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Healthcare Reform Summit and Other Ways to Lose 7-1/2 Hours of Your Life

Yawn…What time is it?

I am sorry, I must have nodded off during the healthcare reform summit which surprises me since I normally am on the edge of my seat during high-adrenaline TV.  I must have been really tired…

And you must have been dreaming if you actually thought that the healthcare reform summit today would end in any other way than it did – hopelessly partisan.  In fact, I could have been abducted this morning by aliens, subjected to horrible tortures for 7-1/2 hours, placed back in my recliner as the aliens found me and I would not even know that I was missing 7-1/2 hours of my life until I was hypnotized 25 years from now at a carnival I attend with my grandkids.  Nothing is any different.  If that was meant to be political theater, I want my money back.

I will give the Republicans credit for bringing the talking points so that anyone unfamiliar with the healthcare issue and a broken TV stuck on C-Span could get the Republican side of the issue, but seriously, they knew this was an exercise in futility the minute Obama posted his 2,400 page bill on Monday as the “starting point”.  This was meant to be nothing more than Obama’s attempt to say, “I tried to be bi-partisan but those obstinate Republicans just wouldn’t budge and you saw it all on TV.”  Fortunately, the Republicans refused to fall for the parlor tricks and pre-planned “gotcha” moments.  How about these nuggets?

• Calling out Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor for bringing in political props.  The prop in question?  Obama’s own 2,400-page bill!!
• Obama waiting for Senator McCain to speak so that he could sternly insert his “John, we aren’t in campaign-mode anymore” line as a zinger.  The problem was that he used it at a time that didn’t even fit so it felt forced and canned.
• All the thoughtful poses struck by Obama as Republicans would speak as if he was so carefully weighing all the points being made.  For this Obama might earn an Oscar from the Academy.

So where does this all leave us?  The Democrats saying that they can’t get any GOP support so they must carry on by themselves in their attempt to cram this down America’s throat.  The most telling comment of the day goes to President Obama.  He suggested that the Democrats would have to move forward without GOP support by using controversial budget rules in the Senate that do not allow filibusters.  He then said that the fall elections would provide the verdict about who was right.

Mr. President, I will take no solace in telling you “I told you so” in November if we’ve already let you add another crushing entitlement program to a US economy that is heading toward bankruptcy.  I choose to kill this bill now and then take my chances this fall.