Dear America,

Near towards the end He extended the olive branch to the American people,
"Make your voice heard as well."  He said.

Funny, I thought we already did that.

Ahhh but "every argument has been made"  getting a little ha ha ha from the audience; "everything that needs to be said, I think has been said [with a smug look on his face],"  with again, a rousing chorus of ha ha ha from the audience.

There he stood in the East Room, a sacred place, a room predestined to hold formal announcements; a room where everyone stood a year ago to address the direction of health care for the first time within the Obama presidency -- and only fitting, the room in which we "bring this journey to a close." He said.

There he stood, with an array of white coats behind him (and sitting at his feet, hanging on every word), which for all intents and purposes might as well have been red (red coats, get it... and you thought I was conjuring up followers of Mao, shame on you).

Ahhh but the President pointed out emphatically and succinctly at the Health Care Summit, it's not about props; the time for "talking points" is passed; as he ridiculed Eric Cantor bringing in tow the entire 2400 pages of the health care bill, complete with Post-Its and dog eared pages (I don't really know how many pages exactly -- but, anything more than our Constitution has to be poorly constructed).

And everything that followed really sounded all so simple then, "now the proposal I put forward gives the American people more control; you like your plan, keep it; like your doctor, keep your doctor."

Essentially, it gets down to three things, it's simple:

1)  END the worst practices of Insurance Companies -- denial due to pre-existing conditions, dropping coverage, forcing you to pay out of your own pocket, and the unsavory practice of increasing premiums

2)  GIVE the UNINSURED/individuals and business owners the same insurance as members of Congress -- who get the better rates & services with more choice because, it's simple, the more people, the better you can negotiate the benefits (oh, and if you still can't afford it, we will offer you tax credits to make it work, projecting to offer the largest tax credits to the middle class in history!  Unprecedented, shall we say.

3)  IT IS PAID FOR.  (remember now, good is in the details -- or is that just when it comes to soup?)

Waste and Abuse, GONE.
500 Billion from Medicare, GONE, but not really gone.
Deficit, almost GONE, well...at least it brings it down, right.
Special Deals....Nebraska, Louisiana, Florida to name the few we actually know about, GONE.
People using the Emergency Rooms for everyday health care issues, GONE.

Matter of fact, for the record, He said, "(HIS plan) doesn't work if people still go to the Emergency Rooms."

But if "the plan" doesn't cover illegals, as you have on more than one occasion says it does not, I'm not seeing how this will answer the conundrum of waste and abuse from the billions of dollars we spend to pay for them and their babinos. just sayin...

Anywho,
piecemeal, step by step, fundamental differences between sides, absolutely GONE -- we just don't have that kind of time...even though our benefits do not start for another four years?

And to be sure, "More negotiations won't help" okay;
to "start over now...the delay could last another decade."

"I believe the United States Congress
owes the American people [got that right]
a final vote on Health Care Reform [wrong again]"

Rooooooar .....and we're clapping... and we're clapping...white coats smiling and clapping...every one's so happy...shiny, happy people, yes indeed.

We have "debated this issue thoroughly -- for decades."

IT deserves the same kind of vote; "just a simple majority" is all it takes.

(That's funny. If it were so simple, don't you think you would have done this last summer -- you know, when it had to get done before the Congressional summer vacation -- or like it had to get done before Christmas -- is this like it has to get done before Easter vacation -- oops, pardon me, can we say Easter anymore?)

Oh, but He added a couple minutes later, "if it was easy, it would have been solved long ago."

"We can't just give up because the politics is hard." (nix ay on the upid stay, YOU said it was not about politics and props and talking points -- this is about what's best for the American people...)

"How will this play out?  How will this pole?"

Filling up this last couple minutes with story time.  aawww

Finally, send in the violins, "in the end it will tell us what kind of country we want to be." (What kind of country do you think we ARE, Mr. President?)

"The American people are waiting for us to act.  Waiting for us to lead.  I don't know how it plays out politically, but I know what's right.  Let's get it done..." 

And He said, It is done.
And it is good. 
And so it is.

If, in fact, our voices are being heard, a resounding "we don't want this" should be ringing in His ear by now.  If this, in fact, is about the American people having more control (and not The Fed), the American people just say NO.  Can you hear me now?  The American people are FED-up, no, down.

This health care legislation should be GONE, bye bye. GONE baby GONE.
Read my lips. The party's over.  Even the fat lady with diabetes is singing.
This is not what we want and WE the PEOPLE are done.
The only thing that seems to be missing --
is an American President who truly understands.

And so it is,
or isn't --
but time will tell;
it will either justify the means to an end or the end of our means.

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

oops. G missed a couple days; I believe the health care summit made me ill.

Oh I watched it...nearly every minute of it; that is, until Fox stopped streaming live action and switched to Meghn Kelly; went to CNN, continued there until they caught wind of regular programing going; so twenty minutes later, I found myself back at my desk, streaming the Fox Live web-cast.  What an effort for every painstaking moment waiting for something really good to come.

Despite the fact that Obama spoke for nine minutes longer than all republicans combined -- a whopping 110 minutes -- they still prevailed in making the better case for all the world to see.

