Curmudgeon's Corner

Washington Scramble...

Posted by Al Campbell on Jan. 13, 2010

Economy, Healthcare, Political, Quality of Life, U.S.

The "Washington Scramble" is in full bloom.  Our politicians have had a dose of reality and the scramble is on.

Sen. Feingold held a couple of 'town hall' meetings, claimed the people were about 50-50 on the subject of health care reform, and probably had nightmares those evenings.  The people were about 90-10 against, if truth be told.  Of course, as some have told us, these meetings were held in the heartland of conservatism in Wisconsin.  Time will tell.

Massachusetts is as Democrat (liberal) as any state in the union, and the Democrat running for the senate seat vacated on the death of Ted Kennedy finds herself in a dead heat race against the Republican who is proudly and loudly running against health care reform in its present form.  This, by the way, is the state that has lived with this version of health care reform for several years now. and has experienced the good, the bad and the ugly of this approach.  This state is not real excited about that to which you and me are about to be subjected in the name of "reform".  Among many other things, the people of Massachusetts are now accustomed to waiting for five to six weeks for an appointment with their family doctor rather than the week and one-half they used to wait.

Sen. Reid (D-NV) is running a dismal race for re-election in Nevada all because of his stance on health care reform; and, were the election held today, he would probably lose in at least a 60-40 tilt against him.

Virginia and New Jersey decided they wanted to be rid of their Democrat governors even though the President was four-square behind those people.  It is amazing how rapidly that 'history' has been swept from public view. 

The labor 'bigs' are letting the Obama White House know in no uncertain terms what they expect of him in return for labor's support in his race for the presidency.  No 40% "Cadillac" tax for them thank you very much!  The latest gossip says that collectively bargained health plans may simply be exempted from the tax as the solution to keeping the union leaders in line.

Dodd and Dorgan, both long time Democrats, announced their decision to leave public life rather than face virtually certain defeat in their home states this fall.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) negotiated a sweetheart deal for his home state of Nebraska only to go home to the resounding chorus of constituents who resented his actions.  He is now in 'waffling mode' so far as the potential that he might not support the health care reform bill in its final form.

And now, the President gives Interpol free access with no restraints to go after U. S. citizens in the United States if and when it chooses. His own media group, the CNNs and APs of the world, are now telling the truth about the polls concerning his rating after his first year in office.  Those numbers tend to be about 60-40 against Obama.  Would this uproar have been as significant had we not already become fed-up with his push for health care reform.  We are, after all, going to have be better "world citizens", so we'd better get used to these happenings.

The certainty of a health care reform bill being signed in time for the late-January State of the Union speech by Obama has become an uncertainty.  He has tentatively scheduled his speech for early-February and even that could be problematic.

This 'Washington Scramble' is the result of you and me learning more about just what has been going on and about what is likely to continue to happen in this new political world we created for ourselves...and we're not excited about the prospects.

It appears that we're not as excited about the idea of health care reform when we begin to see the detail involved.  Try as they might, the supporters have not been entirely successful in keeping all this behind closed doors.  We apparently don't like the idea of the IRS being directly involved in the health care reform effort.  We apparently don't like the loss of choice.  We apparently don't believe this will be budget-neutral or even "save money".  We apparently don't believe that we'll be able to keep our plan if we like it.

The "Washington Scramble" is being fed by popular opinion that is opposed to the usual results of the usual suspects in Washington.  The longer this health reform bill twists in the wind, and the more we all learn about some of the other plans the President and the Congress have for us good people, the more those in Washington will feel the hot breath of the electorate on their necks.

Good for us. 

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The Curmudgeon Blog today is titled "Rural Health Care Will Suffer".