The year is ending...more with a whimper than a bang. The Republicans control the House and the Supreme Court. There are many things to be said about the year 2010..for example how easy it was for the Democrats to get a slew of bills passed in three weeks. It just shows the lack of interest in the welfare of the people by its representatives that they failed to do so much more for the last 2 years. They are led by a cerebral president who is out of his depth in the wild waters of Washington, DC.
President Obama has shown himself to be a lackluster leader who fails to inject the power of his office into the legislation being proposed. He touts the health care reform law a triumph when the truth is that all it does is obligate younger people to buy overpriced insurance premiums at the risk of fines. A law which really doesn't go into effect until 2014 and which most people still don't understand. Is it believable that insurance companies will now insure high risk people? Is it believable that nobody will lose their coverage if they have cancer and other expensive diseases? The public option was never in consideration and the insurance companies did not lose the privilege of dividing entire regions of this country among themselves without any actual competition.The Democrats in Congress without the sustaining support of the President simply allowed this ridiculous law to be passed.
This agenda took 2 long years and it was passed at the expense of concentrating their efforts on the economy with an unemployment rate of close to 10%. This led to the travesty of using the recession to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy for another two years. The Republicans held unemployment benefits and even the 9/11 responders health legislation hostage but in the end the rich just became richer and the deficit just became larger. It just makes me sad that the President believes this is a triumph when in reality it is a dismal failure that even Bill Clinton cannot sell.
I have come to the conclusion that the system is broken. Congress is controlled by special interests and the Supreme Court with its decision to allow unlimited campaign contributions just made those interests even more powerful.
President Obama came into office with promises of hope and change. The reality is he is no change and this country has no hope.