Congressional Democrats, reeling from a series of disastrous town halls in which they
have been booed, jeered and shouted down over HB 3200, their version of so-called
"healthcare reform," and facing an uncertain future in trying to pass unpopular
legislation that may, in the end, cost many of them their seats, are now openly calling
on President Barack Obama to exercise some leadership and submit his own bill. But
that is a dangerous gambit for this president, and he knows it.
To be sure. most of the concepts in HB 3200 have been championed by Obama at
one time for another, including taxing the rich, cutting Medicare payments and
reducing fraud and waste in that program that is already on financial life support,
reproductive healthcare (read government funded abortions), unrestricted care
(read free healthcare for illegal aliens), a National Health Committee (read
healthcare rationing board), and a "public option" (read government insurance
that will jeopardize private insurance companies). It is these very concepts that
have made HB 3200 a legislative pariah. For all their bluster Democrats still
aren't sure they have the votes to pass it and they are looking for their leader
to pull some magical rabbit out of the hat and ride to the rescue. Whether he
tries to do that or not will tell Americans a great deal about this man they have
elected to lead the nation.
First, he is being asked to lay his appreciable but ever dwindling personal popularity
squarely on the line, call in all his political favors and exhort a doubtful electorate
to climb aboard a budget busting bandwagon with an uncertain future. If he does
so and fails to get the bill passed, his chances for a second term seem bleak at best,
If he does so and succeeds, and any or all of the critics' dreads come to pass, the
same applies.
Second, to propose a deadlock breaking alternative he would most surely have
to jettison the objectionable concepts for which he has so eloquently argued.
While a successful makeover could be spun as a magnificent bi=partisan
leadership demonstration, it will almost surely squander his meager remaining
credibility with the vocal left wing of his own party, and be seen as a sign of
political weakness by his opposition.
Third, without a clear way of paying for the bill that will not make middle
class tax increases inevitable before he leaves office, he will have done little
but to have birthed a stillborn miscreant that will surely be put out of America's
misery when, in the inevitable turnaround of political fortunes, conservatives
regain congressional ascendancy.
In the movie "War Games" the computer decides that as with tic-tac-toe, when
it comes to global thermonuclear war the only winning move is not to play. In
this case Obama can make a case for asking the congress to do its job instead
of asking him to do it for them. His safest move is to let HB 3200 die a certain,
quiet death, lick his (and his party's) wounds and make another, far more subtle
run at it during his second term. That's if he gets one. That will allow a cooling
off period in which the few grownups left on capitol hill can sit down and craft
reasonable reforms in the current healthcare and health insurance system
instead of irresponsibly burning it to the ground/ HB 3200 is a horse that
won't run, Mr. President, a dog that won't hunt. The smart thing and the right
thing are, for once, identical. Let it go!