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Here I am, stuck in Philadelphia…literally. Another Nor’Easter has blown in with a vengeance, and I am a shut-in at the Homestead Suites.
Stuck. One might see the way recent weather has brought much of the Northeast, including Washington DC, to a grinding halt as a metaphor for our government. So many decry the gridlock, the inability to get anything done, the lack of a consensus as such a terrible, awful thing.
I don’t. I rather appreciate the fact that there is more than one side of the aisle in the American government. I am glad there are divergent opinions, incessant argumentation, varying philosophies on how things ought to be and how they ought to be done. Why should our government be in harmony on issues about which Americans are not in harmony? Do they not represent us? Is that not what we sent them to Capitol Hill to do?
If you want government that is in lock-step, in one accord, in unison, like a well-oiled machine with a singular focus, you might move to Iran or North Korea. There seems to be little argument inside the hallowed halls of those regimes…and woe be to the ones who would argue outside them.
Stuck. A seven-and-one-half hour summit on health care only served to show how far apart the Republicans and Democrats are on health care reform. The conservatives won’t jump on the let’s-make-Uncle-Sam bigger than ever bandwagon and sign off on Obama Care, and the Democrats won’t be told no, public opinion be damned.
Nancy Pelosi says, “Some Americans don’t have time for us to start over.”
Pelosi, the House leader and Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader both advocate ramming the health care bill through by using the nifty reconciliation maneuver they used to whine about when they were in the minority.
Time is of the essence. We must act now. No time to waste.
When you get a sales call and the person on the other end of the line is telling you there is no time to think about it, this is a limited time offer, you must act right this very minute or be forever lost, what do you do? I hang up the phone…unless they tick me off, then I use a few choice words, tell them never to call me again, and then hang up the phone. (And my choice of choice words is none of your business.)
This is how the multi-billion dollar bailout was added to the taxpayer’s tab. And this is how Reid and Pelosi, snake oil salesmen that they are, want to add a few thousand people to your insurance premium. (Not to mention making you an outlaw if you don’t have insurance coverage.)
Stuck. That is what we are. Stuck with Barrack Obama for a couple more years. Stuck with a likely one-term president who, when he sees the writing on the wall, will have an even more pronounced scorched-earth approach than he currently does. Then, we will be stuck with big-government laws and policies that will take an act of congress to undo, which means we may just be…
Stuck…
I am. Somewhere between Philly and the cheese steak I am craving.
