Obama's Deceptive Governance

It's been awhile since my last post, but that doesn't mean I'm not paying attention. I learned in July that I will need to have the mitral valve in my heart replaced. The valve has caused me to have to deal with a bout of congestive heart failure, which means that I'm pretty much exhausted all the time. I'm back in Ohio to have the surgery done and now I'm waiting to be scheduled for it. The resting has done me some good. So much so that today I feel like blogging.

It's unfortunate for me that I've been sick during what has been one of the most exciting times to be a news and politics junkie. The health care debate has obviously taken center stage and nothing is about to change that. But with the death of Ted Kennedy, the Tea Parties, the White House czars, the Blue Dogs, Cash for Clunkers, stimulus confusion, comments from Osama Bin Laden, Town Hall Meetings, and uncovered terrorist plots I have been overwhelmed. At one point I told myself just to back away from it all and try to see a bigger picture instead of trying to focus on each little event or topic. I wish I hadn't done that. I found myself harboring a deep distrust of my own president.

When I looked at the direction of the country under Obama, I began to feel some sense of dread. Do I think he's the anti-christ? No, I really don't. He and I are both Americans who have a vision of what our country should stand for and how we should go about reaching our goals. And we agree on very little there. He is an advocate of a large and powerful national government that controls our lives from Washington instead of at the state and local level where the founding fathers placed most of the power, and where I believe it should reside today. It's why we send our federal tax money to Washington from our state, and Washington decides how much of it we get back, and in many cases tells the state how they have to spend large amounts of it. Not the intent of the countries founders. And when a president leans toward a powerful national government, they will build their agenda for the country around that ideal.

Back to Obama. I listened intently to both sides of the debate surrounding health care. I read as much of the bill HR3200 as I could understand. I found myself checking out the Canadian health care system, the British system, and the French system. I listened to the pros and cons of each from thier citizens, and tried to imagine that system replacing our private, employer based insurance. I came away wanting nothing to do with a government run system like these. Single payer (government) plans took away choice and quality of care in every instance. It may be cheaper at point of service, but what those people pay in taxes and quality of care is entirely too much for me.

My biggest problem with the Obama/Congress plan was the public option. It made me nervous because it could lead to the bankruptcy of the private insurance companies and leave us with a government run health system. But when Obama gave speeches on the topic, I would listen to him and be lulled into a sense of guilt for questioning his motives. His rhetoric is so smooth and reassuring. But all this unraveled when I heard him at a Town Hall Meeting in New Hampshire on August 11, as he answered a question about single payer. A man asked him if he didn't at one time support the single payer concept like the Canadian system. His response was that he had not supported any single payer plan. Following the meeting the news anchors began jumping all over the fact that as a candidate for the US Senate in 2003, Obama had indeed indicated he was for a single payer plan. In a You Tube video, Obama is heard saying, "I happen to be a proponent of a single payer health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14% of it's gross national product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House. We've got to take back the Senate, and we've got to take back the House." Over the years he has adjusted his opinion, but only because he feels that the transition from private based could be "disruptive" if done too quickly. How convenient for the public option to come along and pave the way.

But I got to thinking about how deceptive this kind of governance is. Tell the people one thing, while knowing full well that you have something entirely different up your sleeve. It was telling when Obama insisted that the congress have the bill on his desk by the end of July. There would have been no way the American people would hve had a chance to see what was actually in it. The congress hadn't even read it. Disgusting. But as I'm learning, not unusual.

I fear that my country is going to be a very different place in four years. Or even worse, in eight. Clearly, the spending going on by this government is unsustainable. It is recognized by our citizens as well as governments around the world who now eye our economy with suspicion. We are getting lectured by the Chinese to watch how we spend. And they own most of our debt. The Obama administration wants us all to believe that we can have health care for all, bail out banks and car companies, lots of new spending for social wefare and education programs, job training, wind and solar energy projects, expanded mass transit, and increase number of soldiers and their pay and benefits. And all of this without raising my taxes by "one dime" (I'm under $250k). This country will be so deeply in debt by 2012 that we may lose our stellar AAA rating. We'll could be in a position to have to print money to cover our debts. This leads to rapid inflation and the economy would tank in a matter of months. But it doesn't have to be that way. In 2010 we can take back the congress. And I've decided that wherever I am, in Ohio or in Florida, that is what I'm going to be working on. As everyone know, I am not much of an advocate of the GOP, since they played a vital role in getting us where we are now. But if we could get the majority of both houses of congress, then this race to the edge of the cliff is stopped. Even if we don't take them over, but make the majorities very small for democrats, we could make a difference.

And I mean we. If you are concerned about the direction of the country, and worry about what it will look like if if our current leftist government maintains control and begins to push through it's agenda, then you have some obligation to act. Follow the news, educate yourself on an issue you have an interest in, vote, campaign.

I didn't mean for this to become a soap box event. But this is what happens when my president loses my trust. Try to fool me on health care and I want to know what else you're planning to sneak past me.

Here is a quote that I have memorized and recite whenever I get tired of the fight. I hope we never get there....

If we fail to dare, if we do not try, then the next generation will harvest the fruit of our indifference; a world we did not want - a world we did not choose - but a world we could have made better, by caring more for the results of our labors. And we shall be left only with the hollow apology of T.S. Eliot: This is not what I meant at all. This is not it at all."