The Health Care Trap

It has taken a mild recession to waken people to the fact that there is something deeply wrong with how the business of our government is being conducted. Populist sentiment runs high and strong. Part of the reason is that our elected officials have shown themselves to be far more capable in assisting the wealthy and powerful than in helping the less fortunate. Part of it is the normal noise of the party out of power. Part is the frustration of those, like myself, who helped sweep the Democrats and Barack Obama into office with our votes and our campaigning, who spent time and money and emotional energy hoping they could turn this country around, only to see them squander the opportunity given to them. There is no doubt that things are better since Bush left (could they have gotten any worse?), and they're better than they'd be if John McCain, and Sarah Palin, were in the White House. And I think that throughout it all, with the mess he inherited, President Obama has been more than capable. He hasn't been great, but it's early. They say he took his eye off the ball a bit chasing health care but I think it was shrewd to go after it as soon as possible and to shift the public focus toward a benevolent development, which is what universal health care would be for most Americans. As long as the economy is in better shape, and the Republicans continue to trot out the likes of Sarah Palin, the President should win a second term.

It's the Democratic majority in Congress that will fall before the President will. It won't happen this year, because the Dems have too large a majority in both houses and the one constant over the life of our Congress in the last 50 years is that the odds are stacked in favor of incumbents. Count on Republicans taking at least one house, if not both, in 2012.

It may be better that way. Having seen all the possible combinations of power available in a two-party system (you don't need a statistician to figure them out), it seems that the worst of all worlds is for either party to hold the presidency and both houses of Congress. The Republican majority of 2000-2006 fell in line behind nearly everything George W. Bush introduced, even when it included expanding the size and budget of the federal government, infringing on constitutional rights, fiscal irresponsibility, etc. The Democrats, meanwhile, have dithered and quibbled over health care, banking reform, and anything else meaningful to their constituents, all while having a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate, a 35 seat majority in the House, and control of the executive branch. The Democrats are either ineffectual, or just as tied to corporate interests as the Republicans. My guess is that it's a little of both.

There are some honest characters on Capitol Hill, no doubt, but it's hard to find them in a crowd so littered with Willie Starks.

Voters are rightfully disgusted with the way Congress has behaved over the past year. Instead of enacting effective legislation, they seem to be running perpetual re-election campaigns. Recently Evan Bayh, a popular Democratic Senator from Indiana, in announcing he would not seek another term, cited the never-ending campaign atmosphere as one of the reasons Congress is in terrible shape. Maybe he is simply reading the writing on the wall. A recent NYT/CBS news poll found that only 8% of respondents think their representatives in Washington deserve re-election.

As weak as congressional Dems have been in battling the Republican noise machine, President Obama has been doing his best to dispel the notion that Democrats are weak on foreign policy. He's taken to challenging China by hosting the Dalai Lama at the White House this week(though there was no photo-op) and selling billions in arms to Taiwan. He has increased troop presence in Afghanistan and managed to capture a number of Taliban leaders He's even been tough with opposition leaders at home, challenging them to debates and open forums to discuss differences over policy, especially health care. He scolded the Supreme Court for allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections, and in the same State of the Union speech told Republicans that if they're going to stall legislation out of spite, he would make sure the public understood how their stalling tactics have affected them.

The GOP is so wary of debating Obama that paranoia is leading them to call the health care forum a "set-up" House Minority Leader John Boehner: "I want to have this bipartisan conversation, but I want it to be productive and I want it to be real. I don't want to walk into some trap."

One can easily see how this might work. Everyone sits down, the GOP on one side of the table and the Dems on the other. Notes are consulted, water is poured into glasses. Pleasantries are exchanged, and there is the usual posturing and grandstanding, after all there are cameras in the room broadcasting these deliberations to voters and capturing these moments for posterity. These are your tax dollars hard at work.

About two hours in, when pretty much everyone but network producers have stopped watching, the GOP signals that there is no chance they are going to agree with anything President Obama introduces. The President, expecting this, but truly savoring the moment, takes control of the conversation, and delivers some final words of warning to the GOP.

The GOP is non-plussed. For every hour they fight health care reform, the health insurance industry donates a million to the GOP's campaign coffers. Papa's getting paid, you see. How many donations do you think Obama's receiving from uninsured poor people? Not many.

Convinced the GOP has settled on an obstructionist strategy, the President places his right hand under the table. A particularly vigiliant congressional aide sees what is happening and screams as she dives forward toward the table to protect the man she loves, sleeps with, and works for. "Nnnnnooooooo!!!!"

Two secret service agents run forward to block the way to the President. The aide is too late. To the cameras surrounding the table it appears that the entire Republican delegation has fallen off their chairs onto the floor. There is a moment of confusion. Then another scream, from the same woman, who is now grabbing onto the edge of the floor to keep from dropping into the viper/piranha water pit thirty feet below her dangling panty-hosed feet. There are muffled cries from inside the pit, as the predators below eat their own. It is hardly good eating; never have these piranhas feasted on animals so full of shit.

The remainder of the Republican aides stay in the seats against the wall, not willing to risk their own demise to save their fellow aide. In fact, they have already started cursing their former employers, and circumstances which now force them to find another job, and in such an awful market! Just when it appears the tartish aide will share her lover's fate, a figure appears over her, clad in thousand dollar loafers. It is Rahm Emanual. "HELP ME!" the girl shrieks. With a Cheshire grin Emanual kicks the aide in the face and sends her reeling into the trap below.

The Republicans know better than to fall into such a trap.