Opinion Forum

What’s The Rush?

January 7th, 2010

According to an article in USA Today, Obama is still in a tearing hurry to get his “historic” health care bill passed in spite of (or more likely because of) a set of horrendous poll numbers and an utter lack of bipartisan support. Despite his campaign promises of wanting to reach across the aisle and create a new aura of transparency, not to mention his repeated promises to have the whole thing on C-SPAN (see what Nancy Pelosi thinks of that!), he is willing to bypass both public hearings and bipartisan debate in the name of the cause. And rightly so… for him, anyway. Because if he doesn’t get this piece of legislation through Congress before the 2010 elections, then he and the Dems aren’t going to get another chance anytime soon, and they know it.

That they must hurry in order to get this bill passed was emphasized today by the fact that two Democratic Senators, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of N. Dakota, have declared that they will not seek re-election in November. This is good news for the N. Dakota seat, which will almost certainly be gobbled up by a more conservative-leaning candidate. However, it is almost disappointing that Chris Dodd will not seek re-election; after his deep involvement in the housing bubble mess, Joe Blow off the street could probably have beaten him in a walk. Now the Democratic candidate for the seat will probably be Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who will be a little harder to defeat in left-leaning CT. As for potential Republican candidates, I am personally hoping that Peter Schiff, president of the firm Euro-Pacific Capital, will manage to win the bid. Schiff predicted the bubble economy and the housing bust back in 2005, and is advocating stopping the spending and borrowing in favor of saving, production, and letting the free market recession take its course. As an added bonus, he also thinks the health care bills currently making their way through the House and Senate is “one of the worst pieces of legislation ever drafted.”

So go ahead and run, Mr. Obama. Get that health care bill passed as fast as you can… if you can. As for whether or not your election really was a mandate for the Democratic party to turn the US into a progressive utopia… I’m with the people holding the sign.

Articles written by Brianna Aubin
Tags: Dodd, Dorgan, health care, legislation, Obama, polls
Categories: Economics, News, Politics | Comments (6) | Home

6 Responses to “What’s The Rush?”

Tom | January 7th, 2010 at 6:53 am

Interesting days ahead. Politico has a good article that highlights Pelosi’s views, the potential conflicts between the House and Senate over health care, and the role of the President.

When Pelosi said, in response to the question about C-SPAN live coverage of House-Senate health care negotiations and Obama’s campaign promise, “There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail…,” that was a swipe at the President on several issues. First, she doesn’t feel bound by his campaign promise to televise health care negotiations and doesn’t feel he had the right to make that promise, at least where Congress is concerned. Second, she thinks his support for the Senate’s tax on “Cadillac” health care plans violates his promise not to raise taxes on 95% of the people. Third, she’s miffed by his open support for the Senate bill and his expectation that the House will roll over and accept the Senate version.

Obama has said that he’s going to take a much more active role in the negotiations over the two versions of the bill. That might not be a good thing and might leave him wounded, which he’s tried mightily to avoid so far. In any case, an intra-party fight over health care will be fun to watch.

Brianna | January 7th, 2010 at 12:12 pm

Well, regardless of whatever Pelosi felt about the issue, you’ve got to admit that what it came out as was, “There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail… you don’t think we politicians actually mean anything we say when we’re trying to get elected, do you?”

Clarissa | January 7th, 2010 at 10:20 pm

“turn the US into a progressive utopia”??? Where are you seeing all these things? I’m dying to see Obama do at least one progressive thing in his term in office but so far no such luck. If you think that this stupid healthcare bill or the new airport insecurity measures are ‘progressive’ then I’d love to see what you actully consider regressive and conservative.

Brianna | January 7th, 2010 at 11:10 pm

I think that Obama and the Democrats got elected for very different reasons than they think they got elected for. I think they got elected because people were sick of Republicans, they knew they needed to do different things, and they hoped that Obama, being fairly new to the scene and promising lots of hope and change, would provide. I think Obama and the other Democrats who got swept in in 2008 think they got elected because the people wanted the opposite of what Republicans profess to stand for, small government and little regulation (as for whether they really stand or work for those things… don’t make me laugh).

The focus on green energy, wealth redistribution, health care, taxation of the rich, his fits of global apologia, his emphasis on international cooperation, the massive bailouts… I consider all of these to be progressive policies in that they are consonant with the aims and goals of the progressive movement. Just because Obama hasn’t succeed in these things doesn’t mean that they are not Progressive policies, or that he hasn’t tried to enact them. Progressives (which is really just a code word for “collectivists”) think that if only government was in charge of everything and we were all our brothers’ keepers by law, we’d have a lovely, wonderful world and everybody’s problems would go away. And if you believe that, I have some swampland in Florida to sell you.

I see all these stimulus packages and bailouts as victories for the progressives. I see the current expansion of government as a victory for the progressives. If Copenhagen had gone as planned by the environmentalists, that would have been a victory for the progressives. And if this idiot monstrosity of a health care bill gets passed, that will be a victory for the progressives as well.

Movements I would consider to be conservative or regressive (though I think regressive is a poor word choice) would be a dwindling of federal involvement and spending, moving away from bailouts and nationalized health care, winding down social security/medicare/medicaid (preferably before they bankrupt the country), disbanding of federal regulatory agencies and organizations such as the department of education or energy, a simplification of the tax code, paying off the debt, curtailing spending, balancing the budget, etc. And if you think we’ve seen any of THAT from our current president and administration, I would not only ask you where you were seeing it, but I would also question your ability to see.

Brianna | January 8th, 2010 at 12:27 pm

Something I didn’t see earlier: Griffith faults Pelosi for switch.

Alabama house representative Parker Griffith switched parties (D to R) to oppose the health care bill… and he is a doctor, to boot. The House bill didn’t pass by such a wide majority that the Dems can afford to alienate people in there.

Gayle | January 24th, 2010 at 8:07 am

can not believe that CNN reporter was contacting high school, non tax paying kids to get their take on Health Care and how they could get it through. Nuts!! If what I heard on the morning news around 7:30 Central Standard Time, why don’t you just go work at the White House. People are really tired of not getting accurate news but what CNN wants us to know and they are pro Obama??? It is really hard to know what is true and what is CNN altered for the public.