Sadly, the celebratory headlines over Senator Reid’s “accomplishment” suggests that the ultimate game of political coercion, dealing and outright vote buying should be embraced and applauded. Hardly. The reason this health care reform process has been so bitter is that the entire focus has been on radical approaches to problems which needed thoughtful, conservative, pragmatic and prudent actions. The failure of the majority party to actually apply true regulatory reform and oversight to the health insurance industry is no accident. They are dead set on a single payer, nationalized system and many feel that the end result of these bills will create continued marketplace problems and will hasten their cry for nationalization. We will document how these bills fail to really reign in health insurers while creating an ever larger federal bureaucracy, deficit and in the end, cuts and rationing of Medicare benefits in an attempt at some utopian dream of “health care for all”. The ability of the national budget to pay for all of this is beyond problematic. The eventual mass devaluation of the dollar, hyperinflation, or both, which will inevitably come in light of the soaring deficits will render this proposed health care reform economically impossible to continue.
We urge that lawmakers and voters wake up and look to realistic reforms that can accomplish much of the needed change in access while appropriately placing the mantle of individual responsibility on citizens, where it belongs. We are fast approaching the tipping point in the balance between tax payers and tax takers. Soon, with current tax policy the way it is, those who pay little or no federal income tax, will demand ever greater social services, paid for by the declining minority who actually pay federal taxes. In the end, a failed economy (not a failed capitalist system) will be the death knell of health reform and in fact, much of the government largess that has continued unabated over the past half century or more. The real culprit is the political class who are determined to make a career out of political life, enriching themselves at the public trough and refusing to return to private life and live under the same laws and rules as the rest of population. Congress is, and has been the main reason why the national economy has faltered and our deficits have soared. Their desire to ingratiate themselves to the voting masses has resulted in endless budget expenditures with no fundamental checks and balances on the budgetary process. Term limits, legal demands for a balanced budget, and a return to the function of government focused on oversight and necessary regulation, as opposed to direct intervention and takeover are the only real solutions to what ails us. Senator Reid’s back room dealing is not to be applauded, but denounced. He, his political playbook and fellow career politicians need to step aside and let a new generation of citizen legislators take over. They could never do worse . . . obi jo and jomaxx
It was the pinnacle moment of his political career. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, on the verge of making history by shepherding through far-reaching health care legislation, was called upon by the clerk to cast his vote. And Mr. Reid, who had fought tirelessly for months to get the health care bill adopted, looked up from his desk and said, “No.” For a millisecond there was confusion in the chamber. Had he lost it? Was he joking? Within half a second, Mr. Reid had switched his vote to “yes.” After 25 straight days of bitter, partisan debate, senators on both sides of the aisle burst out laughing.
The last time the Senate voted on Christmas Eve, in 1895, it represented a moment of national reconciliation, as lawmakers agreed to lift a ban on federal officers who had joined the Confederacy from serving in the post-Civil War military. “No Animosity Remaining,” proclaimed a celebratory headline in The New York Times the next day. The same could not be declared about Thursday’s vote approving a bitterly contested health care overhaul at the end of an exhausting 25-day legislative journey. It was the second-longest consecutive stretch in Senate annals and one that severely strained the traditions of collegiality that underpin the institution.
For Reid, a Hard Climb to the Pinnacle – http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/health/policy/25reid.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y
A Morning of Glee and Glumness – http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/health/policy/25scene.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y
www.blogsurfer.us
www.bloglines.com www.blogburst.com www.blogcatalog.com www.clusty.com www.reddit.com www.huffingtonpost.com www.digg.com www.wikio.com www.propeller.com www.mashable.com www.bing.com www.wellsphere.com
Nice post. Compared to Congress, our health care system seems ideal. I expect that the partisanship will only worsen. Some thoughts on this at http://bit.ly/4qHg0Y
Partisanship cannot get much worse. Both George Washington and John Adams decried the rise of political parties. The felt, as we can now clearly see, that parties would lead to a ruling political class dominated by ideology, not by good citizen government. In the end, as bad as our system is, it remains better than any other system. That being said, the current operation of the Congress will not continue for long, as the voters in November will undoubtedly create a change in the makeup of both houses of the Congress. Thanks for the comment.