Honestly, I “get” the importance of health care reform. However, Political Science 101 tells me that maybe we’re going about this “ass-backwards.” I realize that President Obama had a lot of “political capital” when he assumed the White House. His approval ratings were in the 70’s and everyone was painfully aware of the blunders of the previous administration. President Obama had no choice but to have an agressive initial agenda. The truth was that the economy was in “free fall” from a President who seemed to be AWOL during his last year in office – especially the last 6 months when the economic nightmare, which those of us on Main Street could see, became visible to those on Wall Street and in Washington DC. Initially, the President got it almost right – he pushed through a massive “stimulus” bill. The problem I had with the stimulus bill was that, in an effort to get THREE Republicans to vote for it, about 300 billion dollars went into needless tax cuts for the “middle class” when it could have gone into “infrastructure” projects which would have EMPLOYED WORKERS. However, the need for the stimulus bill was obvious to all but those who continue to believe that the solution to every problem in America is tax cuts. (what we really needed along with more infrastructure spending was tax increases – a national commitment to PAY FOR STUFF- I’ll get to that later)

Bills were pushed through the Congress and a new candidate for the Supreme Court was announced, all to the chagrin of the right (wrong) wing Republicans. They’ve been using terms anywhere from Communist to Nazi ever since, only accomplishing that it’s clear to anyone they don’t understand the terms they’re using – well, to anyone except the unsuspecting and uneducated “base” of their party. Now, we’re in this huge fight for health care reform – a political calculation on Obama’s part that it’s the right time to do this (and I honestly hope he’s right) – while a huge number of people in this nation have no job, or a job that doesn’t pay the bills for their family, or like the single Mom from my church who wasn’t there Suday because she now has to work Sunday’s on HER SECOND JOB! Therefore, in my view, this health care debate is a HUGE GAMBLE. I remember when Hillary Clinton attempted this in the early part of Bill’s Presidency. When it failed it was “off the books” now for over 15 years. YES, WE DESPERATELY NEED HEALTH CARE REFORM. Three quarters of all Americans agree on this, in fact, over half want a “single payer” system – a “Medicare for all” system with some upgrades to Medicare. The problem, obviously, is that the health care industry DOESN’T WANT THIS. And, they OWN a large majority of the members of the Senate and possibly enough in the house to derail this legislation. Believe me, if it’s derailed it won’t come up again next year. Which leads me to the even worse possibility that some “compromise” will be made that is a bigger disaster than what we have. It will leave us thinking the problem is solved and it will lead to another 15 years until we address it again. THIS IS A HUGE GAMBLE ON OBAMA’S PART (that’s twice I’ve said that, and it could come again).

Let me give you a better and more practical scenario of what SHOULD have taken place. UNEMPLOYMENT! President Obama could have focused more effort on creating jobs for those on the Unemployment roles – through retraining programs and government incentives to businesses – including the incentives to start new businesses that are “eco-friendly.” All President’s go through periods where their approval ratings go down. But you have to consider that the Republicans essentially control the “liberal media” (what a joke that is, huh?) and any Democratic President is going to be the recipient of a constant battering from the fringe elements of the Right Wing. We saw this for eight years under Clinton, and we’re seeing a repeat of it under Obama. Think I’m off base here? Well, lets consider the last two Presidents before Obama. Bill and Hillary Clinton were under eight years of investigations over a failed land investment (Whitewater) where they were trying to invest $10,000 in order to “cut off a fat hog.” At the time, I was just out of the Real Estate business, and I remember thinking if people are upset with them losing ten grand on that, I hope they don’t start investigating some of the deals I’ve seen as routine in my years in the business. Virtually no one, who was at the top of the Real Estate business where I live, could have run for public office under that scrutiny.

Then you have George W Bush. Bush was flying around for the 2000 election in a jet provided by Ken Lay CEO of ENRON (remember, the guy who mysteriously died the weekend after being indicted – the guy who was on Dick Cheney’s “energy taskforce”) The collapse of Enron – which was running a scheme that rivaled Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and then some – left millions of Americans with a huge hole in their retirement portfolios. Was there EVER an investigation into the connection? NO! And no investigation into the connection with Cheney either – in fact the Supreme Court (which put the bums in office in the first place) refused to cause Cheney to have to divulge who was in his “task force.” (does “why we invaded Iraq” ring a bell?) Cheney outed a CIA agent (this is treason) and no Congressional investigation. Bush authorized warrantless wiretapping – no investigation. Torture – no investigation. And, to top it all off, the news media pretty much accepted BOTH (the Clinton harrassing and the ignoring of Bush crimes) as OK. This points out another of the problems Obama has in getting meaningful healthcare legislation through – BIG CORPORATIONS CONTROL THE MEDIA – we will see and hear what they want us to. So, I’ll say it again, with unemployment OVER TEN PERCENT – I know the government says it’s 9.4 – but there’s untold millions of workers who have quit looking for work – health care reform is a BIG GAMBLE.

