Obama’s Phony Appeal For Cover (Oops, I Meant Bipartisanship)
Obama’s Phony Appeal For Cover (Oops, I Meant Bipartisanship)
By
Ken Eliasberg
I believe it was Stanton Evans who observed that we have two Parties - a stupid Party (the Republicans) and an evil Party (the other Party), and, every now and then, under the guise of bipartisanship the two get together and do something that is both stupid and evil. In the context of the current health- care-reform debacle, Obama is hoping that the Republican Party will once again rise to the occasion, live up to the name given them by Evans, and participate in our typical political kabuki. So far, to their credit, they have refused to do so. I don’t know whether this is a sign of some sort of political maturation (as a result of finally listening to the American people, who have been unusually clear about their reaction to Obama’s agenda), or just the normal opportunism attendant politics in America. I’d like to think that it was the former, but I have become somewhat cynical in my assessment of politics and politicians. However, whatever be their motivation, they are doing the right thing in opposing Obama’s blatant effort to impose a welfare state on America, and for that I applaud them.
Now, in a desperate last ditch effort to jam his health care proposal down the country’s throat, and wanting to give this effort at least the color of objectivity, he has summoned the Republicans to a “summit” meeting to allegedly dialogue on the subject. Does anyone with an I.Q. over room temperature believe he is sincere in putting forth this effort? If so, let me disabuse you of such a generous thought — he wants one of 2 things: (1) to either lure some Republicans across the aisle to give his health care proposal at least the look of a bipartisan effort, or (2) failing in that effort (which appears likely to be the case) he wants to set the Republicans up by demonstrating (or at least appearing to demonstrate) that he tried, but the Republicans are the Party of “NO”. And then, having failed to secure the desired cover and blaming the failure on the uncooperative Republican Party, he will have set the stage for his effort to just jam it through via the mechanism of “reconciliation” (formerly known as the “nuclear option” when Congress was in the hands of the Republicans).
I strongly believe that this is the way it’s going to go down (i.e. reconciliation), and I have mixed feelings about the outcome should he be successful in this effort. On the one hand, I would be delighted to see him do this for I believe it will be not only his undoing, but it will set the stage for a generation (or more) of conservative government (assuming the stupid Party is not so stupid as to blow the opportunity thereby delivered to them). On the other hand, I am fearful that this may be too high a price for the country to pay to drive the Democrats out of office. Why? Because once legislation is on the books, it is not that easy to get it off the books. To the best of my knowledge, other than repealing a piece of catastrophic insurance legislation some 25 years ago, to date no serious inroad has been made in any of our “entitlement” programs, despite the fact that not only are they bankrupt, they are bankrupting the country.
And my assessment of this call to a summit being nothing but an empty gesture — again, something that Obama is quite good at — is strengthened by what Obama did in advance of the called-for summit meeting. What might that be? He posted on his website, his own health care reform proposal, in which he appeared to do little more than reconcile certain differences in the Senate and House proposals, while allegedly removing the “public option” feature of either proposal. Now, with minor, and essentially irrelevant, exception, his proposal is little more than a make- over of previous Democratic proposals. And he undoubtedly wants to use this as a starting point in his dialogue with Republicans. Now why would any Republican (or even some Democrats, for that matter) want to start a “bipartisan” effort to improve our health care with a proposal that, in its essence, has been the source of so much outspoken public rage? Either Obama doesn’t get it or just doesn’t give a damn, i.e. he’s telling the Republicans that it’s my way or the highway. And I can’t believe that the Republicans would be so na