What Obama REALLY Wants With Health Care – “Baby Steps”
Through all of the health care debate going on in the United States, it’s obvious to see where it is going.
It was obvious from the beginning where Obama was going with health care, and many other problems he is dealing with – he understands the power of “baby steps”.
If Obama had a completely DEM controlled Senate, he would be approaching the health care debate much differently. He knows he has a Republican party that is going to vote against any health care bill the DEMS want, and he also know that some of these Conservadems (Blue Dogs) are not going to vote with a strong Public Health Care Option in the Senate.
You hear reporters, and talking heads, claiming that the DEMS have these big majorities in the Congress and Senate, but it’s far from the truth on some bills, and health care is one of those bills.
Being a fairly hard American left-wing supporter (more like fanatical lefty – from Canada so what do you expect) I too want to see a single payer, Government run, Universal Health Care plan for my American brothers and sisters. I too want to see an end to the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law in the US military.
I too want to see “Gitmo” shutdown. I too want to see the complete END to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and anywhere for that matter. (I think America should get out of all these wars, spend their money on complete health care and infrastructure projects. I think America should use covert operations, Satellites, spies, intelligence ops, and drones to deal with terrorists).
But Obama knows that this is all to much to ask for. He’s a pretty savvy dude, if you haven’t noticed yet.
So These Are Obama’s Real Plans – His Baby Steps
Health Care
- get rid of the preexisting conditions scam
- create mild competition for insurance companies to lower costs
- insure more people (but understands all can’t be done yet)
- regulate insurance companies
- have a way to monitor insurance company practices
Gay Rights (but only after Health Care and Wall Street regulatory changes are made)
- repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and make it legal for gay people to serve in the military
- give gay citizens the rights they are being denied (marriage etc.)
Wall Street
- heavily regulate Wall Street avoid another crash in the United States economy
The Wars
- he wants to ratchet down the wars SLOWLY without petting the conservatives fur backwards until he gets health care through. He knows he won’t get the GOP votes for his health care bill, but he needs those right-leaning DEMS to support him, and if makes any big moves with the wars right now, he will likely loose them.
- once Obama has health care finished, he is going to go even more to his natural left – just watch. He will pull out all the troops by the end of 2011. I know the hard left wingers (like me) want all the wars over NOW, but there is more to it than that
- with the economy as bad as it is, if he can employ thousands upon thousands of troops in the military and civilian contractors over in the middle east (with FULL Republican and DEM support) it’s like a kind of welfare program, even if the effort doesn’t get any results. He knows that some young people are going to die over there, but it is blood he is willing to have spilled for the greater good of America in the long run.
- Obama knows that the USA is going to have nothing but hatred coming at it from the extremist NO MATTER WHAT HE DOES, so he may as well employ hundreds of thousands of Americans with contract employees and military employees.
- Obama also knows that if he pushes the war in Afghanistan he will be making the right-leaning moderates and the right wing voters happy just enough to likely vote him in for a second term as President.
Obama’s Overall Strategy
Obama’s overall strategy is simple. GET a second term so he can really go left as hard as possible. If the health care bill makes the Preexisting Conditions ploy by insurance companies illegal, he will have secured the health over 2oo million Americans who have health insurance now. He thinks that whatever else he gets on the health care “reform” bill is just gravy – forget about a public option……he thinks that is TOO MUCH CHANGE TO FAST.
He wants to push the watered down (but still trans-formative) health care bill through before the House and Senate seats are shuffled in 2010 – and I assure you, they will be shuffled, giving the GOP more seats.
He knows that all he can do is put America in the right direction (or should I say left direction). He knows that his legacy may never be about HUGE change, except for the color of his skin, and that his accomplishments will have been nothing more than baby-steps away from a “center-right” agenda in American politics.
Until one fine day when the politicians in the United States are not allowed (by law to except) “bribe money” from corporations, these are the kinds of “Obama baby-steps” we can only hope for.
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