ANALYSIS/OPINION:
America has watched with growing disgust the behavior of our politicians in the debate about Obamacare. The press accounts of the continuing turmoil assert that the reasons for the discord are almost entirely political - in the worst sense of that word. According to them, the primary reason for the deadlock is each member’s own analysis of how a vote will affect his or her re-election.
If true, this charge makes a mockery of democracy and the “right to free and fair elections,” as well as the entire system which it supports. It leads to the conclusion that the entire Congress is motivated by a selfish thirst for power so the desire to win re-election outweighs any consideration of the good of the country, that is, the people whom they are sworn to serve.
The central question of the entire legislative process then becomes: Is the press analysis correct? The answer is alarming. The entire Democratic Party’s legislators refuse to participate in the legislative process in both Houses of Congress! That can only be seen as a strategy to regain power in future elections.
In the meantime, they might as well stay home for two years. This maneuver is not good for the country. Put simply: The Democrats don’t care what the country needs or wants during the present session of Congress. All they want is more power.
The Republicans aren’t much better. In the first place, they started this war during the first Obama administration by asserting that their primary objective, in the words of then Minority Leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, was to deny President Obama a second term. In that they were not successful, in spite of gaining a Republican majority in the House in the first post-Obama election (2010). The Republicans swept everything in the 2016 election: the presidency, both Houses of Congress and a majority on the state governors and legislatures.
Everyone expected that the Republicans could get whatever they wanted in the current session of Congress. Turns out that is not the case. The House is split into at least three Republican factions, call them “center right,” which elected current Speaker Paul Ryan, the “fiscal conservatives,” and the “social conservatives.” This alignment has resulted in a spirited debate in the House, which has, however, been successful in passing a controversial health care bill. Whether a majority coalition can hold together and pass more such legislation or not remains to be seen. The specter of the failure of the previous speaker to unite his party looms vividly over the current speaker, but so far, he has been more successful than his predecessor. The House therefore offers a model of sorts for the Senate.
The Republican-majority Senate is a basket case. Commentator Rush Limbaugh believes that the fundamental conflict is because the entire establishment is dead set against the outsider president and will do anything to bring him down. He defines the “establishment” as the bureaucracy, the Republican Party power brokers and the press, as well as the Democratic Party. He attributes the Republican dissidents in Congress to this cabal. Another term for the anti-Trump conspirators is the “deep state.” For Rush, the “deep state” is not only deep but also wide.
While there is no question that the deep state exists, my view is that the Senate has united under the president’s leadership. After all, 48-50 votes out of 52 in favor of the various health care proposals represents significant unity. The 2-4 naysayers refuse to join the Trump/McConnell team for various reasons.
My view is that these naysayers cannot see the forest for the trees. This forest is the millions of people who are suffering now under the huge burdens of Obamacare. They include the people stuck with extraordinary premiums and deductibles, which they can’t afford and therefore are losing their health insurance by the millions today. And this group is growing every year.
Another group faces the employer mandate which is holding down small businesses, their growth and start-ups, causing massive layoffs, and second and third jobs for many Americans. Obamacare is also causing the flight from all government health plans by medical practitioners of every specialty imaginable due to the lowering of fees and government interference with treatments. These harmful effects of Obamacare far outweigh the ancillary squabbles of the Republican dissenters, not to mention the entire Democrat caucus.
From a political point of view, if the Republican-led Congress fails to pass the Republican president’s agenda, the Republican Party could lose the 2018 election and end up like the Whigs, who disappeared into history in 1854. If the good of the country is not enough to motivate support for the Republican agenda, the threat of a permanent Republican-minority status should be enough.
In order for democracy to work, each generation must re-invent its own structures and standards. This is our time. Our friends in the Congress must rise to today’s challenges or tomorrow may bring another round of the far-left “Mommy State,” which has taken over the Democrat Party. That ideology leads to insurmountable public debt of the type experienced by Detroit and Puerto Rico. They have found themselves in real and virtual bankruptcy, unable to govern themselves. We had a strong taste of that under President Obama. If the U.S. government runs out of money, we will face the worst depression in history, and perhaps the end of our way of life.
So, a note to Congress: Stop your dilly-dallying, and pass the president’s agenda.
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