Obama’s latest sop for Americans on the health-care bill is nothing but a politician’s bid for headlines that gain the cover of appearing reasonable. Like the Washington Post’s “Obama Reaches Out To Republicans.” But inside the story we read just four puny points: he’s magnanimously giving in on expansion of health care savings plans, offering a plan to root out fraud, a big 50 million for states to spend on averting malpractice suits and a review of medicare reimbursements. Reviews are cheap. Just more talk, no action.
So everything’s basically the same. Just as we said it would before the so-called summit on health care, the Obama bulldozer pushes on. The feigned attempt at cooperation may continue, but the dozer just keeps relentlessly pushing, leveling everything in its way.
And now it’s push forth with a reconciliation maneuver.
As they say, “everybody does it.” That’s the great excuse. The Republicans did, Democrats have and are doing it. Just depends on which side you’re on when it comes to condemning or condoning the mere 51% Senate vote it takes to pass something through what they call reconciliation.
We forget. Fifty-one percent could be called a landslide in a presidential election. And as Obama often implies as strongly as saying it outright, the president is much more important than anybody else.
As he said during the “summit,” he intends to move on. And if it’s wrong, “that’s what elections are for.” Problem is this time the damage will be far too severe to correct by the time it becomes obvious in real time. An election of different actors can’t reverse the bulldozer’s effect after it has already leveled such a massive amount of America’s economy.
Sure wish there was a side I could root for in this.
