Originally published by San Diego Newsroom 3-5-2010
This week, Obama announced his ever-so-slightly re-tweaked plan for health care. Since these ideas threw a couple of bones toward the Republicans (microscopic tort reform, etc.) and because they followed last week’s two-party talks, the president is trying to sell this as a “bipartisan bill.”
I am of the opinion that politicians should stop using the term “bipartisanship” as if it is some sacred state of bliss.
Being partisan simply means that you are partial to a certain point of view or political party. It means you have sincere beliefs and standards. Should we instead show loyalty to the party whose values we disagree with? Certainly, there are some issues important enough for Democrats and Republicans to both work on. But such would assume honest agreement, not a selling of the soul for political favor.
Unfortunately, today’s definition of “bipartisanship” implies that Republicans should do things the way Democrats want them done. Not getting behind President Obama is being partisan. And yet when Bush was in office, Democrats lectured us about how American it is to offer healthy dissent.
Speaking of healthy, in last week’s Health Care Summit Republicans were invited to share their ideas. Many of us skeptics expected nothing but a dog and pony show. We weren’t far off. It is obvious to me that the plan from the beginning was to bulldoze ahead without Republican support but in such a way that it looks as if “bipartisan” effort took place. Supposedly, we are to believe this was a conciliatory process simply because Obama assembled Democrats and Republicans together in one room and then rambled on endlessly in front of the cameras.
CNN reported how disproportionate the speaking time was:
“A CNN analysis of the meeting shows that Democrats – including President Obama, who helmed the meeting – were granted more than twice the amount of speaking time as Republicans. Democrats spoke for a total of 135 minutes while President Obama spoke for 122 minutes, for a total of 257 minutes. Republicans, meanwhile, spoke for just 111 minutes, about 30 percent of the total speaking time.”
When Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell complained, Obama explained that his own time didn’t really count as Democrat time because he was the president.
Yes, Obama is president all right — a president who also chaired the meeting, bringing an authority to the table which allowed him to argue against any Republican comment and then quickly move on, robbing the right of his opponent to rebutt or elaborate.
But then, why have a debate anyway when the outcome has already been determined ahead of time? The reconciliation of the House and Senate health care bills was decided before this meeting even took place. I realize Harry Reid denied such tactics, but his denial should have been the first clue that something deceptive was indeed going on.
Harry Reid, at the Health Care Summit: “I say to my friend, Lamar, who I have great respect and admiration for — you’re entitled to your opinions, but not your own facts. Your opinion is something that is yours, and you’re entitled to that, but not your own set of facts. Senator Moynihan said that many years ago, and that’s what we have to do here today. Let’s make sure that we talk about facts.”
“No one has talked about reconciliation but that’s what you folks have talked about ever since that came out, as if it’s something that has never been done before. Now, we as leaders here, the Speaker and I, have not talked about doing reconciliation as the only way out of all this. Of course it’s not the only way out.”
And yet, on the Feb. 19 airing of local Nevada political talk show “Face to Face with Jon Ralston,” Reid sang a whole different tune, explaining how plans were underway for a reconciliation process that would pass a “pared-down” health care bill.
His comments of denial (quoted above) were given a few days later at the Health Care Summit on Feb. 25. Do Reid and his associates figure we don’t know how to do math? Maybe so, inasmuch as they also expect us to believe this health care extravaganza will not add to our national deficit. But the more dangerous deficit is the lack of honesty hiding behind a mask called “bipartisanship.” The Obama administration and our current Democrat-controlled congress are about as bipartisan as a divorce attorney who tells the husband that he can have a peaceful, equitable divorce if he would only stop being so stubborn and sign over the house and all earnings to his ex-wife.
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