Distracted, Again

Just fourteen days ago, on January 27th, President Obama said in his State of the Union speech that "jobs must be our number one focus in 2010."  So, after just two weeks since he made that statement, what are we talking about?  Healthcare.  Forget Scott Brown and Massachusetts.  Forget a record 6.1 million Americans who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks straight.  Forget another 661.000 who just last month dropped out of the labor market and stopped looking for work altogether.  The president wants to talk healthcare reform again, from now until February 25th when he has scheduled a half-day bipartisan summit to discuss same.  And, from the sounds emanating from the mouths of those who have been invited, we begin where we ended.  With a bill that a majority of Democrats in the House and the Senate and the White House couldn't slip past the American people.

So it's no surprise then that Republican leaders in Congress are balking at the idea of spending another minute on something that a majority of  Americans have weighed in on and found wanting.  The 2,700 page Obamacare bill is a stinker and needs to be scratched.  I agree with the president when he says that bipartisanship is not the abandonment of ones' own principles for the total adoption of anothers', but too much time and attention has already been wasted on something that will never happen.  Unless of course the progressives in the Democrat party get their way and break the glass of the emergency reconciliation box and shove this crap down our throats.  Either way, there will be further hell to pay at the ballot box in November.

If I were advising the Republicans in Congress, and I am not, I would let the president know that I would be more than willing to come to the White House on February 25th to discuss job creation and getting America back to work.  I would remind them to remind him that just 14 days ago this was his intent as well.  I would tell them to tell him that once we get our economy back on track, through cutting spending and cutting taxes, that we could then resume negotiations over a full range of ideas that together might move America ahead.  But if all he wants to do on that particular Monday is talk healthcare, then thanks but no thanks.   Republicans will take our chances with the American voter without participating in another White House sideshow.