Posted by
Saint Somebody on Sunday, October 18, 2009 4:44:37 PM
The President gave his weekly radio address this morning. It sounded a lot like a lawyer's opening statement in a criminal trial. Or like the campaign.
"And there are still those who would try to kill reform at any cost"
Even the most mercenary among us cannot oppose reform at any cost. At some point, the costs will exceed the benefits of opposing reform.
"And they are funding studies to mislead the American people"......"And of course like clockwork, we've seen folks on cable television, who know better, waving these industry laden studies in the air: They claim premiums will go up under reform; but they know that the non-partisan CBO found that reforms will lower premums in a new insurance exchange offering protections that will limit out-of-pocket costs and prevent discrimination based on pre-existing conditions"
The CBO is the word of God when its conclusions are favorable to a political initiative. But less than a month ago the administration was far less enamored of the same non-partisan CBO's conclusions. Google 'CBO study flawed' and it will generate pages of results. Someone is always unhappy with the results of a study and questions the methodology. The president goes a step further. He says the insurance companies commission studies to intentionally mislead the public. One of four largest accounting firms in this country knowingly conspires in the effort. The media, aware of such collusion, promote the results anyway.
This kind of cynicism is fair game during the campaign. But as Mr.Obama pointed out during the transition, we have only one president at a time and he is now the president of all those people referred to above. He is also president to the teabaggers, the global warming deniers, the Wall street money men, the Libertarians, the home schoolers, evangelical Christians and the secured creditors of Chrysler who had the temerity to prefer the bankruptcy court rather than the rescue plan. It is time to stop attacking and address the concerns of those who deign to question him.
"I welcome a good debate. I welcome the chance to defend our proposals and test our ideas in the fire of our democracy: But what I will not abide are those who will bend the truth or break it to score political points and stop our progress as a country."
President Obama has a gift for communication. Lately, he has employed it recklessly. While he may welcome a good debate, he is loathe to engage in one. His responses are argumentative but not arguments. Attacking the opposition is a tactic, not an argument. It is employed in lieu of an argument. Many people take issue with the viability of his proposed reform. Few are trying to undermine the the progress of the country.
I don't want to be a citizen under suspicion. I lived six years under Nixon and spent four years in Jesuit schools. Enough is enough.