[Peace-discuss] Obama kills universal healthcare

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From <http://www.regressiveantidote.net/Articles/Hey,
%20Did_You_Hear_That_Democrats_Won_The_Election.html>]


That George Bush, man – what a monster, eh? I mean, could you even have imagined
a president so destructive?

It’s actually worse than you thought, though. Lately, there’s been a spate of
fresh revelations about some of the incredibly disastrous policies that were
executed by the Bush administration.

Did you know, for instance, that they...

...steered hundreds of billions of bail-out dollars to the very people who drove
the country into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, required
nothing of these sharks in return, and did almost nothing for ordinary Americans
struggling to survive this disaster?

...opposed congressional legislation limiting financial institution incentive
pay packages that put the whole global economy at risk?

...opposed legislation allowing shareholders the right to have even a
non-binding say on salaries, even though executives took home billions in
bonuses last year while their companies were hemorrhaging money so badly they
required a trillion bucks in taxpayer bail-out?

...actually threatened Britain, America’s closest ally in the world, with
withdrawal of intelligence data that could prevent terrorist attacks unless the
British government blocked one of its courts from accepting documented evidence
of torture at Guantánamo?

...sent droves of Predator-launched missiles into Pakistan – supposedly one of
America’s allies – killing groups of civilians, even at weddings, thus
intensifying hatred toward the United States?

...tried to shut down a charity’s illegal-surveillance suit against the
government on the basis of a supposed constitutionally-grounded state secrets
privilege which would allow the president to kill any legal case before it is
even heard?

...undertook a blitz of immigration enforcement without reform of civil rights
violations so nasty that one professor of immigration law described the policies
as “literally the worst of all worlds”?

...refused to set legally enforceable immigration detention rules covering such
basics as health care and legal representation, instead relying on a flawed
contractor-based monitoring system?

...pressured a member of Congress to withdraw an amendment that would have ended
the military’s disastrous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regime, simply by defunding it?

...asked a federal court to dismiss a case in which the plaintiffs challenged
the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, arguing to the court that
heterosexual marriage is “the traditional, and universally recognized, version
of marriage”?

...dramatically increased the influence of religion in government, directly
violating the First Amendment, by lavishly spending federal dollars on
“faith-based’ programs, and giving religious groups massively increased power
and access within the White House to shape policy questions?

...stood by silently, allowing climate legislation to be watered down to
nothing, to include generous pollution allowances to coal utilities, and to
undermine the EPA’s authority to control carbon emissions?

...backed healthcare legislation that did little for the public and actually
increased wasteful federal expenditures, while continuing to enrich insurance,
medical, hospital and pharmaceutical corporation vampires?

...and lots and lots more.

Can you believe it? Can you imagine anything as absolutely evil as the Bush
administration? Can you believe the stunts they pulled?

Well, try this on for size: Every item above actually reflects the actions of
the Obama administration in just its first six months – not George Bush!
(Although, of course, Bush did a lot of these things too, and would have likely
done them all, given the chance.)

That’s right, that’s right. Yep. This is the record of the guy liberals
scrambled to put into office, the guy who promised big-time change, and the guy
whom foaming-at-the-mouth regressives run around screaming is a socialist
ruining America.

I don’t know about you, but I think maybe all those government officials and
media reporters who say Democrats won the last election (actually, the last two
of them) have just been having a great big ol’ laugh at our expense! Whataya
think? This is change from the last eight years?? This is the party that opposed
the horrors of the Bush administration and the Republican Congress?? This is
out-of-control liberalism?

And let’s not even talk about the things they aren’t doing...

...Real change in Middle East policy? Haven’t seen it.

...Remotely serious response to the existential threat of global warming? Nope –
might offend somebody.

...Single-payer healthcare system, to provide the only cost-effective and fair
solution for universal coverage? Wasn’t mentioned by Harry in the commercial. Or
Louise.

...Serious cuts to annual defense spending now equal to twice what every other
country in the world spends, combined? Nein, dummkopf. The Pentagon’s budget is
rising – you know, in order to protect America from its big bad enemy, the,
uh..., the, um, what’s-their-names again...?

...Full-court press to curb hugely expanding wealth disparities and protect the
economy from Wall Street predators? Hell, nowadays those clowns have their
offices right in the West Wing. In fact, now it’s called the Goldman Sachs Wing.

Look, I’ll be honest. I supported (sorta) Obama and I voted for him. But I did
so with open eyes. I knew he could be a progressive once installed in the Oval
Office, but that he might well also be a Clinton-like hack for the money boys
and a complete coward in standing up to the insane right that is gobbling up
America on a steady diet of hate and paranoia.

In other words, I’m not shocked that he’s not FDR. But why is this guy carrying
water for George Bush, covering up his worst crimes? Why are his civil liberties
positions so bad that one attorney described them as “the good old Bush-Cheney
inherent presidential power theory” all over again? Why is he working so hard to
make sure Wall Street sucks every drop of blood it possibly can out of the
pale-white corpse of the American middle class, even while it ruins the global
economy in yet another get-rich scam, then turns to the government for a
bail-out when it all comes a cropper, all the while – and without a hint of
irony – still loudly singing its effusive praises of Ayn Rand? Why is it this
guy can’t simply stand aside and let Congress defund Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a
program even the military now wants to jettison? Why does he go to court arguing
on behalf of homophobic repression? What in the world is this dude going to tell
his children when their country is broke and broken, and their planet parched
and dying? “I was just one person. What could I do?”

I guess Democrat is the new Republican nowadays.

Sure, the pathetically feeble Dems are less likely to launch big wars based on
lies (at least since LBJ left the White House), and that’s nothing to sneeze at.
(Maybe Obama will even end Bush’s debacle in Iraq, like he said he would. Maybe.
I take nothing on faith with this guy, that’s for sure.)

And, yeah, Democrats will move slightly faster in the quest to do nothing and to
get nowhere when it comes to protecting the environment, civil rights or civil
liberties. Woo-hoo.

Otherwise, I’m having a hard time seeing the difference. Bill Clinton (he of
WTO, NAFTA, welfare reform and Telecommunications Bill fame) was the best friend
Wall Street could ever have imagined, and they still tried to ride him out on a
rail. Now Obama’s got the same Goldman Sachs retreads in there ripping us off
again, even as the ship is still going down from the last round.

So Democrats won the last election, huh?

Coulda fooled me. But here’s the bigger question:

What for?

[David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University
in New York. He is delighted to receive readers' reactions to his articles (
dmg at regressiveantidote.net ), but regrets that time constraints do not always
allow him to respond. More of his work can be found at his website,
www.regressiveantidote.net.]


John W. wrote:
> I weary of Carl's constant carping against Obama in the Subject line, as if
> Obama operated in a vacuum and bore sole responsibility for all of American's
> many moral and policy failings...