The Dems Get Smacked!
For the better part of a year now, the Democrats have been marching down a path that leads to a sign with one word in bold letters: "SUICIDE." It's tough to say just who the leader of this merry band is. President Obama sometimes seems to be taking the lead, but then he often defers to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. This is what the President did on the "stimulus" plan, for instance, and what he has done on health care. With health care, he laid out some broad outlines and then let the members of Congress fill in the blanks; that is, when they were able to agree on what should go into those blanks. All the while, opponents threw everything they had at the President in hopes that some of it would stick. Well, some of it stuck. After all of these horrendous months of name calling and extreme partisanship (on both sides), this may all come to....NAUGHT!
This White House reminds me of the Bush White House, and trust me, that is NO compliment! They are not on top of things. I understand, in Bush's and Obama's cases, that news coverage (was) is so intense, that it's tough to stay on top of things, but they auditioned for the job knowing that, and they were hired. The Obama campaign was almost flawless and competent in the pursuit of the presidency, but since taking office, what happened?
The President and Democrats were handed the reins to deal with the economy first and foremost. The two wars we're involved in also played a part, and both do tie in to economic matters, as they were never funded, and thus have added to the national debt. As I noted, the President permitted congressional Democrats to develop the "stimulus" package that passed about ten or eleven months ago. A relatively small percentage of the package was really devoted to infrastructure issues, and to me, the whole package was "oversold" as a solution to the economic problems facing the country.
The President and his closest advisers chose health care reform as THE issue of 2009, his first year in office. Now, regular readers know I support MAJOR health care reform, but the mood of the country, no matter how noble the cause, and regardless of what the President or his people advocate, is NOT for this complex bill that has consumed the national agenda for most of this past year. Once the decision was made to go full speed ahead on health care, the President and Democrats had no good way of getting out of the predicament in which they had placed themselves. To continue meant going against popular will (read further), and to abandon a major health care bill would say that Democrats, even with big majorities in both houses AND a Democratic President, couldn't govern.
Polls have shown for months that only about a third of the country supports the health care overhaul. My guess is, many Americans don't know what is in the overhaul, and when we don't know something or if we don't understand some issue, we're against it. This shows that supporters have not been able to tell the American people in a clear and concise way why health care overhaul is important to the lives of individual Americans. The absolutely TERRIBLE atmosphere that has developed over the issue since last summer, and the process to fashion a bill in Congress, has just left many Americans "sick" over health care. Then came to special deals to get the votes of a couple of senators. Americans smell scandal, and this has only added another nail in health care's coffin. Democrats have been successful in one thing, they have ticked off virtually every demographic group in the American public over this very divisive issue, including senior citizens, once a highly reliable constituency. In fairness to health care supporters, polls have also shown individual aspects of health care reform (like prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions) are much more popular with the public. The deeply disturbing thing about the existing Senate bill is, from what I understand, insurance companies and health care providers support it!!!* What does that tell you folks? It helps them!!! That in itself gives me pause. You will have people forced to buy insurance, providing millions of new customers to insurance companies, and to health care providers. When you have this extra layer (insurance) in the system that is profit driven, how will costs be held down?
Now a Republican has won a Senate seat from Massachusetts, one of the most left-leaning states in the country. Here again, the White House and Democratic leadership seem to have been clueless that this seat was competitive until it was too late. Whether this major smack upside the head will get the attention of the White House and Democrats remains to be seen. The point is, a political party cannot thumb its nose at the American public without paying a price. Look at the Republicans in 2006 and 2008.
* Further, stocks for insurance companies and health care related companies have skyrocketed in the last few months in anticipation of this bill, or something similar, going into effect. Wealthy investors would never put their money on such things if they believed these companies would in some way be hurt or curtailed by the legislation. They obviously see the bill as a big win!
WORD HISTORY:
Sound-We have several words "sound," but in this case, I mean the noun, "a channel of water." This goes back to an Indo European root word "sum/swem," which seems to have had the idea of motion. This gave Old Germanic "sundam," which seems to have meant "swimming," and indeed, is also the source of "swim" (of course swimming requires motion). This gave Old English "sund," which also meant "swimming," but also was used for a place where people went swimming; that is, the sea, water. Later, in the 1300s (one source says later), English took the more specific meaning from North Germanic, possibly from the related Danish word "sund," which was used for a narrow channel of water. German also has "Sund," with the same meaning.
