The Democrats ARe Becoming Desperate Over Health Care Reform

As I returned from vacation last weekend I became aware of the desperation of the Democrats and the White House over their socialist takeover of our health care system. After weeks of plummeting poll numbers and running scared at town hall meetings the administration and the Democratic leadership have resorted to the same tired tactics they have used for years. The politics of fear and race baiting has returned in full force in a feeble attempt to resurrect the health care power grab.

The Colorado Democrat Party headquarters in Denver was vandalized this week and immediately state party officials attempted to spin in into an attack by political opponents of the health care reform proposed by their party. Unfortunately the facts of the case tell a slightly different story. One of the two vandals was caught shortly after the attack and his name is Maurice Schwenkler. He worked in the 2008 elections for a Democrat running for the Colorado state house. He has a history of working for liberal 527 groups and was arrested for unlawful assembly outside of the Republican National Convention in 2008. Of course the Colorado Democrat Party Chairwoman was quick to back away from her initial statements accusing Republicans of the vandalism.

New York Governor David A. Paterson blames racism for his unpopularity in the sate of New York and added that President Obama will be the next victim of racism. They believe, or are at least trying to convince the public, that the reason for the disapproval among the voting public is that we are not comfortable with a black man in power. They want us to forget that the health care reform proposal is an unconstitutional power grab and will further drive our country into economic disaster. Governor Paterson is presiding over a state that is in dire economic straits, but he wants us to believe that it is not his fault but the fault of his racist political opponents. I have been called a racist more times in the past year than in my entire life; all because I have not supported Barack Obama. I have not and will not support any candidate or politician that I do not agree with on the issues. Was I a racist when I supported Michael Steele for Lt. Governor and Senator in Maryland? I supported Steele based on the issues, but because he is a Republican, the left believes that he has betrayed his race.

President Barack Obama said last week that there is a “right wing conspiracy” to defeat his health care reform proposal. It is interesting that he would use those words to describe the opponents of socialized medicine. It is interesting because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referenced a “vast right wing conspiracy” while she was the First Lady to explain the accusations of infidelity against her husband President Bill Clinton. Of course a few weeks later her husband had to admit his extra-curricular activities with a White House intern. I know the same is true in the current reference to a conspiracy. The facts are that the current health care reform will ration medical care, raise costs, reduce the quality of care, and will give the federal government unprecedented and unconstitutional power over our lives. I do think it is funny that they will try to pin this on the Republicans, but yet they do not need a single Republican to support it for it to pass either chamber of Congress.

The most disturbing, but not surprising ploy being used by the Democrats to force through this debacle is the death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. No more than 2 hours after his death, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was calling for the reform to be passed as a tribute to Kennedy. They are hoping that they can guilt the “Blue Dog Democrats” into supporting the legislation despite the growing dissatisfaction with the proposal. It is ironic that they would seek to tie this reform to Kennedy who sought out the best treatments and doctors available for his disease, but he would not have had that opportunity if the current proposal were passed into law. The attempt to capitalize on the Senator’s death does bring to mind a similar attempt in 2002 when the Democrats tried to turn a memorial service for Senator Paul Wellstone into a political pep rally. The result was a defeat for the Democrats. The early reports of the coverage of Kennedy’s death have shown that the ratings numbers are very low, which points to the public’s cynicism over the political class trying to push this albatross onto our backs.

A side note to the death of Senator Kennedy; in 2004 Kennedy sought to have Massachusetts law changed so that a vacant U.S. Senate seat would be filled by a special election to be held within 5 months of the vacancy. He fought to have it changed because he was worried that Senator John Kerry would win the presidency and Republican Governor Mitt Romney would fill the vacant seat with a Republican. Now that there is a Democrat in the Governor’s mansion, Kennedy wrote a letter state legislators before his death to have the law changed so that Governor Deval Patrick could fill the vacancy immediately. I believe the frenzy to change the law and name a replacement will be more entertaining than any of the mind-numbing reality TV shows currently on the air.
As the summer recess winds down, the race baiting and fear mongering from the administration will continue to heat up and the politicization of Senator Kennedy’s death will reach nauseating levels. I fully expect President Obama to turn the eulogy on Saturday into a campaign-style stump speech for health care reform in memoriam for the good Senator. I also believe that the American public has wised up to the empty promises of the President. They see the economic trouble in which the country finds itself. They hear the reports that the federal deficit has quadrupled since President Obama was sworn in as President. The heard the administration admit that their estimates of the federal deficit’s growth was off by $2 trillion to a total of $9 trillion. They are unable to understand why we need to rush this legislation through now, when it will not even take effect until 2013. The more the public learns about the health care reform proposal, the lower the approval numbers drop for the President and the Democrats. The problem for the White House and the Democratic leadership is that they have sold themselves for this reform to the point that they are unable to stop now. I believe that 2010 will be a very bad year to be a politician in D.C..

The Dog Days Of Summer Are Hard On The Politicians

August is turning out to be a very hot, and uncomfortable month for the White House and especially the Democrat-led Congress. Members of Congress have been met with outrage and frustration over the rush to socialized medicine. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the White House have tried to spin the opposition as anything from Nazi-like to “Astroturf”. Throughout it all the public has continued to voice their displeasure over the sudden and severe hearing loss that has gripped Washington DC.

