Liberals struggle to govern because no one has found a way to be powerful and oppressed at the same time.
President Barack Obama is trying to push back against the chorus of dissent on his health plan, whatever it turns out to be.
The only thing he really seems to insist on is that the plan includes a government-run insurance option paid for, in part, by reducing spending on Medicare and other existing government plans.
Unfortunately for Obama, the government plan and the Medicare cuts are what have everybody so out of sorts. The summer swoon for the president’s poll numbers continues, and even Americans who agree with the president’s health goals think he and Congress have handled the issue poorly.
Then there are the town hall debacles: angry grandmothers laying into pie-faced congressmen, Taser-toting deputies losing control of junior high gyms, and sidewalk scuffles.
Democrats thought they had the answer. It was “manufactured outrage” from Brooks Brothers-clad goons for hire. Nancy Pelosi even threw in a Nazi reference for good measure.
Democrats were shocked to find that the victim card wasn’t the trump suit anymore.
The traditional Democratic villain, big business, has already cut side deals with the White House in order to sell more drugs, require people to buy more insurance or regulate away competitors. And the only people disrupting meetings who can be identified by their clothing are wearing the purple shirts of the president’s preferred union, the Service Employees International Union.
But it’s hard for liberals to think in terms of being powerful, because they believe that they represent the oppressed.
When Obama said it’s time for “the folks who created the mess” (presumably Republicans) to “get out of the way” and “not do a lot of talking,” he thought he sounded like a reformer pushing back against the system. Never mind that he’s the most powerful man in the land and the personification of the system.
When Obama was running for president, an online effort to collect and knock down the rumors about his background was a success.
The White House tried the same thing with health care, looking to collect e-mails spreading “disinformation” about health care at the now-infamous [email protected]“> [email protected].
Asking people to snitch on their neighbors for spouting off about the government is a creepy, authoritarian move. Panic has clearly taken hold when the Obamacrats adopt Stasi tactics.
The House plan calls for those 65 and older to go in for regular sessions with government counselors to talk about “end-of-life planning,” with more frequent sessions for those who are very ill.
If I said the government would encourage savings and improve care by helping seniors make better choices, I don’t suppose anyone would turn me in.
But what if I say that Democrats will pay for their plan by encouraging people to die sooner? Or if I say that runaway costs will eventually turn encouragement into requirement? Better flag it.
Having used his power to cut deals on health care with the key players — in Tony Soprano’s world, this is what’s called a protection racket — Obama finds that the last obstacle is the American public. In the parlance of Obama’s old job as a community organizer, “the stakeholders” are on board, but “the community” is resisting change. Now “the stakeholders” may back out because “the community” is ignoring Obama.
Obama still has about 85 percent of his term left — quite a long time to get himself straightened out. But for a president with transformational goals, it’s later than you think.
It was 28 years ago this week that President Ronald Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act into law while vacationing at his Santa Barbara, Calif., ranch.
It dropped the tax burden across the board and allowed every working American to establish an individual retirement account.
Reagan had campaigned on the plan. And the new president spent much of his first seven months in office lobbying a resistant Congress on the idea. He was rewarded with big wins in late July.
Despite a 53-seat Democratic majority in the House, Reagan’s tax plan sailed through by a 77-vote margin. And in the Senate, where Republicans held a six-seat majority, the plan got 68 votes.
Obama hasn’t approached anything like a win of that magnitude. If he doesn’t figure out the difference between leading and challenging, he may never get one.
Chris Stirewalt is the political editor of The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected].
