"We should do NOTHING"?
President Obama, on every opposition to his policies, makes the claim of "partisan politics" and or "they would rather do nothing". Heaven forbid there is disagreement because the plan won't work or just flat our stinks.
It was somewhat ironic that the passage of Cap and Trade in the House coincided with the death of Michael Jackson. Cap and Trade went way back in the news cycle and coverage on television and to page 23 in the newspapers, such that even now, it still looms under the radar of the government intrusions since January 20th. The fact of Nancy Peloci's investments, personally, in alternative energy doesn't seem to reflect a conflict of interests with her role as Speaker of the House. She boldly refused to allow discussion on the House floor back in September and Republicans didn't call her to task on it.
I don't think that rational people want to continue to get our oil from "foreign" nations. Truth of the matter is, unless you consider Canada and Mexico "foreign" in the same sense as the Middle East, we don't get the majority of our oil from "foreign" sources. We get it right here in our own hemisphere. That said, the rational recourse would be to drill for our own oil in our waters and our lands. Build the necessary refineries and "OOPS" actually create the "JOBS" that this administration "claims" to have as its priority. Getting people back to work instead will be relegated to "Green Jobs", based on a premise of "clean energy" so as not to destroy the planet, is rooted in a false premise, or at the very least, a premise that is not up for debate or discussion. Talk about your "partisan politics".
"Alternative Energy" should be "Diversified Energy". As one of the largest countries in the world, with such diversified climates and conditions, all potentials of energy should be explored and included for not only the energy aspect of the recovery, but the employment aspects as well. Solar panels and windmill parts are already being manufactured "overseas". With union implications to our taking up that job would only serve to increase the costs,but I digress.
President Obama. No one is saying, "do nothing" about energy. We are just saying your premise for limited sources of energy calls for honest debate and Nancy Peloci needs to recuse herself from the debate and the voting process because of her conflict of interest on the subject.
Interesting that with all of the policies being addressed by this administration that they claim will be impacted by the surging number of "Baby Boomers" that will enter the entitlement roster, there is no discussion about Social Security, an area that "partisan politics" kicked to the curb during the Bush administration. Instead, Health Care is taking center stage and is as much of an entitlement program and as much as a "third rail".
There is a reason that it has been kicked down the road for some 20 years. It doesn't work run by government any more than the Post Office does. But let's put that aside. The main reason why Health Insurance hasn't worked and has become more costly even to the private insurers, are the peripheral effects such as frivolous law suits and the redundant oversight and over testing that comes as a result.
Here is the problem. How do we get "lawyers" in elected government positions to set a ruling to control frivolous court cases docketed by other lawyers? In the efforts to cover themselves from these lawsuits, doctors must take out huge insurance policies and demand extra tests to satisfy the companies. So who gets demonized? The doctors and the insurance companies as "government" protects "lawyers" and their intrusion on the health industry process. Tort Reform has to be addressed first if they genuinely want to bring costs down. In these frivolous lawsuits, win, lose or draw, the lawyers prosper while all other areas of the process are on the "crap table" looking to win, minimize damages or break even.
President Obama. Serving "your" cronies any different from the claim your party made of Bush and Cheney serving "theirs" in oil?
Why is it that when "cuts" have to be made, the first things to "go" are, police, fireman and teachers? Why doesn't some of the government subsidies, here and abroad, like the Endowment of the Arts or the never ending "foreign aid" programs get their budgets cut. For that matter, why doesn't "spending" in general get cut in the non essentials?
When I was a child back in the 50's, I remember C.A.R.E. They would show us pictures of children in Africa or in the Far East with pot bellies and flies in their face. Pitiful images. If we have been sending money all these years to address this issue, why is the problem with those same pitiful images still existing? Are they the same pictures from back then or are these the children of the people who had the pot bellies and flies in their faces?
President Obama. You have freely designated taxpayer dollars for projects and programs that will run over the next 10 years, which in and of itself, most of us have no clue as to where we will be in the next 4 years let alone 10. What has most of us Republicans who supported George W Bush disappointed in his terms was his "lose" of the Veto Pen, which he only used on Embryonic Stem Cell research that "you" rescinded. This gives you the "right" to double down on the deficits that you never fail to mention you "inherited"? And by the way, you ran for the office. This is what you wanted and "said" you could correct. You promised transparency, bipartisanship and a "change" in the politics of Washington, none of which are in evidence in these first six months and don't appear to be on the horizon.
President Obama, it is a very cheap tactic to demonize opposition in order to elevate "your" position. If your position has any substance or righteousness, it should be able to stand on its own, tall against opposition regardless of the root nature, i.e. "partisan politics". It is equally a cheap tactic to infer that the "opposition" would rather do "nothing". There "is" the possibility, in spite of your inflated perception of brilliance and foresightedness, that you could just be wrong and the "opposition" just might have a better solution.
Just a thought....
More later