As with everything else involved with Obama, the meeting on Thursday is pure political theatre. It has nothing whatever to do with compromise or changes in his proposed healthcare reform.
The Republicans should not be intimidated into believing that failure to meet with the President will paint them as obstructionists. They are in office for purpose of obstructing this legislative monstrosity and the Senate’s Harry Reid has made it clear he intends to pass any bill that the House sends. Speaker Pelosi has said as much too.
Speaker Pelosi, however, is presiding over a House in which many of its Democrat members are in full flight from Obamacare, knowing that a vote for it is a vote to be defeated in the November midterm elections. Looking across to the Senate, they know that Scott Brown (R-MA) was elected primarily for his opposition to Obamacare.
The bill can be defeated in the House and should be. A bit of history: the Constitution was written to facilitate a slower process of legislating so that bills could be reviewed, debated, and responded to in a fashion that reflected the PEOPLE’S preferences. The Founders knew that any government that could pass anything it wanted at warp speed would swiftly plunder and exhaust the treasury as well as run after every fad that came along.
Since the financial crisis in late 2008, the White House and Congress has functioned on the basis of government-by-crisis.
If restoring stability to the banking sector (the TARP bill) wasn’t enough, the Obama administration told Americans that General Motors and Chrysler had to be saved rather than permitted to go into bankruptcy and be restructured. Then Americans were told that billions had to be borrowed and spent to “stimulate” jobs. All of these bills were passed too swiftly for serious analysis and rebuttal.
On February 17th syndicated columnist and radio personality Hugh Hewitt wrote: “When the GOP lost control of the House and Senate, the annual budget deficit was $161 billion. When President Obama’s budget for next year—with no stimulus and no TARP—calls for $1.6 trillion in red ink.”
What the nation needs is congressional gridlock to ensure that this continued rape of the treasury and our future is stopped.
If the Tea Party movement tells us anything, it is that millions of Americans want a return to the strict interpretation and obedience to the Constitution, and to the principles of fiscal prudence, small government, and a strong defense.
The Republican Party has a chance to demonstrate that by boycotting Thursday’s meeting about Obamacare. They need to stand in front of the microphones and cameras and tell people that their healthcare reform proposals were presented weeks ago to President Obama and that he continues to lie to Americans by suggesting he has not seen or read them.
If the GOP fails to meet this challenge, they will find themselves up against third party candidates that will doom them to minority status in the next election and possibly others to come.
They have the party apparatus to win. What they need now is the courage to oppose the Democrats and President Obama until they can regain control of the Senate and House.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
