Posted by
Patrick Henry on Monday, October 26, 2009 11:02:48 AM
Weekend talk and news programs ran rife with chatter about whether Republicans may face an electoral
backlash if they remain united in their opposition to Obamacare in light of the compromise proposals being
floated on Capitol Hill. Such speculation is proof positive that politics inevitably spawns drivelish reasoning.
It is important to understand that ALL the compromise proposals are compromises between disagreeing
Democrats, not bipartisan overtures from Democrats to Republicans. And every one of them contains a
version of the same poison pill the GOP has thus far refused to swallow: the government run healthcare
option. If I am deathly allergic to peanuts and you offer me a menu choice of peantut butter, peanut brittle
or peanut clusters, that really doesn't give me a genuine choice. I'm dead either way. The Democrats are
determined that they will have their precious "public option" by hook or by crook, and the criticism that
Republicans are unduly negative for resisting all versions of it is specious on its face.
Juan Williams of NPR, during recent appearances on Fox News panels, has accused Republicans of
being MIA on healthcare reform. This is a judgment by one who apparently takes only selective note of
the facts. The fact is that Republicans in the House of Representatives have submitted thirty-four separate
healthcare reform bills, none of which was given the time of day by the Democratic majority. Every
amendment offered by Republicans to Democratic bills has similarly failed. How can one play in the big
poker game if the ante is to concede in advance that the other guy wins every hand?
While Democratics are so enthused about the "public option" that they can offer it to us in chocolate,
vanilla or strawberry, they are similarly disinterested in tort reform, allowing insurance companies to
compete across state lines and the formation of state or regional insurance cooperatives, all Republican
ideas about how to save healthcare dollars, and all validated by the congressional budget office. Now which
is the "party of no?"
Americans need to encourage Republicans and moderate Democrats to stand their ground and courageously
say "NO." NO to expensive government run healthcare, NO to the cap-and-trade energy tax, NO to blanket
amnesty for illegal aliens, NO to socialism in any form and NO to allowing the United Nations to make virtual
laws constraining Americans! Because if we become a society so eager to get to "yes" that we can no longer
find strong voices to say "no" to ideas that are foreugn to our Constitution, our history and the majority
values upon which this country was built, then we stand to lose everything that is America. Thank God for
legislators and parties and Tea Partiers who are willing to stand up to a bullying president and just say NO.