Obama Looks for Healthcare Breakthrough

It still is amazing to me how totally out of touch with the American people our elected officials in Washington are. It is as if the town hall events which took place during August and the huge numbers of protesters who marched in Washington in September just didn't exist to them. It's as if there weren’t major poll results on critical issues that document people’s opinions which are opposing the proposed healthcare and expressing grave concern about the budget deficit. (Check out Rasmussen's latest polls at http://tinyurl.com/ly4hb3.)

But the Obama administration and Congress are not recognizing the validity of the voices of the majority of Americans who have said "No" to Obamacare. It's obvious that Obama hasn't heard the people. This fact was evidenced in the content of his media blitz this past Sunday. In spite of losing ground in the healthcare debate, President Barack is pushing even harder for his reform by appearing on five major networks in one day, spouting much of the same rhetoric as he has all along. In one of the interviews, Obama said that his message is sometimes not “breaking through.” He said, “I think there have been times where I have said, ’I’ve got to step up my game in terms of talking to the American people about issues like health care.’”

Well, his position on healthcare reform been stated many times, and in many ways - sometimes with public option and sometimes with government run co-ops instead. Congress doesn’t appear to be listening either. Well, that's not exactly accurate. Nancy Pelosi seems to have heard something - even if they are the old voices in her head from the past! But the American people are informed. They have read the information for themselves in the HR3200 and Baucus bills. The result is they just don’t want it.

When Obama was asked by the interviewer if he had lost control of the health debate, Obama said, “Well, not so much lost control, but where I’ve said to myself, somehow I’m not breaking through.” Oh, no! I think he's wrong. I believe he got through alright - months ago! The American people have heard, and the American people have been speaking. His message has been rejected. But he isn't listening – to the people!

Further, he doesn't want to hear. He and his minions have their own agendas they are going to push through regardless of what the masses say. And, yes, they are playing the game of politics, and it’s well known that Democrats own the ball, bat, gloves, and they are even threatening to inappropriately apply obscure rules so they can “win” the game while ignoring the voices of any opposition.

The mandate to the President comes from the people; the President and Congress are not supposed to mandate what the people should do or have. That isn’t constitutional; it’s not democratic. It sounds more like the foundation for a dictatorship (especially when people who are not elected or constitutionally vetted are given policy making powers, but that’s another topic).

But apparently people-mandate isn’t the way this group in Washington operates. They all still appear to be going on with their business as usual, pushing their agendas through with no regard to the majority of the American people who have made their positions abundantly clear.

If I’m wrong, then I guess I obtained a skewed understanding of how things are supposed to work or was incorrectly taught during my government-run education, but I believe that when the American people speak, whether in town hall meetings or in protest rallies or express their opinions in polls, it's the responsibility of their elected representatives to listen. And in a democracy the majority is supposed to prevail. All of our elected officials are supposed to listen to the majority voice of the people – and our “elected officials” means the House, the Senate, and the President!