As the debate over health care reform rages on, President Obama has taken a major step in bringing Republicans and Democrats together in an attempt to actually accomplish some manor of reform with his proposed Health Care Summit. He has called for a Republicans to join him at a televised meeting on February 25 in order to have a serious discussion on what we can do to move forward in this process. Seems like a rational idea, right? Bring both sides together in the open to talk about their differences and let the American people watch. Sounds like open, transparent government to me.
So what’s the Republican response to this proposed meeting? “It’s a trap.” No, I’m not making that up. Republicans have actually come out saying that they don’t trust the President’s intentions and have likened attending this Summit to walking into a trap. One question, Republicans: Are you f*cking serious? Do you have no shame? Is there no depth to which you will sink to accomplish your one goal of hamstringing the Democrats and making it impossible for them to accomplish ANYTHING?
The Republicans are without doubt the most obstructionist group of politicians that I have ever seen or studied. I can’t remember a group of people more hell-bent on making their political opponents so ineffective in order to boost their own image. Seriously, Republicans never give Obama a shred of credit on anything, and they’ve filibustered more than 200 times in the past three years. They’re the reason your government isn’t working right now, ladies and gentlemen. It’s hard to accomplish anything when one side is trying to be proactive while the other side sits in the corner and pouts and sulks and just says n0 to everything.
Yes, Republicans are acting like 3 year olds. They’re not going to apologize for it, either. In fact, they’re going to keep it up, because here’s the not-so-secret Republican strategy for winning mid-term elections: “If we stall and drag our feet and filibuster, it will ensure that the Democrats accomplish nothing. We can then say to the American people, ‘they haven’t accomplished anything, isn’t it time you elected us back into power?’” It’s really quite brilliant when you think about it. Dirty, but brilliant. Cheap, but brilliant. Undermines the political process, but brilliant.
Want to know the real reason why the Republicans are trying to avoid showing up at President Obama’s Health Care Summit? Simple: if they do go, they’ll expose themselves to the American public as the frauds that they are. They can’t counter President Obama’s health care reform ideas with ideas of their own, because Republican ideas on health care reform don’t exist. Republicans have no incentive to institute health care reform for a number of reasons. The health care industry is in bed with them in a big way. They can’t actually support any Democrat’s idea on anything, lest they be branded “Socialists.” Their misplaced allegiance to the free market dictates that they oppose any new government spending–unless it’s starting two wars, of course. And lastly, they just don’t care that 30-40 million of their countrymen are uninsured, and countless more are under-insured. It just isn’t very high on their list of priorities.
So, there you have it. I’ve hashed out the reasons why, in all likelihood, substantial health care reform is dead in this country. One cruel, obstructionist political party being funded by the greedy health care industry has done a masterful job of framing this issue as some kind of American vs. Un-American issue. I hope you are proud of yourselves, Republicans, you’ve basically just handed death sentences to tens of millions of Americans.
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