December 16, 2009 07:37 PM UTC

The Year Santa Didn't Come After All

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• by: JO

No, not 2009.

Barack Obama took on a mighty challenge in 2007-2008: tap into a widespread disgust with politics as they had been going for not just eight years but since 1980–arguably since 1968. The Democratic Establishment knew he was a formidable campaigner, wanted him to give his speeches on behalf of their Gal Hill. It was her turn, ‘specially after Bill couldn’t keep his pants up and all that. He didn’t go along with the inevitable, the party bosses, the Big Money.

Switch forward to 2009. Barack wants to be seen to deliver a package under the Christmas tree with the label “health care reform.” Big bright bow. Never mind that what’s inside doesn’t address the fundamental issue that needs reforming: the fact that health care has moved out of the hands of doctors and nurses into the hands of financiers who work for insurance companies. Whereas “health care” once implied old Greek oaths and healing, it’s now about taking in more money than you pay out–in some cases, a whole lot more (that would be Brother Pharma’s specialty, but not only). This is manifestly NOT about controlling the cost of health care overall; Americans pay about 2X what the rest of the world pays, as a share of income, for inferior results.

If Obama thinks his little eager 3-year-olds are going to be thrilled with a tricycle that doesn’t have back wheels and pedals, and is missing a seat, well let me disabuse him and his buddies in the United States Senate, Incorporated: 3-year-olds may not be able to read, but they know a piece of junk from a new trike! And while the guys at Broken Trikes, Inc. may celebrate having sold junk as presents, their joy will prove short-lived. Ain’t gonna happen again in ’10. OR, at the present rate, again in ’12.

Put whatever label you like on the current legislation, Mr. President. It ain’t health care reform. It ain’t worth the cost of the pretty ribbons used to wrap it. Whether you yourself gave it a mighty try in the teeth of steadfast opposition from entrenched interests, I don’t know. Don’t care. You didn’t win this one. And those of us who trudged out in the snow a couple years ago to bring about change aren’t to naive, so downright stupid, as not to know when a bill of goods is being served up under the tree, so to speak.

FACT: The bill as it now stands–and we still haven’t heard the last from Ben Nelson, or who-knows-what other jackass–is a bill that Republicans could gladly vote for. They won’t so that Barack can shoulder the blame all by his lonesome. For them, it’s a twofer: the bill they’d write, and the blame goes to the other side.

FACT: The bill as it now stands would more accurately be labeled the Preservation of Entrenched Interests Big Bonuses Act of 2009, or “Lieberhealth” for short.

FACT: By endorsing this bill, by encouraging senators like Sharrod Brown of Ohio to hold their noses and vote for it, Obama has discarded one slogan, “Yes, We Can” (no, he couldn’t) and replaced it with another: “Hold Your Nose.”

To those who say Yeah, but if the left refuses to hold its collective nose the Republicans will win back key offices in Colorado, I say:

It appears that Republicans can and do freely don the Democratic label in this state. Banker Boy Bennet’s place is ever-so-clearly in the Republican party regardless of which label he had to wear to get Ritter’s blessing and jump into the game at the head of the line.