"Healthcare Reform: It's Going Down to the Wire!"

It's time to Break It Down!

There is no crystal ball on my desk. I profess to know neither the future, nor the outcome of the Healthcare debate; just that all indications are a decision will come sooner rather than later. The odds on the outcome depend heavily on which spinmeister’s rhetoric you choose to embrace.

Teabaggers, members of the Far Right, Blue Dog Democrats and a host of others publicly insist, and privately hope “The Die is cast,” and that Healthcare, as formulated and proposed by the Obama Administration, is past the stage of being aided by life-support systems. In other words, DOA!

Of course, if you listen to Yellow Dog Dems, Left-leaning Liberals, and those members of Congress who live to promote the Pelosi or Reid agenda, and they are different, you are apt to firmly parrot the “Party Line,” at least publicly, and maintain that the President’s Healthcare proposal will pass by the end of this week so President Obama can move on to his already once delayed trip to Asia.

At this point the right call appears to be, Healthcare Reform: It’s Going Down to the Wire! As an American who is not a physician, not employed by a pharmaceutical company, not a member of Congress being courted or fawned over by organized lobbies of physicians or pharmaceutical firms, I believe the American Healthcare System is broken, or at least supremely flawed. I do not know many people who passionately disagree with that sentiment.

In fact, after a year of public, nation-wide debate on this matter, that there is still a debate is perplexing. We live in an age when everyone is a critic. Numerous experts in virtually any field of endeavor one might name insist that accountability is a key precondition for success. As a mere amateur evaluator of the Healthcare debate and the struggle to galvanize support for and enact reform, I admit I believe there is a clear culprit.

For more than a year, Democrats have held a clear majority in both houses of Congress, at one point even maintaining a Filibuster-proof edge in the Senate. Their inability to unite, or unwillingness to use all of the tools at their disposal is striking. Even now as the opposition chides them for considering Reconciliation as a tactic to push the bill through, the irony is Republicans brashly brandish the Filibuster as a way to disrupt and derail the initiative.

Simply put, collectively, Democrats have consistently failed to act assertively to represent the interests of the majority of constituents who elected and empowered them to do just that. In the closing stages of what has been a protracted year-long battle, President Obama appears, at last, to be stepping forward in a way that makes it evident this is a “Change He Believes In.” Many analysts, and especially the President’s critics suggest this is in itself a risky proposition; that if it fails, he will have undermined the remainder of his Presidency.

This is where I reiterate, I have no idea what the outcome of the vote will be. But I am delighted this President has found his voice, his passion, and his conviction, and that he has done so to promote a measure he has defined as perhaps the single most important on his domestic agenda. To underscore both his personal resolve, and the necessity for Democrats in Congress to act likewise, President Obama, during a trip Monday to Ohio to highlight the plight of a cancer-stricken woman, injected a personal challenge to reluctant fellow Democrats. He said, “We need courage, that’s what we need…we need an up or down vote – it’s time to vote.”

And he is right. Right to push for an initiative he campaigned for, and that was integral to his being elected; right to call for a vote on the matter. Such is the democratic way. Ultimately, it is significant to establish that he and his Party are equipped and fully capable of leading, not just chasing polls. Everyone knows the downside of President Obama forcing this matter to closure; he might lose! Conversely, quiet as it is kept, the upside is, he may just win!

Without question, the President and his Party have had a difficult year, as the country has, as a whole. There is no time like the present for Mr. Obama to show, emphatically, that he is driven more by his willingness to take a stand, lead, and do the right thing, than he is led by fear of failure, polemic opponents, and shock jock-driven opinion polls.

Nearly two months ago, on January 25th, President Obama, in a pre-State of the Union interview with Diane Sawyer, told the reporter, “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” That statement may have marked the beginning of the Obama resurgence. The moment he finally said, out loud, "I can make a difference…and I intend to do so!" To that end, Healthcare Reform: It’s Going Down to the Wire!” Let’s see how it plays out.

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100316/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticshealthcareobama

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703382904575059723179331384.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,580438,00.html

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/down-the-wire

http://www.peoplesworld.org/health-care-reform-goes-down-to-the-wire/

http://keenesentinel.com/articles/2010/03/13/news/national/free/id_393821.txt

http://bigthink.com/ideas/19038

http://topic.feeds4all.nl/The-Debate-on-Healthcare-Goes-Down/1720149188.aspx

http://www.themudflats.net/2010/03/13/down-to-the-wire-support-is-there-for-the-public-option/

http://multimedia.boston.com/m/29830119/obama-drums-up-support-for-health-care-in-ohio.htm

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/03/15/new-health-care-whip-count-190-yes-205-no-with-leaners-202-207/

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/03/04/healthcare_2010