President Obama refuses to give up on health care reform, even threatening to use reconciliation to pass a bill if Republicans threaten to filibuster. There are a couple of interesting points about Obama’s stubbornness…
First, he’s playing this hand before the planned bipartisan health care summit. Republicans have shown a cold shoulder to this meeting because the president and Democrats have not been receptive to Republican proposals. Could this latest maneuver be a push to get Republicans to attend the summit, therefore giving Obama a bipartisan cover?
Secondly, the president still neglects the Democrats’ electoral failures in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Additionally, he plays deaf to the tea parties and town hall meetings. He is, in effect, determined to go full speed ahead with his socialist agenda without regard to the people’s will and without regard to his (and the Democrats’) political career.
Lastly, President Obama ignores the sensitivity of the abortion issue, snubbing Rep. Bart Stupak’s (D-MI) amendment to prohibit federally funded abortion in the House version of the bill. Instead, the president thinks the Senate bill is better. Clearly, he’s putting his foot down to the moderate Democrats — follow me, or await my fury.
We do not need health care reform at this moment in our economic downturn. America is laden with record debt and deficit. Changing the existing health care system would be detrimental to the economy. Unemployment is still at near 10% with no significant relief in sight. Why not focus on jobs? That should be the top priority now instead of health care reform.