The democrats spoke for four hours all together and couldn't get it done;

They even read letters aloud and recollected stories of their constituents (or relatives of staff) each and every time one of them came to the mic, pulling on the good ole heart strings;

For all intents and purposes, they had twice as much time to orchestrate a proper dissemination of bullsh** across the wide open spaces between ideology, and all that came out of it was more seeds of distrust.

Even with the Moderator in Chief having every opportunity under the sun to "correct" the "misspoken facts" liberally strewn about by the republicans while sounding every bit as much like the farmers and framers of the Constitution, he lost ground.

And every time they said something to the affect of
"we really basically agree here..."
"there's not a lot of opposition really..."
"we have included some of your republican ideas..."
or "we don't really seem very far apart..."

The gap grew wider.

Every time a republican had the floor they reminded the President that we needed to start over.

Every time a republican had a chance for appeal, they said let's take it step by step, let's walk this field of dreams together and start with what we agree in earnest and move forward from there.

Every time a republican gained an opportunity to speak on behalf of the American people, they reminded their fellow countrymen sitting around the table of how the polls reflect the concerns of people who do not agree with the comprehensive approach in this sweeping, landmark legislation -- that far outreaches both what we can financially afford and in turn, forfeit our personal freedoms along the way.

The Republicans couldn't say it enough,
WE HAVE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES; 
what became quite clear, no matter how many times you till the earth, turn over the remarks and opinion, subjective and objective beliefs to what ails our system is at the heart of the discussion and at the root of the seeds we sow from here on out.

It is appropriate to bring and to question the 2,400 page bill that sits before us with all of it's idiosyncrasies and legalese.

It is expected to raise a few eyeballs as to how republicans were shut out to closed door sessions last fall, all the while with Obama looking the other way and to all of a sudden, month's later, see the light and welcome both sides to the table.

It is obligatory to wonder how the special deals between the AMA and PHARMA and UNIONS and TRIAL LAWYERS and Nebraska and Louisiana and Florida soils the year long preparations for changing one-sixth of our economy.

McCain did just that long into the morning calendar -- and this is the rebuttal from someone who is supposed to be acting humbly presidential and show partisan restraint (if only to raise the bar for those sitting around the table with him):

"the way you just characterized...

[the wanton and reprehensible behavior of this party]

let me make this point,

 because we are not campaigning anymore, John;

 the election's over."

That had to be the funniest moment of the whole entire day; the king of taking talking points to an art form and masterfully setting up props of his own [whether it is men in uniform, cadets, caskets and planes, or doctors in white coats and stethoscopes] -- this whole health care summit was nothing but a ruse.

It was I believe John Barasso, a republican, who actually used the symbolization of the stethoscope as one of his first tools and adjoining message, given to him when he became a doctor -- marking the importance of really listening to his patients -- extending a personal plea to the President; that this is the time we need to come together and listen to the American people who respectfully request we start from scratch.

Obama was annoyed by the afternoon; in the morning he went from being perfectly engaged and inspired to bridge the gaps and to find the common ground, to at times looking somewhat bored with all of them (including his own), while at other times, his elbow was on the table with his chin resting firmly in the palm with a spread of fingers crossing his lips -- as if trying desperately not to burst out in "you lie" from across the room; but all in all, the dawn of promise slowly eroded into real disdain for anything said against Him or his legislation, leading us into the twilight of a day where nothing really changed.

I'm sure if you are one of those who find a way to like the redistribution of wealth, the "higher taxation to anybody but me is fine by me" mentality, is applauded -- the dynamics of slowly rooting out the free enterprise system to a government run bureaucracy is acceptable; you simply don't see the harm being done.

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant;

 it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

Ronald Reagan

What are the long term consequences of this sweeping legislation?  Just a quick gaze to the horizon we can see we are already caretakers of that kind of world -- insolvency and bankruptcy looming in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Unemployment and Food Stamps -- regulation and administration of ground breaking entitlement programs that had the best interests of the American people surely at heart without a hard review of the reality almanac down the road, to see how the seasons would change and how real life variables would fluctuate and affect the harvest.

Who could foresee people living beyond the age of 65?

Who could foresee people losing a moral obligation to one another to live independently and productively and according to natural and universal law?

Who could foresee that what we get from our elected body originally comes from the lot of the land and the people themselves -- that we grow our government according to our own beliefs and values?

Our corruption, whether it be to our own bodies or to that which our government stands, is directly related to the kind of culture we raise, collectively and independently of one another. 

What began as simply a question as to how we insure the uninsured, gratefully the process rapidly deteriorates to a lesson of what we are truly made of and the fundamental differences between the left and the right ...right before our very eyes; and while the consequences of our actions will eventually see the light of day, in the meantime the back forty needs the weeds cleared and the irrigation system seems to be on the blitz again.

While the democrats seem ready, willing  and able to bet the farm via the process of reconciliation  -- when, after all, we are already mortgaged to the hilt -- only time will tell if the next backdrop for the President is a field of grain or a bounty less fortified. 

Make it a Good Day, G 

Reconciliation has NEVER been used to ENACT new LEGISLATION -- only to bridge budgetary deficits and welfare gaps; even a democrat, Robert Byrd, duly noted  "that the health care plan was out of bounds for a process that is theoretically about budgets" when confronted with evaluating Clinton's health care plan and the use of reconciliation to pass it.