{"id":559,"date":"2009-09-11T09:19:26","date_gmt":"2009-09-11T14:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=559"},"modified":"2009-09-11T09:27:14","modified_gmt":"2009-09-11T14:27:14","slug":"obama-no-i-can%e2%80%99t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=559","title":{"rendered":"Obama: No I Can\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blogger\u2019s Note<\/strong>: I know that today is Patriot Day\/The Anniversery of the 9\/11\/2001 attacks, and yes, it is even my birthday (feel free to donate a few bucks as a birthday present if you are so inclined). The 9\/11 attacks are in the past and today I still need to discuss issues in the present so that we can build a better future. Next week sometime I will post on 9\/11 or keep checking the Examiner<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

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Lately I have been very annoyed that President Obama has caved in to the massive power of the Republican minority on Health Insurance Reform. Many of my fellow Democrats are not as fired up and pissed off as I am. Many tell me that we need to take \u201cbaby steps\u201d or that I need to learn how to \u201ccompromise.\u201d Some even say that the President can\u2019t just push through real meaningful health insurance reform.<\/p>\n

Well, I voted for a \u201cYes We Can\u201d President, not a \u201cNo We Can\u2019t\u201d President. The fact of the matter is that former President George W. Bush was able to push through a war in Iraq and the US PATRIOT Act without 60 Republican Senators. Why can\u2019t Obama get his agenda done with 60 Democratic Senators? Former Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Van Jones, answered this question best in a recent town hall event, \u201cBecause Republicans are assholes.\u201d Jones \u201cresigned\u201d in part because of that remark.<\/p>\n

Now I am all for \u201cbaby steps\u201d when we need to take them, but let us not forget that we have 60 Democratic Senators, control over the House, and the Presidency. We don\u2019t need to take baby steps. We can take big boy steps now. If we have to be assholes to assholes in order to get real meaningful reform done, than I am all for it.<\/p>\n

As for compromise, I am supporter of compromise. I am willing to compromise on the Medicare4All idea which I think is by far the strongest and best health insurance reform plan in favor of the weaker but more capitalistically oriented Public Option which would compete with the private insurance company monopoly to force lower prices and higher quality of service. But to compromise on the compromise is just one compromise too many. The plan that the President outlined on Wednesday is basically a Republican plan with a few Democratic ideas thrown in. That is no longer compromise that is giving up almost completely. When you do everything that the other side wants and almost nothing that your side wants, you have lost. That is not a compromise, it is surrender.<\/p>\n

Why is Obama caving in here? The Democrats have a filibuster proof Senate majority, control of the House, the Presidency, and\u2026 and all the political capital Obama earned during the campaign. If Bush had this must going for him, he would have probably taken us to war with Canada and then England (those Communists with their universal healthcare systems are a threat to Democracy).<\/p>\n

Now, I know some Democrats will whine about how not all the Senators are supporting a strong health insurance reform. But let\u2019s face the facts, we don\u2019t need them. We only need 51 Senators to pass this thing as long as the other nine don\u2019t join a Republican filibuster, we don\u2019t have a problem. Can you imagine if they did join a Republican filibuster against a popular Democratic President? They would be out of a job at the next election cycle. Yeah, that\u2019s right; the President is popular and has a lot of political capital from the election. Political capital he will surely lose if he cannot get meaningful health insurance reform passed. He can go up to any of the Democratic Senators who have been bought by the big health insurance monopoly and say, \u201cIf you don\u2019t support me, I will find some other Democrat in your district to replace you.\u201d He can go and campaign for some young upstart challenger who will play ball. This is called strong-arming and if a Senator believes that the President as the means and the balls to do it, they will play ball. President Obama certainly has the means, but alas no balls.<\/p>\n

So with all this going for the President, how did he become the \u201cNo I Can\u2019t\u201d President? Is he really that ineffective that even with everything going for him he still can\u2019t get anything meaningfully done? I mean come on. Even Jimmy Carter could have gotten something done with all this backing him up. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love Carter but let\u2019s face reality, he wasn\u2019t all that effectual.<\/p>\n

Let me put it this way. What would Obama need to be able to really get something meaningful done here? 60 Senators, the House, and strong political capital aren\u2019t enough, what would he need? If there were 100 Democratic Senators in the Senate and 435 Democratic Congress people in the House could Obama get something meaningful done? I don\u2019t think he could. The sad fact is that President Obama doesn\u2019t want real health insurance reform. If he did, he would do it now. Because the fact is that he is in the strongest political position one needs to be in short of an all out dictatorship.<\/p>\n

Instead, Obama talks a great game about how \u201cthis is the season for action,\u201d and how \u201cwe did not come to fear the future, but to shape it,\u201d etc. But when the time comes to put up or shut up, Obama has nothing meaningful to say. All I hear is, \u201cNo we can\u2019t.\u201d
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