President Obama’s approval rating has dropped to a new low for him, down to 47%. His Presidential Approval Index has been hovering in the negative range for several weeks and currently sits at a –8, with a mere 29% strongly approving of the President and 37% strongly disapproving. His plummeting poll numbers are a result of several factors, but his push to socialize the health care system is the main catalyst for his decline.

Another factor for the public’s growing discontent is the unprecedented spending that the Congress and the President have engaged in over the past 7 months. The Treasury Department released it’s latest figures that showed that the Federal Government has spent $3 trillion in the past 10 months. Before my Bush-hating readers start to scream, allow me to say that Bush started this idiotic spending spree late last fall, but the current administration has more than followed suit. This year’s Federal deficit is projected to be 4 times that of last year’s deficit. Instead of working to reduce the deficit and release us from the stranglehold in which our creditors have us, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner went to Congress to raise the Federal debt limit above the current $12.1 trillion limit. The administration has further driven our country into bankruptcy and instead of changing their drunken-sailor spending habits; they ask to increase their credit limit. I suppose they need to raise it in order to pay for the economic fiasco known as health care reform. The American taxpayer had to work nearly an entire month longer than last year to pay for the ludicrous spending habits of Washington. The cost of government is 61.9% of our national income and these politicians want to raise it even higher.

The President has tried to portray his “townhall meetings” as open and fair minded, but yet there is never anyone who is opposed to his health care nightmare. Meanwhile, every member of Congress that goes out to meet the voters is met with overwhelming opposition. A recent Rasmussen poll has shown that 53% of voters are opposed to the Health Care Reform plan. Worse yet for the politicos in DC is that the much-coveted “independents” are opposed to the plan by a wide margin. President Obama has even tried to assuage our fears about a government run health care system putting private insurance out of business, by equating it to the post office. He said that UPS and FedEx are doing fine, it is always the post office that is in trouble. Can the President be that naïve? Does he really believe that the American public want a health care system that runs as efficiently as the post office?

The White House and Congress have severely overestimated the charm of President Obama. They believe that when the President speaks the public all feel a tingle running up their legs and they forget all about the actual words that he is speaking or the actions they are undertaking. The public is smarter than for which the bureaucrats in Washington give them credit. The public knows what is in the legislation that Congress is considering. The Congressional switchboards and email servers are being stretched to their limits with opposition calls and emails, but yet our elected representatives ignore our wishes and vote for the socialist agenda of the President. I believe the folly of the White House and Congress will be shown in next year’s midterm elections.

Was Orwell's Vision Off By 25 Years?

The debate surrounding the Obama administration’s and Congress’ plans to reform our health care system has exposed the folly of the media proclamation of the President as some sort of messianic figure. They have built him up to the pinnacle of power in the world, only to have his approval numbers rapidly fall due to the public growing weary of his socialistic “hope and change.” The American people in poll after poll have stated that they absolutely do not want the government to run our health care system. The disapproval of the reforms is growing on a daily basis as more of the details become known.

Congress is becoming aware of their constituents’ displeasure over the proposals currently being worked on in Washington. As the members of Congress travel home for the summer recess, they are being met with a voting public that knows more about the reforms in Congress than the President claims he knows. The American people have informed themselves on individual aspects of the bill, such as the fact that Congress has specifically exempted themselves from the government plan. Another aspect is that the government plan will force all private insurance out of business, by setting prices at such a level as to make it financially impossible for private insurance companies to make a profit.

The President claims that he does not want to take over the health care system, but unfortunately the President seems to suffer from memory loss. In March of 2007, then Senator Obama proclaimed that it was his goal to have “Universal Health Care for all” by the end of his first term in office. He also stated in 2003 that he is a proponent of a “single payer universal health care plan”.

Congressional leaders are vilifying the American people, who are voicing their opposition at the town hall meetings. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week that these citizens were waving swastikas at the town hall meetings. The White House is asking people to email them about anyone who are “telling lies” about the Health Care proposal. It has been a few years since I read George Orwell’s classic 1984, but I seem to recall Orwell writing about children turning in their parents to the government for “thought crimes”. Isn’t the administration asking for names of people discussing the plan, even in casual conversation, sound eerily similar to Orwell’s vision?

Congress is in for a very rude awakening in 2010, especially if they pass this disastrous plan. The Democrats are running themselves right out of office and all the Republicans need to do is stay out of the way. There are a few Republicans that seem to believe that compromising with the Democrats on this plan is the best course of action, but a compromise that produces bad legislation is never a good idea. There are Republican proposals out there that actually will reduce costs and actually provide meaningful reform, but Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would rather claim that the Republicans are the party of ‘No’, than to actually allow any of their proposals see the light of day.

The voters are more aware right now than at any point in recent history. They have watched the Congress pass a monstrous “stimulus” bill, and spend more than a trillion dollars more than the government will collect in tax revenues, all against their expressed wishes. They have seen the House of Representatives pass the “Cap and Trade” bill that will stifle the economy more than they already have, again against the will of their constituents. It is time Congress is asked the question, whom exactly are they representing? Were they elected to carry out the extreme socialist agenda of the President? Or were they elected to represent their constituents? I believe in 2010, there will be many members of Congress looking for a new career.