Friday, August 21, 2009
Debunking the Obama Blame Game
| And so it goes in the big town of D.C. - When a policy is questioned or a bill has difficulty passing through or public sentiment falls there can be only one strategy: The Blame Game So when President Obama tripped on his sprint to the finish line of health care reform due to a very loud and very public outcry for answers to looming questions, he shifted to a new strategy. Rather than examine the public’s concerns, the plans’ inconsistencies or the sheer irresponsibility of trying to ram something this big and complicated through Congress without reading it, the administration is pointing many fingers. And the list of culprits is no big surprise. First there are the town hall protestors. When liberal activists, including Acorn, MoveOn.org and Code Pink, protested against anything and everything President George W. Bush said or did, it was called grassroots democracy. When conservative groups encourage supporters to attend town hall meetings and question their congressmen, it’s called un-American, disruptive and the work of right- wing extremists. Not grassroots but astroturf. Where was Nancy Pelosi when President George W. Bush was being compared to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis? She was a “fan of disrupters” in those days, as she told anti-war protesters at a January 2006 town hall meeting in San Francisco. She must have developed this thin skin when the Democrats took control of the government. Next in line is Sara Palin. The recent governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, created a controversy with a reference to death panels on Facebook. Palin said she didn’t want her parents or Down-Syndrome baby to “have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide” what kind of medical care should be allocated to these less productive members of society. Is this the same Sarah Palin whose foreign policy experience was summed up by Democrats during the campaign by her ability “to see Russia from land here in Alaska.”? Is this the same Sarah Palin credited with changing the terms of the debate? According to the Democrats she isn't smart enough to do that. What gives? Besides, there’s a kernel of truth in what she said. Like all goods and services, medical care is a scarce resource that must be rationed. The only question is how: by the market (price) or by government mandate. If government is doing the rationing, what exactly will they use to determine who gets what care and who doesn’t? And then the is the Media. WHAT? The president, defending the White House’s fishing expedition for “fishy” e-mails on health-insurance reform (suspended this week by popular demand), blamed the media for “distorting what’s taken place.” Again, WHAT? Is this the same media that was in the pocket for Obama and waltzed us through the honeymoon? Sorry Barack but you have no idea what it means for the media to distort what’s taken place. The long-gone Bush administration is getting more negative press than you are, STILL. Last but certainly not least is the insurance companies. Demonizing insurance companies does resonate with the public. After all, these are the faceless bureaucrats who deny or pay claims in a seemingly arbitrary manner and refuse or cancel coverage if you cost them too much money. The President makes a good and believable argument that insurance companies are gouging the American public. The big, bad, evil profit mongers. If insurance companies were gouging the public, the evidence would show up in one of two places, according to Graef Crystal, a compensation expert in Santa Rosa, California: excessive executive pay or excessive returns to shareholders. His analysis of five major health insurers shows just the opposite: below-market pay and below-market shareholder returns. “There’s no case here for undue enrichment of shareholders” or over-compensating CEOs, Crystal finds. I don't think you will find an argument against the fact that health care needs a major overhaul, but that’s no reason to make scapegoats out of insurance companies with false rhetoric. Why not address tort reform in the insurance industry? Or would that not be good for the Democrats trial lawyer voting block and donation base? And then there is the truth: Opposition to fast-track health-insurance reform is coming from Obama’s own party. Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and one of six Finance Committee members involved in bipartisan negotiations, said on Fox News Sunday that the goal is to “get this right,” not meet some “specific timetable.” And he is not the only one. The House has a 40 seat majority. More than enough to pass any bill. The Senate has a 60 seat, filibuster proof majority and does not require one single GOP vote to pass whatever it wants. The President doesn't need public sentiment on his side if he wants the bill passed. He doesn't need the media either. According to his party, Sara Palin is too stupid to do anything so she's a non-factor. He doesn't need the insurance companies either. His public option would pretty much kill them anyway. The truth is he needs his own party on board. They have the votes to do what they want....if they ALL wanted to do it. Time to place the blame for his health care quagmire where it actually belongs - Squarely on the shoulder of the Democrats. After all, didn't they win? |
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