They Dye Has Been Cast by Ira Schwartz
"It's one of the great Bernie Madoff gimmicks that I've ever seen, that anybody's ever seen." said Senator John McCain on ABC’s “Good Morning America”. He was referring to the way Democrats were able to pass the Healthcare Bill. McCain continued, "This was behind closed doors. The Republicans were never brought in to the negotiations and this is what you get -- a split country -- where the American people are opposed to what we're doing and opposed to us."
According to the latest Gallop Poll (http://www.gallup.com/poll/124715/Majority-Americans-Not-Backing-Healthcare-Bill.aspx) 48% of Americans are against the present Healthcare reform legislation while 46% are for it. This clearly indicates how close the split in this country regarding this issue really is. However over 79% of us do agree that our legislature needs to be replaced. The congressional approval rating has dropped to a mere 21%. (http://www.gallup.com/poll/123491/Approval-Congress-Falls-21-Driven-Democrats.aspx)
When asked how he thinks the late Senator Ted Kennedy would have felt he replied, "I think that Senator Kennedy would appreciate the outcome. I don't think he would appreciate it on a party-line vote. There has never been a major reform accomplished in the history of this country that wasn't bipartisan. ... He never engaged in this kind of unsavory process of offering people different deals, which in the end cost people from other states lots of money and puts burdens on them."
As I’m sure you all know by now the Senate voted to close debate on the bill by a 60-40 vote. The 60 votes consisted of 58 Democrats and two Independents. The Republicans stood firm with their 40 members against and most if not all were as disgusted as John McCain with the whole affair.
John Cornyn, Republican from Texas warned, "There will be a day of accounting. Perhaps the first day of accounting will be Election Day 2010."
"This process is not legislation. This process is corruption," said Sen. Tom Coburn, Republican from Oklahoma. "It is a shame that the only way we can pass this legislation is to buy votes."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called provisions inserted to change Nelson's vote a "kind of smelly proposition." "This is supposed to be all of our health care ... not just for them," he said at a Capitol Hill press conference.
The Democrats showed to the country and the world the worst part of American politics and the really sad part is they are happy with this display. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and conservative Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska should be the most embarrassed for allowing themselves to be swayed by this back door diplomacy. But it’s not just Nelson’s and Lieberman that won concessions in closed-door negotiations, Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu managed to secure $300 million dollars in Medicaid funding for her state for her vote. This prompted Senator McCain to call Landrieu’s deal “The Louisiana Purchase”. Vermont, Florida and Massachusetts will also benefit from special treatment in how the federal government subsidizes state Medicaid programs. However Nelson and Lieberman’s cross over to the “Dark Side” were both very public ones and the fervor over it will not likely go away anytime soon. They have compromised their reputation and ideals and will likely pay the price in the next election.
Even though this proposed bill has passed the Senate it is still a long way from being ratified. The Senate bill and the House bill are two completely different animals. They will need to be merged into one bill that will satisfy both. That will not be an easy task as Republicans will continue to do whatever is necessary to slow the process down. Also the dissenting voices of the American people are getting louder and louder and that is making a lot of Democrats very nervous.
It appears the Democrats think they have everything under control and maybe they do but the American people are angry and the last thing you want to do is make the American people angry. The Republicans found that out in the last election as their majority was swept away. I guess in their haste to “change the world” the Democrats have forgotten that. It appears they have also forgotten they all serve at the “pleasure” of the American people. And quite frankly that “pleasure” is just about all used up. Monday night “American Movie Classics” ran one of my favorite all time movies, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” As I sat there and watched the movie for the umpteenth time I realized that politics really hasn’t changed since the 30’s when this movie was made. Truth be told it probably hasn’t changed since our “Founders” signed the Declaration of Independence. But that doesn’t make it right, it just accentuates our, the voters, complacency with how things get done.
It appears our present administration has become very skilled at; “buying votes”. Something I am sure has brought a lot of smiles to the Karzai government in Afghanistan.
