Congress’ August Recess is turning out to be quite interesting. Many Representatives and Senators supporting the Obamacare legislation that’s being ramrodded through Washington have gone home to their constituents & have held “Town Hall Meetings” to help sell the plan to all of us… But it looks like the less-than-cordial reception they’re getting is taking them a bit by surprise. Here’s a video clip of Senator “Agile” Arlen Specter, the Senate’s newest Democrat, & Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius at one such meeting in Philadelphia:
This is fantastic… At least I think it is. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) the President and the leadership of the Democrat majority in both houses of Congress don’t seem to share my excitement. Nancy Pelosi & Steny Hoyer co-authored a post on USA Today criticizing those who would dare to oppose Obama’s health care plan, labeling them as ‘Un-American’. Well, if that’s how the word is defined, call me un-American as well. The funny (sad) thing is that the Democrats were complaining about being labeled un-American & unpatriotic back during the Iraq war; they said then that it was their duty as American citizens to stand up against an administration that was going against the will of the people. Isn’t that exactly what’s going on now, or am I missing something? The big difference between then and now is that their grandstanding actually put the country and our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan at risk. Now it’s their proposed health care reform that’s putting us at risk.
The problem of course, is that Obama and his sycophants in Congress & elsewhere see this as an either/or issue; they offer their version of health care reform, and act as though we either choose between that or the dreaded status quo. Their plan is the best plan — Period. End of discussion. — and no other plan should even be considered. They seem to be holding these Town Hall Meetings more to ‘educate’ the masses and explain to us that they have only our best interests at heart rather than how you’d expect such a meeting to operate, where they’re open to hearing people’s concerns about the health care reform plan and answer questions. We just need to trust them! The problem is that many of us have seen the contents of the bill that “three House committees have passed” already, and we have found much of it to be unacceptable. I’m afraid the level of trust they think they should have just isn’t there.
And all the while Obama is also out there trying his darnedest to sell this package, and his credibility problem is growing even faster than Pelosi’s. He’s out there naming the things in the bill that people are having trouble with, like Federal Health Boards, and end of life counsellors, and the lie about being able to keep our current insurance, and much more, trying to convince people it’s all not true. That it’s not in his plan, when it actually is in the House plan. I can’t figure out if he’s talking about the House version of the plan or some other plan. If he’s got another plan, the rest of the country would sure like to see it; it must be pretty special for him to keep it so secret. So as far as this un-American is concerned, President Obama is lying through his teeth every time he tells us that something isn’t in the plan when we can recite to him chapter and verse to show him where it is in the plan.
Adding to his credibility problem is his attempts to distance himself from what he’s said in the past about his strong support of a single-payer health system; he said it numerous times during the Presidential election campaign and earlier. Yet at every opportunity he says this health plan is not about a single-payer health system and he’s not a proponent of such a system. All you’ve got to do is go to YouTube and type in Obama single payer health care to hear his own words on the subject. Did he change his mind? I don’t know, but I really doubt it. Even his cronies, like Barney Frank, are on record saying that the House plan, with it’s Public Option and provisions to eliminate private options, is a prelude to a single-payer health system. And every time Obama denies it his credibility drops even further.
The Democrat leadership — which is of course being echoed by the mainstream media — is saying that these meetings are being overrun by “angry mobs” that are not only encouraged by the RNC and talk radio to show up and cause trouble, but bussed in and paid for their troubles. Right. (Isn’t it funny how the Democrats accuse the Right of doing the exact things that they are known to do?) Nothing could be further from the truth; these people are hearing what Congress is up to and are truly concerned, and are voicing their frustration about Congress plowing ahead with this plan in spite of the strong opposition they hear from their constituents. I’d be right in there making noise if Tim Johnson or Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin were to hold such a meeting here. These ‘disruptions’ at the Democrats’ Town Hall Meetings are only a taste of what members of Congress can expect to hear from people across the country on this subject if Congress presses ahead and passes this legislation in spite of what they hear from us. I believe our form of government is still known as a Representative Republic, where Representatives are elected to go to Washington to Represent the will of the people; not to go there and decide what’s best for us, based on what the President tells them, what to do.
I’ll admit that the health care system in the US needs some help, but it’s not so far gone that it needs the complete overhaul that Obama and Co. are prescribing. There are other options, and they are acting as if there are only two; go with their nebulous plan or do nothing. If we go with their nebulous plan, with the government in charge, the cure will surely be worse than the disease. In my opinion doing nothing would be by far the more preferable choice, and I’m not alone in that assessment; far from alone.
Maybe this hullaballoo is a good thing overall; we get to see their true colors. Too bad they can’t be at least a little truthful about it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to send an email to flag@whitehouse.gov and turn myself in.
Tags: health care reform, protest, tea party
The bottom line is that the party out of power protests. The disenfranchised protest out of a feeling of helplessness.
The same thing happened during the Iraq war, and dozens of times during the Bush years. The liberals and anti-war demonstrators protested like crazy, to no avail. I just don’t think it was nearly as sexy for the media because anti-war protests are kind of expected. Still, the word “Un-American” was thrown around a lot.
(Frankly, I didn’t understand why we didn’t protest more during the Bush years. I would read about some of the things his administration was doing, and I would think, “Why aren’t we out marching in the street about this?!” Then I looked around, and no one else was, so I went back to my life…)
But these town meetings are different for a lot of people. They’re more jarring, because of the setting, I think. It’s one thing to see people marching down the street with signs. Quite another to see people in some town meeting getting all ballistic on one another.
I don’t think it’s Un-American. Quite the opposite. Open debate — I love it. However, at some point, you have to go back to a reasonable conversation about it, I think.
Some will say, “We tried that, but no one is listening to us.” Understood, but do you just start yelling then, and yell louder until you get your way?
I don’t want this health care bill to pass either, but we had an election and the Democrats won it. Short of armed revolution, this is how the system works — people get elected, and they implement their policies, usually over the objections of people who didn’t vote for them. Ask any liberal (an many moderates) about how they felt for the last eight years.
Democracy is a bitch sometimes.