Shutdown - 5

By the time this item is posted the shutdown may be history. Maybe not.  But we can still hope!

Assuming it remains an ongoing specter, here are some more thoughts:

You may not feel comfortable with a celebrity’s opinion, but I’ll offer George Clooney’s thought anyway:

“People keep talking about how this has to be a great negotiation, but there isn't any negotiating a law. The President was re-elected on (Obamacare). It was reaffirmed, it was passed through the Supreme Court – it’s a law. You don’t like it? Win an election. That’s how it works.”

I might have stated it differently but the logic is the same. The Affordable Care Act was proposed, discussed, dissected and endlessly lobbied over for the better part of two years. Then a negotiated, lessened bill was enacted into law. Since then the Republican controlled House of Representatives have attempted to de-fund, gut, or recall the law 49 times.  49 times! That’s 49 times!  And now extortion by shutdown to get their way, a way rejected by the American public in the last election, and rejected by their fellow congressmen.

And currently they are even extorting their way with a threatened debt ceiling debacle.

The American people feel that an approach toward universal health care is a reasonable direction to take. They aren't all of the same mind yet, but neither is the Affordable Care Act. It is vastly weakened from what was originally proposed. But then, a start in the right direction is still a good beginning. The ACA will get a chance to work and teach us what is good and what needs fixing. This will take time, just like Medicare and Social Security. And the Income Tax! All were distrusted. All were feared. All of those old programs are working very well. And the economic security of Americans and the economy are linked successfully. 

So will it be with universal health care, or at least the weak sister stab with ACA.  Let it be please.

Even a tea party republican like Devin Nunes agrees:

“I thought it was a big mistake to say that we were going to get rid of Obamacare. I think we’re giving our base – and I’m a Conservative Republican…the false interpretation that somehow by not funding the government, we’re going to get rid of Obamacare, and we simply don’t have the votes to do that.”

Well that’s a candid admission. About time!

Obamacare is a knotty issue that will take time to work well in a complicated society. But America is used to doing big things, difficult things, for the common good of its people and nation.  As Edmund Lee opined:

“Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see the greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself.”

Could it be true that America has lost faith in itself? That it cannot solve big problems? That it cannot dream big and make it happen?  Going to the moon was a dream until we set it as a goal and made it happen. Why not health care justice and access?

I’ll close with an admonition from Eleanor Roosevelt who said this:

            “You must do the things you think you cannot do.”

In her time America won two world wars, defeated the worst global depression on record, established Social Security and laid the groundwork for many advances in social contracts with the people of the nation. If the people are proud and settled, so will be the nation. If the people are prosperous, so will the nation be.

Let’s try again. Only better this time!

October 14, 2013