Health Care Unconstitutionality Will Make Obama A One Termer
I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t really had time to write on this blog. I’ve just recently invested in some technology that may help me to write more often, and I’m using some of that right now as I write this. Since I have little time today, I’m going to just vamp on a couple of things that have been happening in this country and in the world, since last time I wrote. Some of that will be here, under “The Nation”, and some will be under “The World”. Heck. I might even get to some entertainment.
First off I’m appalled at how inept our President is turning out to be. From the state of the union, to recent interviews, on healthcare, the economy, and the statements he’s made regarding Egypt and the US relationship with the leadership of that country… I realize it’s a difficult time in the world and in our nation, but I do think that most people in this country expected Pres. Obama to be far more capable and less blundering than he has proven to be.
The state of the union speech shows that America got exactly what it elected, and that he is a man who speaks eloquently with myriad platitudes, however, fails to offer real practical plans and solutions. Claiming that America is once again at some “moon moment” or something along those lines, may sound inspiring to those easily pleased with flowery rhetoric, but when no solid, concrete ideas are offered along with that rhetoric, there is no reason to believe this man is the powerful visionary leader that so many in this country thought he was when they blindly voted for his pop star personality.
Even as recently as last Super Bowl Sunday, in an interview with TVs Bill O’Reilly, Pres. Obama showed himself to be the disingenuous word parsing politician that he claimed he was not going to be when he got to the White House. When O’Reilly pinned Barry down on the unpopular reaction of Americans to the recently passed health care reform bill, otherwise known as “Obama Care”, the his response to O’Reilly’s assertion that a majority of America does not want this bill thrust upon them was along the lines of “actually, it’s pretty evenly divided”. More recent polls since that interview have clearly shown that it is not evenly divided. I wish O’Reilly’s would have immediately interjected with an even more pointed question, which should have sounded something like “But Mr. President… do you really think that passing the most major and sweeping reform bill in the last 50 years, that is going to affect 1/6th of the nation’s economy, do you really think that a bill of that power and scope should be passed in an environment where the support is at best evenly divided?”
Everybody in this country knows that bill should have had far more than 50% approval in Congress before it should even have ever come up for a vote. Obama’s assertion or insinuation that “evenly divided” somehow implies that he and the Democrat held Congress did a “pretty darn good job” and to expect anything more would be unreasonable shows me that Obama still has his partisan “my way or the highway” hat on.
When responding to Republican efforts to repeal the bill, democrats and the president state that “yes of course there are many things in the bill that may need to be fixed or replaced”. Considering that the bill was just passed last year, this is an amazing affirmation that it was passed in a haphazard, morally unethical , shifty-and-shady back-room, dealmaking manner, one which allowed for no responsible scrutiny by committees or those of opposing views and differing interests. I would argue that the 58 to 68% of the people in this nation that want that health care bill repealed, at least probably 25 to 30% of those people just want repealed because they are appalled and angered by the manner in which it was passed by a Democrat held Congress and White House, with no regard to not only what the will of the American people was and is, but with complete disregard as to doing things the “right way”.
It will be incredibly interesting over the course of the next year war to to see how it plays out in the courts regarding Obama care. With the recent decision of the judge in Florida which struck down Obama care as unconstitutional, the field is now set for the battle to rise up through the appellate courts and ultimately to the Supreme Court. Additionally, Obama Care is unraveling left and right, in over half the states, with many Governors threatening not to implement any of it, and a Republican held House of Representatives is going to do everything I can to underfund or defund it. And with news coming out daily regarding exemptions for large corporations, most of them union related, the end result is a magnification that this bill was written and legislated any haphazard and irresponsible manner, and that any relief at this time is going to only be considered if you are a large special interest, not the common man or the poor. What is strikingly devastating concerning these exemption responses from the White House is that, once again, Barack Obama is not delivering on his promise to bring a different kind of politics to Washington, one which does not find itself a slave to special interests, but rather one that is focused on what is best for the average man or woman.
I think the first thing that one has to recognize regarding Obama Care is that, if in fact it is struck down as unconstitutional, I believe that would effectively end any chance of Barack Obama becoming reelected. Imagine the most noteworthy thing you accomplished as a President as being slapped down by a court as being overreaching and effectively “un-American”… The only people who would even consider voting for that person for a second term would be partisan zealots, racists, and the naïve, which of course makes up a high percentage of Obama supporters in the first place.
Ultimately, regardless of what happens in the appellate courts, I believe the Supreme Court will strike this down with at least five votes against it possibly even six. And Justice Elana Kagan must recuse herself. While some are asking for this to be fast tracked and brought up to the court in as little as 60 days, the White House and the Justice Department will do everything they can to delay that. In the end, I think delaying it is actually going to backfire on them, especially if the decision from the High Court winds up coming down August, September, or October of 2012.
Should this case be decided late in the 2012 election cycle, as I stated before, the outcome may very well determine whether or not Barack Obama is president for a second term or not. Certainly the economy and many issues in the world will also have a bearing on this, but considering the effect of Obama care on the moderate independent voter base, and the apparent backlash which is showing up in the polls now in said base, I think the bile that the American public will taste in their mouths after they recognize that a president was willing to run willy-nilly down the path of least resistance with a majority in Congress in order to pass some ideological dream instead of making sure that we maintained the highest degree of legislative prowess, will cause those voters to turn against him en masse.
