This will be my last post for a while because I’m going into the hospital for a major surgery (not life threatening I hope – but 3+ hours under anasthesia just the same) and I’ll be “out of commission” for a bit – I have no idea how long. The circumstances lead me to say how thankful I am to have health insurance so that I can follow the advice of my doctor (who’s brilliant at what he does, in my view, and I’m thankful for him as well) and it’s leading me to want to write about the health care debate that seems to be raging in Washington DC and around the country these days. This debate has allowed the Democrats to finally push their failure of leadership in holding the Bush administration accountable for criminal behavior out of the news, but I believe that failure of leadership could be even more evident when all is said and done here, if they are unable to come up with legislation consistent with the overwhelming majority of Americans. There will become a point where voters will hold Democrats accountable for their “fear of Republicans.”

If you’ve been following politics lately you are probably aware that the Minnesota Supreme Court just ruled that Tim Pawlenty, the Republican governor of Minnesota, must certify Al Franken as the second Senator from Minnesota and, theoretically the 60th vote in the Democratic caucus in the Senate. So, the Democrats should have no excuses about passing President Obama’s agenda, right? 60 votes in the Senate, a bi-partisan majority in the polls, and a President with a high approval rating (which I believe is getting to the point where you could say that rating is “on the line”) – good things should start to happen, correct? Well, again, if you’ve been following politics you probably already had realized that it wasn’t going to be that easy.

However, from my perspective, it should be. I’ll get to the health care issue, but I will point out up front that I believe President Obama is squarely on the “hot seat” at this point and we will be getting a good idea of what kind of a leader he is as we go through the second half of his first year in office. Now, we all know that everyone has to “learn on the job,” and I truly hope that President Obama is doing so. If you’ve read many of my previous posts you know where my misgivings come from. I’ll try to sum them up by saying that in my view President Obama has been too focussed on “reaching out” to the bull-headed Republicans who are going to VOTE NO on everything he wants – NO MATTER WHAT! Now, he might be able to “squeeze” a vote here or there out of one of Maine’s two moderates – Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins – kind of the last of the breed in the Republican Party – but what about his own caucus? And by refusing to allow investigations of the Bush administration and seemingly caving on one piece of legislation after another, President Obama had better soon start worrying about his own base more than he’s worrying about Republicans. I GUARANTEE YOU REPUBLICANS WANT NOTHING OTHER THAN OBAMA’S FAILURE – AT PERIL TO OUR NATION!

So, this 60 member caucus that everyone was so excited about and that was “billed” as the solution to all our problems didn’t take into account the fact that many of the Democratic Senators have been “feeding” out of the same “trough” as the Republicans – that is the endless supply of “campaign contributions” from lobbyists and multi-national corporations which have got into the – hard to break habit – of RUNNING OUR GOVERNMENT. So, we now have a CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP! A few posts back I wrote about how I’m concerned that I’m seeing more politician than statesman from Obama. Politicians are a dime a dozen – WE HAVE 535 of them in Congress (well, there really are a few good ones, but I’m going to leave that discussion until later) – WHAT WE NEED IN THE WHITE HOUSE RIGHT NOW IS A STATESMAN! We need someone with a clear vision for America and the courage to FIGHT for it NO MATTER WHAT! If President Obama wants to show bipartisanship he should do so in the fight – THAT IS, PUT THE DEMOCRATS ON THE SPOT! And, when I listened to Bernie Sanders tonight on TV – he’s smart enough to be an independent, even though he caucusses with the Dems – there’s a way to do this. BUT IT WILL TAKE COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP!

To me, worse than the Republicans holding the so-called filibuster over the heads of Democrats on every piece of legislation, the fact Harry Reid NEVER FORCES THEM TO ACTUALLY FILIBUSTER is very frustrating. EVEN REPUBLICANS WOULD GET TIRED OF TALKING ENDLESSLY AT SOME POINT! But here’s what should happen according to Sanders. President Obama and Reid should get the Democratic caucus together and get them to agree that they will stick together on every attempted filibuster and vote as a bloc to stop any filibuster the Republicans attempt. That would not preclude individual Senators from voting against any particular piece of legislation; it would simply insure that each piece of legislation got an “up or down” vote. THAT WOULD BE A GOOD FIRST STEP IN RESTORING CONFIDENCE with those of us paying attention. The other thing it would do is force Senators to take PUBLIC positions on important matters SO THAT THE VOTERS KNOW WHERE THEY STAND ON ISSUES! This no filibuster, no vote process is very clever in making sure that nothing gets done and no one is held responsible. Of course, the Republicans are OK with being held responsible because their entire agenda is based upon helping President Obama to fail! And, it’s no secret what they’re doing.

