Mission Impossible?

The old television show titled “Mission Impossible” featured a weekly set-up of a situation that simply couldn’t be expected to be resolved.  Yet, the “A-Team” got the job done week-in and week-out.

The new show that could/should be titled “Mission Impossible” might just be that depiction of the Democrat effort to pass health care reform in its current iteration.

It has the same plot twists and it has the A-Team, headed by President Obama and staffed with the likes of Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Steny Hoyer.

The “bad guys” seem to be the Republicans and the majority of Americans who are openly opposed to what the A-Team is trying to get done in this episode of the program.

The reality is that if the Democrat’s A-Team had THE plan, it hasn’t worked up to this point.  The originally-conceived plan has proved unwieldy and just seems to be unable to take flight.  Several recent plot twists have been tossed into the mix.  Among them, the “Slaughter Solution” that saw the House Rules Committee Chairwoman develop her plan to simply change or bypass the troublesome rules that govern our law-making.  The Senate Parliamentarian has not been as cooperative as the majority had hoped.

The only thing that we can be certain of is this: if the Speaker of the House had the votes, she’d have called that House into session immediately and would’ve presided over the victory that her party so sorely needs.

The unseemly process that has evolved has provided high political drama, but it has done nothing for the country.  The issues with health care still exist and wait to be corrected with incremental solutions rather than the grand re-making of nearly 20% of this country’s economy in one fell swoop.  This mighty effort has just about run its course.

If the politicians come home for their Easter break without having passed health care reform, they will be treated to another dose of voters’ opposition since the poll numbers regularly show that opponents outnumber proponents.

The political will to make this all happen just seems to be bleeding out with every passing day.  The A-Team appears to have met its match in this episode.  Maybe it will still find some way to make all this happen, or maybe it will find some way to save face.

A terribly high price will have been paid in either event.  We still need reasonable solutions to the health care issues that confront our country.  We still need to get people back to work.  We still need to rein in government spending.  We still need to remind our politicians that we expect to be properly represented when we send them to Washington.

Mission Impossible?  Maybe.

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The Curmudgeon Blog today is titled "Do They Feel Your Pain?".