I have been covering politics for perhaps a year now, when I founded my school's newsletter and became a writer in the "Good Ol' Fashioned Politicin' " column where I and a friend would debate, in print, the nature of key political issues and observe what was then the ongoing campaign.
I am currently attending Texas A&M University. So, the public option is dead and if you are like me you are wondering exactly where all that change we were being promised during the election went.
Now to be fair, before I start my criticism, our president has done considerably well, reversing numerous Bush ideas. But a major part of the reason we have lost what 65% of Americans and 70% of doctors (but really, what do doctors know?) favor is the same reason we even had the chance at reforming this mucked up system. A sizeable reason that Obama was elected, last November 4th, with such a majority over his opponents, was because he was fresh blood and had yet to be tainted by- dare I say it? – “politics as usual.” But now that the public option is gone, we must confront a singular question. Would this have gotten done with a “politics as usual” approach?
Remember Iraq and how bad an idea that was? Or deregulation of business? Or ignoring a Supreme Court ruling saying it was legal for the EPA to regulate carbon emissions (I was surprised as well, I thought we already did that). Or turning our nose to countries like Iran or North Korea and letting their proliferations efforts run rampant? Or torture? Or illegal wiretapping? Remember how awful those things were and yet how cleanly they were done with a congress that was nowhere near a sizeable majority? Why did those things happen and important ideas such as health care and environmental issues cannot? Because, for all their flaws, Cheney and Bush knew how to strong-arm their way through and get their job done.
Obama needs some of that. He needs to come under the realization that the tactics he is employing are not working. 50 million of us do not have health care and those people are dying, this is not the time to play softball. The Economy? Good luck getting that thing going when by and large the major cause of bankruptcy is due to lack of health insurance.
Sorry, but Mr. Obama has to take off the kiddy gloves. He is dealing with an illogical opponent (the Republicans) who might as well be plugging their ears and singing a high-pitched and annoying tune while Obama tries to reason with them. This is not going to work. I am perfectly comfortable waiting to reform “politics as usual.” Because right now, it seems like we could use a little.
Luckily, it seems that there are still some passionate Democrats waiting in the wings. Just last week Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida, said that the Republican’s health care plan was to “1. Don’t get sick. 2. If you get sick, die quickly.” Then, when asked to apologize for this remark he had the following to say the next day: “I would like to apologize to the dead… 44,789 die every year because they don’t have health insurance… That is more than ten times the number of people who died in Iraq and more than ten times the number of people who died in 9/11. But that was just once, this is every single year… I think we should do something about that… Let’s remember we should care about people even after they’re born. I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”
Obama does not need to go that far, he should not. But he needs a bit of that righteous indignation, a bit of that passion. He needs to put this, at the forefront, as the moral issue it is.
There are also the Democrats in the House of Representatives. Approximately one hundred of them said they would not sign a bill, in principle, that did not have a public option in it. Only time will tell how that policy battle will play up. Whatever the case, it needs to be wrapped up before the House of Representatives is restocked with Republicans.
Now there are some good things about the bill. There will be greater monetary support for those who cannot afford it, there will be a government mandate to help keep costs down (though that was the entire point of the public option in the first place.) But even those, if they are passed, will not start until 2016. When Americans got Medicare, seniors were getting benefits eleven months later.
We know you are giving a lot Mr. Obama, but we need a bit more.