plan already set in motion. Enough with the fake bipartisanship. If he truly wants to lead and be elected for a second term, he must drop this radical reform and work with both parties to develop a more centrist approach to health care.
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Tags: bipartisanship · democrats · health care · obama · republicansNo Comments
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