They're not fools. They're lying to you.
01/07/10
It's not like we haven't seen this mad dash routine before.
Remember, they had to rush to pass the stimulus bill before anyone could read it because the entire economy would meltdown and something like 800 billion people would be unemployed. They passed it and today the economy remains flat and sluggish, at best, with the unemployment rate at a 25-year high of 10%. All the while, this administration boasts of "saved jobs" — a concept recognized nowhere in the world of economics — and their own government-run website provides the transparency to track the millions of dollars in stimulus funds shipped off to mythical congressional districts and phantom zip codes.
Yes, we're certainly much better off for the rush job.
Now, President Obama is explicitly breaking a campaign promise — made it least 8 separate times, as this video shows — to fling open the doors and air the health care bill negotiations on C-SPAN.
When pressed on the question of his broken promise, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs hackneyed defense was that, "the President wants to get a bill to his desk as quickly as possible":
Three thoughts following that video...
1) Robert Gibbs just horrendously bad at his job.
I've been accused over the years of never being able to admit when I'm wrong. I've said no one could ever be worse at this gig than Scott McClellan. I, apparently, was wrong.
2) The two reporters questioning Gibbs in the video represent CBS and NBC. How bad has the stonewalling become when even CBS and NBC (which has an whole subsidiary network promoting Obama relentlessly) are getting frustrated enough to get all snippy with Gibbs and do their best impressions of a "journalist"?
3) All Obama is concerned with is getting something, anything, to his desk "as quickly as possible". He has to get that bill signed now, so the taxes can kick in immediately, even though the "benefits" don't actually materialize until 2013.
And, hey, if they have to do all of the negotiating behind closed doors — as C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb revealed today that his network has been graciously allowed to televise ONE HOUR of health care coverage — then that's what they are going to do, and campaign promises be damned.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said as much the other day:
Oh yes, Madame Speaker. The breaking of explicit campaign promises by a man preaching a "new politics" and breaking from the "politics of the past" is really funny stuff. Laugh it up. LOL, as all the kids say these days.
It's a joke to them. It's a joke to them because they know the truth; the truth with which more and more of the American people are coming to grips. This bill isn't about health. And it's not about caring. It's about control. It doesn't matter what kind of provisions are in there — public option or no public option; abortion coverage or no abortion coverage; Medicare cuts or no Medicare cuts — because it just matters that something gets to President Obama's desk "as quickly as possible" so he can sign it. Quick enough for them to move on to another issue — Forget about health care! Hey! Hey! Look over here!
All that matters is that something, anything, is passed to set up the initial framework, a starter house, if you will, so that they can continue to add to it over time until what has been the goal all along is realized:
A single payer system. Government run health care. The socialization of one-sixth of the American economy.
Despite missing a myriad of "requirements" President Obama laid out, the Democrats don't see this bill as a failure. They don't see it as unacceptable. They're not incapable of getting exactly what they want. They are getting what they want.
They're not fools. They're lying to you.