The fact that Health Care is involved accounts for some, but by no means all, of the intensity of the argument. I really think we are seeing a seachange in politics.
My view is that you can start anywhere on the curve. You could say the problems began with Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton, Bush or where ever. But lets start with Bush II, where I think things hit critical mass. People began to feel more manipulate, lied to, and cheated than I can ever remember. I believe Obama played to these concerns more than any other candidate and the hope that he would bring change in these areas is what cause the middle to vote for him. I think the middle wanted honesty, trasparency, fiscally conservative policies. In short they wanted a government they could trust.
However, almost upon taking power the Dems began to make it clear they intended to conduct business as usual.
Tax cheats were nominated and in some cases appointed. Nothing was done to Charles Rangel or Chris Dodd. Bills began to be rushed through in the dark of night without even reading them. We had more earmarks than ever. Bigger deficits, etc.
The left loved it, Republicans predictably opposed it and the center was becoming uneasy. The Dems appeared to be the Reps on steoroids. Deficits began to soar. True, some but not al of Bush's economic people were removed to be replaced by equally dishonest and incompetent econmic advisors many of whom were major contributors to the problem.
The unrest in the center was growing. People were realizing that Obama had no intention of changing the culture of corruption or reining in spending.
Against this background he tries another time to rush a bill through congress, and people rebelled. The public was right as it turned out.
Many congressman who claimed to support the bill had not read it. It was, I believe, deliberately obscure and the rationale for the bill changed from cutting costs to evil insurance companies as soon as the CBO announced that it was going to cost a lot. Of course the real source of the evil insurance companies attack was that it polled well.
I don't know about you, but when the purpose of a bill is to save money today and the next day it is to reign evil insurance companies without any changes in the bill at all, I think something is to quote the whitehouse "fishy". Obama continued to pressure passage of the bill without any idea of how we will pay for it.
This is the most inept handling of legislation that I have seen in my lifetime.
The message that people, except for yellow dog dems, got was: We support this bill, but we haven't read it, and we have no idea where we are getting the 1.4 Trillion to pay for it, and those people who are opposed to it are all Nazi, KKK, bigots. (Not too smart when most Americans oppose the bill), oh and by the way there is really no plan, even though we would have passed one in July, if we could have gotten away with it.
Oh and by the way all of this occuring against a background of the worst economy since the depression. In bad economic times people don't give the government as much slack as when times are good.
Too be sure much of the mistrust people have is caused by previous administrations, but he did nothing to separate himself from those policies.
Coupled with all that went before it is there any wonder that people are angry. |