© 2009 by Ira Schwartz. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ben Nelson, Health Care, Ira Schwartz, Joe Leiberman, John Cornyn, John McCain, Mary Landrieu, Mitch McConnell, Ted Kennedy, Tom Coburn
posted by Frank T. DeMartini @ 10:16 AM
4 Comments:
As usual, nice job Frank. Well said. I do have a different take on your last commnent. I think things have changes a lot since this nation was founded. The ethics, or should I say, lack of ethics in congress is at an all time low. I posted the following comment to Frank's Facebook this morning and I think it applies here as well - "So here's the deal. If we only believe in ourselves without believing in anything greater than ourselves, then there is no moral reference and we are adrift. This drift is accelerated when we start ignoring or denying history. Eventually any action becomes acceptable. This includes lying and stealing in plain site on the Senate floor. So I guess we have arrived."
Hey Craig....glad you like my article. I agree with you on several of your points. I think both our country and our government and quite possibly our planet are at a crossroads. It is a dangerous crossroads. I only hope we have the will and the forsight to take the correct road.
Good article!
As I think John McCain would get 'full court' press coverage, I would love to see a bit of the younger, more outspoken, demonstrative, McCain do his version of "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore." It's due.
His very gentlemanly presidential approach didn't float the boat, so it's about time to drop some of the PC nonsense and call them as they are.... as your article does. As the pachyderms don't have the votes, it's time to call the Jack Asses out for their backroom deals, or is it true that the Big Gray Ones are afraid of mice.
Please, we all bought tickets on this titanic. Please embrace responsibility and articulate solution. Enough of the post mortems, seize the moment with a plan of action.
One is reminded that Former Vice President Al Gore articulated it quite well when he excused despicable, immoral and unethical behavior that fell under the pathetic trite definition of answering to “no legal controlling authority.” What is one to believe about the Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu $300 million extracted from Senator Harry Reid for her vote on ObamaCare? And then there is Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson who extracted forgiveness for his entire states future obligation for Medicaid, an exemption that Reid, of Nevada, and Kerry, of Massachusetts, seemed to have already co-opted in a scheme called a Medicaid Global Payment waiver. Shouldn’t every state get this wavier if it is legitimate and not twisted and tortured “legal” extortion for a vote?
It is in times like the present that one begins to truly understand why research grants, like climate change, are secretly, unreasonably tethered to outputs favorable to the grantor. This is the deconstruction of scientific integrity. This has long been the political quid pro quo in many unethical, biased and downright fraudulent polling enterprises. Only now we protest. One can get the desire data, conclusion and outcome by asking the “right” question or offer the right concession.
It is the failing of the moral compass of the “good” people (us).” This mentality has a strange similarity surrounding the aura of “good People” of Nazi Germany. Our politicians feathered their nest while the masses are pushed into ghettos. The “Nazi” label for tea-baggers by Nancy Pelosi was a Freudian slip of projection. Mark Levin said “All of the Constitutional limitations are under assault.” We seek a new World Order as Jacques Chirac is investigated about fraudulent payments for jobs that didn’t exist under his leadership, a quid pro quo. Few can wrestle with the Creature from Jekyll Island.
The deficit neutral mantra might have served Bernie Madoff very well. It is a form of financial cannibalism, the living benefit until no one does. And Bernie would do it again. The Medicare and Medicaid slight of hand is redistributing $500 billion off of the OMB scoring, benefits are delayed for years while taxes are collected, to obfuscate the obvious, a lie. Political correctness dictates we apologize to liars.
In the history of a noble nation the frailties of humanity have never been so obvious, faulty and misguided. The liberals own this making of history, the conservatives allowed it to happen. The future will score the true, unbiased and honest outcome. Our children will bear the burden of its cost. The electorate is experiencing a historic opportunity in the health care bill, always existed but never so obvious, to see the true face of political courage, integrity, ethical and moral values. Too many of us fear it is the moral portrait of Dorian Gray. Will the epitaph be “Is there no shame for those that did it and those that let it happen?”
Politicians like Reid, Pelosi, Rangel, Waters, Harmon, Feinstein and the rest of the 40% of senatorial and congressional, and executive branch operatives who are reported to have managed to become millionaires or a public cottage industry have most certainly found a way to “bend upward” the accumulation of their wealth as they redistribute the wealth of hard working Americans, doing irreparable damage to the middle class, as the dollar plunges. The loophole in jurisprudence for theft is “redistributing the wealth.” The temptation is great for those who find it manageable to route tax dollars into their own pockets through means that may be legal but are certainly wrong. Legality can not be infinite as loop holes will always exist for the unconscionable crook. The answer is term limits.
Moral courage is dying.
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