Saturday, December 19, 2009

Do they have a vaccine for this?

New cottage industry: Libs who have their guy in the Oval Office and majorities in the House and Senate now whining about “the system” being broken because they can’t get an excrable piece of legislation passed.

Sigh. If you've been watching the Washington healthcare debate, you know what that sigh was about. We Americans have always been proud of our constitution and the principle of separation of powers. The system has always ensured that the minority party has certain rights and that the executive branch cannot just muscle through Congress any old thing that it wants. Our founders wanted a system that moved slowly.

Do they ever have it. In fact, we now have a system that barely moves at all. Watching American politics through British eyes, you must be utterly mystified as to why Barack Obama hasn't gotten this healthcare bill passed yet. Many Americans are too. The instinctive reflex is to blame Obama. He must be doing something wrong. Maybe he is doing a thing or two wrong. But the main thing is that America's political system is broken.


Michael Tomaskey writing for the Guardian UK, did not get the memo, the Gallup memo, if you will that shows that 48% of the public do not want this version of healthcare reform vs. 46% who do. This represents an undeniable trend from just back in October where the numbers were 41% not wanting healthcare and 51% wanting it.

And here’s E.J. Dionne of the WaPo on his definition of what constitutes a real American:

Normal human beings -- let's call them real Americans -- cannot understand why, 10 months after President Obama's inauguration, Congress is still tied down in a procedural torture chamber trying to pass the health-care bill Obama promised in his campaign.

If you are not one of those who “cannot understand”, you must not be a real American? Didn’t we just spend the better part of this past decade listening to liberals whine about their patriotism being questioned?

Paul Krugman whining about the 60-vote filibuster:

A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy. Declare that you’re disappointed in and/or disgusted with President Obama. Demand a change in Senate rules that, combined with the Republican strategy of total obstructionism, are in the process of making America ungovernable.

But meanwhile, pass the health care bill.
.
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Yes, the filibuster-imposed need to get votes from “centrist” senators has led to a bill that falls a long way short of ideal. Worse, some of those senators seem motivated largely by a desire to protect the interests of insurance companies — with the possible exception of Mr. Lieberman, who seems motivated by sheer spite.

Beyond that, we need to take on the way the Senate works. The filibuster, and the need for 60 votes to end debate, aren’t in the Constitution. They’re a Senate tradition, and that same tradition said that the threat of filibusters should be used sparingly. Well, Republicans have already trashed the second part of the tradition: look at a list of cloture motions over time, and you’ll see that since the G.O.P. lost control of Congress it has pursued obstructionism on a literally unprecedented scale. So it’s time to revise the rules.


Hang Lieberman in effigy? Is Krugman also suggesting that perhaps mobs of angry statists take to the streets wielding signs and/or confront their respective congressmen at town hall meetings? Now that would be downright uncivil behavior and might also be considered unpatriotic.

It remains absolutely mind-boggling to us just how behind the curve the alleged taste-makers like Dionne and Krugman are on the issue of Obamacare and the current plight of the Democrats.

Just pass the bill? Is it possible that these people really do live under a rock and are not aware of the tanking poll numbers for Obamacare? Oh, we forgot - passing Obamacare should not be about politics, it’s about doing the “moral” and “just” thing.

And we don't remember this degree of moral indignation for the years that the Democrats were in the minority during the Bush years and where they were only to happy to use filbusters to derail Bush's judicial appointments.

Setting aside the procedural rules of the Senate, could it be that the reason why Obamacare has not passed yet is because as a piece of legislation, it stinks? There’s a reason why the bill is currently holed-up in Harry Reid’s office and won’t see the light of day until the last possible moment and it’s not because it is a tidy, easily-comprehended bill absent an unseemly amount of amendments and loopholes.

The American people know this, they have expressed this and that is why Obamacare has not yet passed and no amount of bitching and carping by state-controlled media will change this fact.

2 comments:

Foxfier said...

Some folks can't seem to understand that others have REASONS for not vocally supporting what they want...beyond being annoying. (see also, the folks who can't believe anyone would turn down life-saving breast cancer treatment made of farmed human embryos.)

Teresa said...

There is nothing moral or just about Obamacare. This is probably one of the most unjust bills ever. This bill impedes on our privacy. The government is invading our privacy. Maybe we should use similar tactics that the liberals used to legalize abortion in order to take down or stop Obamacare. And, if it passes citizens could take the government to court and prove that this legislation violates our constitutional rights and our privacy.