But, shouldn’t the voters be totally aware of which Democrats are going along with these obstructionists? OK, let’s get back to the impending health care legislation. President Obama and 72% of the voters (now there’s bipartisanship for you) want a “public option” included in whatever legislation comes out of Congress. In fact, from the polls I’ve seen, well over 50% of the American public would prefer a single payer government run health care policy – which, due to all the private money from insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and others is a “non starter.” However, the “public option” – where people have the option of going with the government “plan” makes total sense – unless, I guess, you’re an insurance company like Blue Cross which spends 10 to 15% of the premiums collected to deny health care and a total of 30+% in administrative costs – compared to Medicare’s less than 5% in administrative costs (costs which could be further reduced with an upgraded computer system dealing with health records). Apparently, the private companies (who spout continuously about how inefficient the government is) don’t think they can compete with the government plan. THAT MAKES NO SENSE TO ME! If the government can figure out how to reduce the costs of health care and, at the same time, provide competitive services – HOW CAN THAT BE A BAD IDEA?

OK, I think you can see where I’m going here. The Democrats have 60 votes in their caucus. President Obama says he wants a “public option” in the final bill. The public is in favor of a public option almost 3 to 1. The only thing standing in the way are the NO TO EVERYTHING REPUBLICANS, RIGHT? Well, the truth is that the real problem are the Democrats. It’s time for President Obama to stand tall and demand that the Democrats unite to “block” the obstructionists. And, then put the votes of these politicians on an issue like health care right out there for all to see. Take for example Senator Ron Wyden, the senior Senator from Oregon (Democrat), right across the Columbia River from where I live. I have long felt that he was above most of this, but he’s proposed health care legislation (which is getting Republican support) which appears to me to have been written in the office of the health care provider’s lobbyists, which doesn’t support the so-called “public option,” and which he promotes very hypocritically, in my view, by stating “The heath care industry isn’t going to stop health care reform this time, I won’t let that happen.” To me, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” (I’ve heard that Wyden’s bill supports the “McCain option” of taxing employer provided health care benefits) And then there are the two Democratic senators from Washington, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both of whom I’ve sent money to before. I’ve heard that Cantwell, and maybe both of them, are not supporting the “public option.” Well, this will be my reaction to that – and I intend to let them know this – should they vote against the will of their constituents, Democrats or not (actually, I’ve been an independent for over 40 years, but I’ve been sending money to Democrats since the beginning of the Bush era) – no more money from me and I will vote against them when they come up for reelection.

I realize that I’m just one vote – but if you happen upon this site and you agree with me, call your Congressional leaders and let them know how you feel. Recently I heard Barbara Boxer, Senator from California, state that, essentially, she could care less what the voters think. To me, that was as arrogant as anything Bush said while he was destroying our nation. These Democrats who have been bought and sold by the “industrial health complex” need to be identified and “put out to pasture.” And this really is a crisis of leadership for President Obama. In my mind he’s not showing the fight that the present circumstances call for. I WOULD MUCH PREFER TO SEE HIM AGRESSIVELY FIGHT FOR WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT THAN TO SETTLE FOR SOME INCONSEQUENTIAL COMPROMISE. When Republicans are asked if there’s going to be a public option, they very confidently say NO! When President Obama is asked the same question he says something like “it should include a public option, but our main goal is to reduce costs.” THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH! PUT THESE REPUBLICANS IN THEIR PROPER PLACE! PRESIDENT OBAMA, LET THEM KNOW WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE! THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION SHOULD BE AN UNEQUIVICAL YES! And, don’t let these Democratic Senators get away with secret deals that undermine the whole process and leave them as innocent bystanders. INSIST ON PUBLIC VOTES ON THIS. Let me put it in simpler terms: Overwhelming public support + Super majorities in Congress + Democratic President SHOULD = PUBLIC OPTION! Anything less should equal new members of Congress in 2010! What’s the old saying? $@#* or get off the pot!