Now, if the Democrats would “circle the wagons” and quit even talking to Republicans and just pass a bill that they know “We the People” want, then I might change my tune. But, this idea that we need “bi-partisan” legislation only leads me to believe that the Republicans will have a say in the final product, and therefore, the final product will favor insurance companies. Did you hear the news yesterday about the CEO of United Health Care’s salary? The dude is making over $102,000 PER HOUR! THAT’S OVER $800,000 PER DAY! Are you kidding me? And the CEO’s of the top five health care insurance companies ALL LIVE IN HOMES valued over 40 MILLION DOLLARS! Now, this wouldn’t be so obscene if there weren’t 50 million Americans without healthcare (which those with healthcare are paying for), if the insurance companies weren’t spending almost 10% of their premium income denying healthcare, and if the profits of these companies hadn’t risen five-fold in the last 8 years. The truth is that about 25% of every dollar of my premiums go for the “overhead” that pays these people – in the case of United Health care – a quarter of a BILLION dollars per year! Personally, I’m OK if this guy joins the 15% of Americans on the unemployment lines should we come up with an option that causes these companies to have to compete in the marketplace.

Getting back to my point, if we can’t get a GOOD BILL we’re better off with no bill, in my view. And, President Obama has gambled A LOT on this legislation. Here’s my worry. What if the Republicans succeed in derailing this legislation (and, if you’ve been paying attention, you know that they are very determined to do this – they’ve pulled out “all the stops”)? Then, how much “capital” will Obama have left? Will he be able to get additional stimulus through which will actually have a dramatic effect on the job market? Will he be able to make a case that the inner cities could be rebuilt by the people who live there – thus solving two problems – restoring the cities and creating jobs for the most affected group of people in the country? The estimate is that to bring our “infrastructure” up to code would cost $2.2 TRILLION. Will Obama have the political capital to address that need? (The Republicans seemingly would let all the bridges crumble to “save taxpayers money”) Will Obama have the capital to address the huge deficit that, while some people seem to think is no problem, I believe is destroying the fabric of this nation? Let’s face facts – President Obama at some point is going to have to RAISE TAXES. We have two wars we’ve put on credit cards, we’ve borrowed almost $4TRILLION from the Social Security Trust fund (with, in Republican thought, no intention of ever paying it back), and there was over $10 Trillion in debt when Obama took office with the last year of Bush’s budget (remember, Obama’s first deficit will be next year) leaving a deficit of an unbelievable $1.7 TRILLION!

In summary, we need more jobs and we need to get the national debt under control. Once those two things are addressed, I believe the healthcare debate becomes more doable – because President Obama would have a much more solid constituency (especially, the people who would then have jobs). With Republicans, raising taxes is a dirty word – they like to run up debt. However, it wouldn’t take much to turn this around. For example, I believe that the public will only support a certain price for gas, whether it’s going for taxes or going to the oil companies for profit. Therefore, the federal government could raise the gas tax – somewhere in the range of 20 cents/gallon to maybe 50 cents/gallon – and ALL AMERICANS WHO DRIVE WOULD BE CONTRIBUTING TO THE REBUILDING OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE and therefore, helping to create jobs – a national necessity! Congress should have reversed the “Bush taxcuts” immediately as a show of responsible government – that, in itself, would raise a fair amount to cover what are obscene deficits (Republicans complain about “Obama’s deficits” and their solution is more tax cuts – I hope America has finally seen past that ploy). And, I for one, believe that President Obama could reverse the tax cuts put in place in the stimulus bill to buy three Republican votes – and address the nation and say that the deficit is a national emergency and we all, not just the top 2%, need to participate in getting it under control. We need to pay for whatever our troops need, and we need to pay for these wars up front – if they’re worth fighting – or get the H out of Iraq and Afganistan! Of course – concerning heath care, if Democrats and the President will stop trying to be bi-partisan and just pass the legislation which “We the People” want, this would all be a moot point.