political

The Health Care Debate Reaches Crescendo

Happy 09-09-09 everyone. My father was an orthopedic surgeon who built his practice mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, before Medicare and Medicaid. He treated you without asking about your ability to pay. Those that paid made up for those that didn’t, and that was that. Did every doctor do that then? No. Did many? Yes. Would such an approach work today? Heck no. My Dad, rest his soul, got out of medicine in the late 1980s, a good time to quit.

So now something that has been debated since the days of Teddy Roosevelt hits another critical moment as B. Obama goes before a joint session of Congress to tell people why health care reform should be passed. Here’s the thing. Most everyone agrees that health care reform should be passed. Of course there’s no agreement on how to do it. Politics has, shockingly, gotten in the way. Without writing for seventy-seven paragraphs, how to do it?

I think those to the right have some good ideas, the most logical of which is – do it part by part. Most Americans, in hindsight, have questions about how the massive stimulus bill got passed and now probably regret parts of it. The items are, as we lawyers say, severable. Tackle uninsured children as one bill. Medicare waste and efficiency in another. Some form of insurance competition enhancement (if all can agree on this) in another. But rushing through multi-thousand page bills that are not read by those voting on them really doesn’t make sense. Maybe in a crisis like when the TARP or stimulus bills were passed, but this is not a crisis. We have time to do it right. Obama wants it done now. Why? So it doesn’t complicate next year’s mid-term Congressional elections. There’s no other reason it can’t be done carefully, with normal debate in committees, with members of the public having a right to have their voices heard in the process.

As mentioned in past posts, the President unfortunately has shown his political self in this process, with spin that most of us realize is less about what he feels in his heart but what he wants to achieve politically. And many feel he has done it badly. He has never made clear what exactly he wants and what is a dealbreaker. When you are in the Senate this cat and mouse game is the normal give and take of negotiating bills. When you are President you can be neither cat nor mouse, but need to be a lion. He has not shown his lion side yet.  Maybe that will be tonight….we shall see…

political

Good Job, Pres. Clinton, Now Let’s Keep the Pressure Up on N. Korea

President Clinton’s “humanitarian” mission to suffer through pictures with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was a great success. He got pardons for accidental border crossers Laura Lin and Euna Lee who were convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. They should be arriving back in DC any minute. This is of course great news for the Lins, the Lees, our country and the Clintons. As has been revealed, the outcome was basically ordained – Clinton would not have gone there unless they had committed in advance to release the women. But, in fairness to Bill, Mr. Kim could have changed his mind at the last minute, so there was some risk in going there. Our relationship with the North Koreans doesn’t exactly generate interest in sitting down to tea. While he was not there as an official representative, let’s face it. He’s married to the Secretary of State. He is the former President. And Mrs. Clinton made clear this morning on TV that he basically coordinated this with the White House.

But now what? Will the Iranians expect the same treatment for the US citizens they have imprisoned, again, for accidentally crossing the border? Will Mr. Kim use his pictures with Clinton to further solidify his hold on power, showing his countrymen how he can make US Presidents come to him? But there was good too. Clinton got to be able to assess Kim’s health, as it has been reported he is very ill. And maybe he had a message from Obama (this was denied, although the North Korean press said he did). And you can pretty much bet your karaoke collection that Kim had a message to send to Obama. Was anything offered in return (maybe the pictures alone were enough)? Will this help N. Korea return to the six party talks trying to bring an end to their nuclear ambitions? And most importantly here, can it help bring more stability to the region so that trade and economic growth are possible?

As always I ask great questions to which I do not have answers. I am all for these attempts to free folks. One only needs to see the movie Midnight Express and you are pretty much changed forever as to what foreign prisons can be like. Let’s just make very sure, as Mrs. Clinton was working hard to do this morning, that they are not interpreted as having any impact on our resolve to remain tough in reigning in the potential harm that can be done by countries that could become our enemy. But we give this one to the Clintons, and indirectly to B. Obama.

political

Blago Indicted

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was indicted today on 16 felony counts and 3 others. He denies all wrongdoing. According to the Wall St. Journal, the indictment says that Blago ”allegedly engaged in a wide-ranging scheme to deprive the people of Illinois of honest government.” That’s pretty much the crux. They believe he tried to sell President Obama’s vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Here’s gonna be the issue. Was he corrupt, or was he doing what pretty much every politician does, look at a decision and think, “What’s in it for me?” Tons of compromises, trade-offs, exchanges are made between government officials that aren’t necessarily corrupt. A politician fights hard for a bill, and a rival says he will give support only if the first guy supports his bill which he previously hated. And this happens every minute of every day in every statehouse, governor’s mansion, you name it. Some of it is just the way things get done and isn’t necessarily dishonest or corrupt.

But from what we hear, if he blatantly demanded some personal benefit for him or his politically connected wife (a job, campaign contributions, etc.), then that will be a bad thing. And supposedly the many hours of tapes pretty much make that clear. But will it be clear or maybe hinted at? We don’t know yet. The prosecutors played only little snippets of the tapes when he was originally arrested back in December. As we all know, things can be taken out of context. It’s interesting it took them from December 9 when he was arrested until now to get an indictment together.

One thing is clear. He’s not going to look very good when this is over. And it will hurt the Democrats for sure. Especially if he keeps fighting and denying. Hopefully he can bring his choice of hairbrush to prison, cause that’s probably where he’s headed.