“We’re not campaigning anymore,” the president told his Republican opponent in the 2008 election. “The election is over.”
But the day did seem to be mostly about campaigning as lawmakers lobbied viewers regarding the best way to move forward in this yearlong debate.
Early on, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, largely silent to this point, interrupted Obama to inform him that Republicans so far had spoken for 24 minutes while Democrats had taken 52 minutes. Obama relented he had forgotten to count himself on the Democratic side because he is the president.
Well, Republicans kept a time track of the entire roughly 7-hour day and here is the final tally:
- Republicans: 110 minutes
- Democrats: 114 minutes
- President Obama: 119 minutes
Obama and Democrats spent their minutes trying to tell America that the two parties really aren’t that far apart when it comes to healthcare. Republicans countered with repeatedly using the phrase “start over” in unsuccessful attempts to get the Democrats to scrap the current bills in favor of a clean sheet of paper. Translation: the two sides really are deeply divided on this issue.
Still, Obama, in his final lecture at the end of the session, warned that Democrats are willing to go at it alone when it comes to healthcare. He said ultimately voters would decide if this is the best course of action.
If the 6 hour passion(less) play were not bad enough, the president's comments before the health care summit indicate it was just a show. When asked if he has a plan B, the president told a reporter before the event that he "always has a plan." Not that having a plan is bad, but I would have expected something along the lines of, "My plan is to use this summit to make a better health care plan."
I think any objective viewer could see that the real plan was to cast the Republicans as "the party of No" and then shove his bloated healthcare disaster down the throats of Americans who clearly do not want his kind of big-government reform.
All along, both parties have been grasping for power. Most politicians seem to forgotten that they are public servants. The progressive politicians in both parties continue to move America in the direction of European socialism, not because it works so well, but because they will gain power over others. As though spitting in the face of the TEA Party activists, they have forgotten that America was built on the idea of individual liberty and they have abandoned our shared history.
Sadly, this health care initiative is less about providing healthcare to those who need it and more about advancing a political ideology that rewards elitists and enslaves everyone else. This will herald a loss of power for the Democrats. Hopefully it will also inspire vigilance on the part of citizens to watch the Republicans and keep them in check too.
