Before we start talking about the health care bill bulldozing its way through Congress, I’d like you to take a trip with me down memory lane. In January of 2009, during President Obama’s first full day in office, he said, “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.” He even put out a Presidential Memorandum stating:
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
In fact, if you were paying attention to Barack Obama’s run for the presidency at all, you know that openness and transparency were cornerstones of his campaign. Openness, transparency, and what else? Wasn’t it bipartisanship? If you were a supporter of Barack Obama in 2007, you may have received an email from him containing this sentiment:
Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions. And that’s what we have to change first. We have to change our politics, and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans.
Way back in 2004, Obama was campaigning for a seat in the United States Senate. During an interview for The New Yorker, he told the interviewer:
A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, ‘Huh. It works. It makes sense.’
Did you enjoy that memory jog? Or if it was news to you, did you enjoy the history lesson? Are we all clear that President Obama thinks (or at least says) that it is imperative that our elected officials work together, openly and honestly, to create sensible legislation?
Which is why President Obama’s actions and sentiments regarding health care reform shouldn’t make any sense to anyone. Let’s work together, but not with the Republicans. Let’s create sensible legislation, but make sure that no one understands it, especially not the Congressmen nor Senators voting on it. We can’t waste another moment- there are people dying and doctors are stealing children’s tonsils- but make sure that most of the provisions in the bill don’t take effect until 2013, which is conveniently after the next Presidential election. Let’s call it America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, but throw people in jail if they choose to not purchase health care insurance.
Words have no meaning if they are only there to serve as smoke and mirrors, covering up a massive entitlement program that will severely limit our choices and most certainly diminish our overall quality of care. It doesn’t matter if everyone has health insurance if there are no doctors around to treat the patients.
Senator Carper, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, likens the language of the health care bill to gibberish. That doesn’t exactly make me feel better.
Contact your representative and senators and ask them to vote no to publicly funded health care. We already have enough gibberish in our law books.
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