Curmudgeon's Corner

Snake Oil

Posted by Al Campbell on March 9, 2010

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

To watch President Barack Obama talk about health care reform is to watch the old ‘snake oil’ pitchman who came to town to sell his remedy to the unwary citizens.  He is slick and compelling, but he is selling a bogus product.

Obama has been ‘selling’ his health care reform bill since he was on the campaign trail trying to become our President.  He has been selling the same old ‘snake oil’ ever since, and he is still selling us.  Many in the media are tagging along still dumb-struck by the aura that is Obama.

A majority of the citizens of this country has come to understand that this approach to health care reform is not something they wish to have take place, but that is nothing but a ‘speed bump’ in Obama’s path.  He continues to spin the tale that has been concocted for several years; he continues to spin against the nasty insurance companies.

Obama has mastered the art of creating ‘straw dogs’ to attack to show us Americans how great it is that we elected him to do our bidding.  The insurance companies have been unwitting accomplices in this charade by permitting themselves to be such inviting targets.  They, like too many Republicans, seem unable to get out of their own way.

The President, through his intermediaries, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, is trying to pressure the House to give him the win by working to fan the flames that had died down a bit too much.  He tried to do that through his speech making.  That wasn’t having the desired effect.  He tried the ‘health summit’ but that was a bust from his perspective.  He ran into the comparatively young Congressman, Ryan, from Wisconsin who dissected his folly for a bit more than six minutes.  That was so damaging that the articulate President had nothing to say other than to plead that, as much as he’d like to engage Ryan, there wasn’t time.

So, we are back in full campaign mode.  President Obama is back to the roots of his election.  He is able to pack halls with selected attendees and he is able to whip them into frenzy and the media trails along behind lapping up each performance.

In the meantime, his other accomplices are working the remaining ‘undecided’ and/or ‘no’ votes. 

There is a new, arbitrary, deadline of March 18^th.  Why is a deadline needed for the consideration of something that involves each of us in a most intimate fashion?  For the same reason that the last deadline was issued; there is a recess coming up and that will expose the members of Congress to the irate people whom they each represent.

President Obama wants to keep the members of the House, especially, in the bubble that is Washington, D.C. because there is a different “reality” inside the bubble.   If they get to go home before voting yes on health care reform, they’ll come to realize that they have been inside a bubble and that reality at home is considerably different than reality in Washington, D.C.

Those who govern us need our consent to govern.  Since we are now withholding our consent on this most important issue, or set of issues, the people who would govern us need to keep the members of the House away from us until they have been cajoled, forced or paid to vote for the greatest ‘snake oil’ bill proposed in recent history.  After it has been made a ‘done deal’, then they can be permitted to go home; not until.

This whole charade is about government control, not health care reform. It is about the far left liberals/progressives seeing the moment they’ve worked for over decades dangerously close to slipping from their grasp.  This is a vote concerning our freedoms, and it should not be taken lightly by any of us.

There are those who would tell us to ‘chill’ since the Republicans could overturn this action if they roll to the level of victory some expect in the fall.  Even if the Republican Party found a backbone sufficient to bring this to a challenge, they would need to have majorities in both houses and would still face a solid veto from President Obama that would require super majorities in both houses to overcome.

This is not the time to ‘chill’ and await a majority.  This is the time to beat this bill down, to drive a stake through its heart.

~~~~~~

The Curmudgeon Blog today is titled "Census Warning Letters?".