This White House reminds me of the Bush White House, and trust me, that is NO compliment! They are not on top of things. I understand, in Bush's and Obama's cases, that news coverage (was) is so intense, that it's tough to stay on top of things, but they auditioned for the job knowing that, and they were hired. The Obama campaign was almost flawless and competent in the pursuit of the presidency, but since taking office, what happened?
The President and Democrats were handed the reins to deal with the economy first and foremost. The two wars we're involved in also played a part, and both do tie in to economic matters, as they were never funded, and thus have added to the national debt. As I noted, the President permitted congressional Democrats to develop the "stimulus" package that passed about ten or eleven months ago. A relatively small percentage of the package was really devoted to infrastructure issues, and to me, the whole package was "oversold" as a solution to the economic problems facing the country.
The President and his closest advisers chose health care reform as THE issue of 2009, his first year in office. Now, regular readers know I support MAJOR health care reform, but the mood of the country, no matter how noble the cause, and regardless of what the President or his people advocate, is NOT for this complex bill that has consumed the national agenda for most of this past year. Once the decision was made to go full speed ahead on health care, the President and Democrats had no good way of getting out of the predicament in which they had placed themselves. To continue meant going against popular will (read further), and to abandon a major health care bill would say that Democrats, even with big majorities in both houses AND a Democratic President, couldn't govern.
Polls have shown for months that only about a third of the country supports the health care overhaul. My guess is, many Americans don't know what is in the overhaul, and when we don't know something or if we don't understand some issue, we're against it. This shows that supporters have not been able to tell the American people in a clear and concise way why health care overhaul is important to the lives of individual Americans. The absolutely TERRIBLE atmosphere that has developed over the issue since last summer, and the process to fashion a bill in Congress, has just left many Americans "sick" over health care. Then came to special deals to get the votes of a couple of senators. Americans smell scandal, and this has only added another nail in health care's coffin. Democrats have been successful in one thing, they have ticked off virtually every demographic group in the American public over this very divisive issue, including senior citizens, once a highly reliable constituency. In fairness to health care supporters, polls have also shown individual aspects of health care reform (like prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions) are much more popular with the public. The deeply disturbing thing about the existing Senate bill is, from what I understand, insurance companies and health care providers support it!!!* What does that tell you folks? It helps them!!! That in itself gives me pause. You will have people forced to buy insurance, providing millions of new customers to insurance companies, and to health care providers. When you have this extra layer (insurance) in the system that is profit driven, how will costs be held down?
Now a Republican has won a Senate seat from Massachusetts, one of the most left-leaning states in the country. Here again, the White House and Democratic leadership seem to have been clueless that this seat was competitive until it was too late. Whether this major smack upside the head will get the attention of the White House and Democrats remains to be seen. The point is, a political party cannot thumb its nose at the American public without paying a price. Look at the Republicans in 2006 and 2008.
* Further, stocks for insurance companies and health care related companies have skyrocketed in the last few months in anticipation of this bill, or something similar, going into effect. Wealthy investors would never put their money on such things if they believed these companies would in some way be hurt or curtailed by the legislation. They obviously see the bill as a big win!
WORD HISTORY:
Sound-We have several words "sound," but in this case, I mean the noun, "a channel of water." This goes back to an Indo European root word "sum/swem," which seems to have had the idea of motion. This gave Old Germanic "sundam," which seems to have meant "swimming," and indeed, is also the source of "swim" (of course swimming requires motion). This gave Old English "sund," which also meant "swimming," but also was used for a place where people went swimming; that is, the sea, water. Later, in the 1300s (one source says later), English took the more specific meaning from North Germanic, possibly from the related Danish word "sund," which was used for a narrow channel of water. German also has "Sund," with the same meaning.
Labels: Democrats, English, etymology, health care, President Obama, Republicans
posted by Randy at 2:14 PM
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