Obama Goes the Homer Stokes Route on Health Care ...

RE-FORM, RE-FORM !! Hey, Where's the Little Man and the Broom ?

No, you're not seeing things. This is an SC6 post... I don't expect to be coming back fulltime to blogging, but thanks to sites like BlogNetNews and SCHotline, when Jeff thinks i'm worthy, my posts get the chance to be read without it being me yelling into the woods. So, I don't have to keep posting everyday to make sure you guys stay loyal to SC6...

The real reason I decided to break my self-imposed hiatus was because it has been an interesting week in politics, both in Washington, and here in South Carolina. First, a short word on Lindsey Graham deciding to vote yes on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination for the Supreme Court. After all these years, we all have a pretty good gauge on how Lindsey Graham will vote on issues. I don't think anyone should be too surprised on his yes vote, and honestly, he's right.

Here's where conservatives will get very discouraged. When it comes to Supreme Court justice nominations, the Democrats are much more successful at attacking candidates than Republicans, and they should be - it's easier for them. Justifying a position that you judge with your heart, even if incorrectly, is a simpler job than hurting people's feelings because you judge by rule of law. But, the fact is that every criticism aimed at Sotomayor's nomination had been used for previous judges who now sit on SCOTUS, therefore a NO vote is a tough call. But, i'm still a little surprise Graham had the guts to do it...

Before you start finding another candidate to run against him in 2014, remember this: Sotomayor was going to get nominated. More importantly, Lindsey Graham is no dummy, and like he said in May, he is a winner. He doesn't give up his vote unless he is working to get something for us in return. My guess is that somewhere, sometime, we will find out that he used this YES to get us in a better position - but hey, maybe I'm wrong.....

Now, onto the Health Care fiasco, and it is slowly turning into that. Let me preface all of this with a disclaimer: I don't have health insurance. Even when I was working, I would have had to pay about 12% of my salary to pay for it. Thanks guys.... If there is anyone who would like to see an affordable paln to cover the uncoverable, I'm it.

There are a few indisputable facts. First, the rising costs of health care are the biggest problem. If you don't cut costs, Universal Coverage is an impossibility. Short of cutting payments to doctors and hospitals, it will be almost impossible. So, if you can't really cut costs, you have one choice - raise taxes to citizens and businesses to cover it. While it may not cost as much to cover the uncoverable, because most of them are like me - they don't need coverage currently - the $1 Trillion price tag makes passing this tough. Even the voters understand this, 85% of whom already have health coverage. Hence, Barack Obama's approval rating on the issue are dropping like a stone. So, he's forced to do what you do when you get desperate - you change the name....

Yep. it's now being called Health Care Reform. You know Reform - it's what you call 'Change' when it's not popular. That's why last year's slogan wasn't 'Reform We Can Believe In". It didn't work for Homer Stokes in 'O Brother Where Art Thou', and it doesn't work here. So, he has now backed off his stance to pass it, and pass it now. In typical DC fashion, now the Democrats are contradicting themselves. One minute, Whipper Jim Clyburn is telling reporters that the House Democrats are planning on staying in DC in August, instead of going home, to finish this. The next minute, Harry Reid is telling everyone that they are going home, and they'll get back to it when it's right. Honestly, that's the right thing. Secondly, it once again proves that NO ONE IN DC LISTENS TO JIM CLYBURN......

Nope, even the Democrats know that you can hang yourself on even well-intentioned issues like Health Care Change - uhhh, I mean Reform. Will it ever happen? I don't know, but my guess is that something to cover some more - not all - will come along. If you can save some, you can cover more. Exactly who, i don't know - certainly not middle class people like me, but that's fine. I don't expect free health care. You do what you can with the tools you have - and DC doesn't have all the tools. Just ask Homer Stokes. In case you don't remember what they did to Old Homer, here's a reminder...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3eTSbC3neA

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