The Sunshine Empire

President Obama has said for some time that he is working towards a bipartisan bill for reform of the health care system in the United States. Conservative pundits and blow hards have been saying for some time that the President is the most partisan in a generation, obviously having been in a coma from 2001 to 2009. Yet during this entire process President Obama has extended a hand and included essentially Republican ideas in his health care reform efforts. What has he received for offering to work on tort reform? He got no Republican support. What did he get for essentially sanctioning the dropping of the public option? H got no Republican support. When the President even used John McCain’s idea of taxing high end health care plans as a way of paying for reform, he certainly didn’t get the Senator from Arizona’s support. So I don’t see where Republican claims that President Obama has been hyper partisan have any leg to stand on.

The other peculiar attitude is that no matter what the President says, as I have said before, like a stand up comedian’s girlfriend republicans are more interested in what they believe he’s thinking. It matters little what he actually says. When he says that under his reforms you will not be forced to change your health care plan or lose your current doctor under any circumstances, they say he doesn’t really mean it. They incredulously say that government run health care would kill people, then attempt to scare seniors about cuts in government run Medicare funding and coverage. Which one is it guys?

All of this has led me to believe that bipartisanship takes two to tango. If they have no interest in dancing then screw ‘em. Take the outlines of what President Obama said in his address to the joint session of Congress and put that bill to the House and Senate and if it takes reconciliation to pass it with 51 votes so be it. It’s a fools errand to believe that after 17 concessions to the Republicans and 17 times getting ZERO Republican votes in return that an 18th concession would produce any other outcome. I’m sick of playing this run-out-the-clock football game with the Republicans so they can reap some kind of fantasy reward in 2010. That’s all this is about, Obama and 2010.