Healthcare Reform and Barack Obama
The landslide election of Barack Obama was possible owing largely to the fact that unlike other candidates - he came with little record of playing into the hands of the lobbyists. However, the political process in the Senate has shown the American people that their agenda , laws and direction are disconnected from the statesmen they bring to power. And for all outward appearances, Obama seems to have fallen into the trap of allowing the lobbyists to write legislation. Such legislation has been a very real issue with our country - often and almost always bloated beyond recognition, and diametrically opposed to the will of the American people. It has yielded such bizarre moments in our political history as - a line item to raise the minimum wage as part of a war funding effort, a line item to increase the mercury levels and pollution contanimants out of coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania as a part of the global warming disaster relief bill passed to save victims of Hurricane Katrina - and finally, a healthcare reform package out of the senate ( as opposed to the house of representatives) - that calls for every man woman and child in America to buy their insurance from private companies or be held accountable to the law. Health Insurance stocks jumped overnight when the republican Senator from Massachusetts was elected into Ted Kennedy's seat - celebrating the corrupt institution of the senate, and the party formerly in power who cemented their control of it.
However, Barack Obama came to power as a little known state Senator who had only spent one term in the Senate before his candidacy. His record is not so much to be found in the US Senate, as it was in the Illinois State Senate.
Healthcare Reform lives or dies by political process, and the will of the executive. We will soon see whether Barack Obama has the power, as a president - to change the landscape of our country and install legislation that will make an impact on us for decades to come. Fundamentalists and others responsible for the previous administration's unbridled spending spree - circulate memoranda regarding the 'christmas present' that was left at our door by the US Senate. Indeed, and writing as an independent - much of this memorandum is true. The Senate bill is deeply flawed.
I made my choice to vote for Barack Obama based on research into a single subject: Police torture. Chicago, Illinois - is a rough town. Corruption exists. The police were known to beat their subjects during interrogation.
Barack Obama, as a State Senator - championed legislation to require videotaping of the interrogation. Opposed by the right, and strangely - owing to the large number of false convictions and process related errors - poster-child class events that those opposed to capitol punishment wished to keep around - opposed by the left, Barack Obama worked both sides of the aisle to accomplish his legislative agenda. He took the policeman's union out,and played basketball with them. He took the GOP out to dinner. He worked deals with the liberal left to keep them off his back. Finally, in the end, he prevailed.
We now have a government by Clique - a polished, strong cabinet that by and large is being held captive to a president who seems to want to run the show by weight and force of a few key people in the adminstration - some of whom were given over to the process-heavy lobbyist-centric forms of government that brought down presidents before him. But we have elected a man who, for better or worse - is pursuing an agenda of change. And yesterday's triple digit rallies on the stock market serve to remind us that the economic engine has now , finally, turned over on the cold morning that came to America from the great Bush Republican crash of 2008.
Will the President be able to do anything with real Healthcare reform. Or will this issue be, as those who have installed the lobbyists into power call it - Barack Obama's 'Waterloo'.
How's that hopey-changey thing workin' out for ya?
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