I've not been able to post here recently because I've been finishing my book (writing, not reading, lol) and it's been all I could do to pester Chuck Grassley's office three times a week. However it has become clear to me that Barack Obama is a blood sniffing shark, not content simply to win, rather desiring to crush his opponents.
Obviously Obama and Nancy Pelosi knew a long time ago that they had healthcare reform in their pockets. If you believe it was dumb luck then it was the same kind of dumb luck that Michael Jordan experienced when he would make a 30 foot jump shot. He was lucky because he had taken that shot 10,000 times in practice and many times that in his mind. These guys are that good.
So then you have to wonder how could two people craft a bill so meticulously as to ensure it being SCOTUS proof yet be so sloppy as to leave some ambiguity as to coverage as it relates to pre-existing conditions in children. Welcome to Obama's back door into a public option, or better yet maybe even single-payer.
Join me below the fold to see the groundwork that's been laid.
Some of you will again accuse me of being hyperbolic in my effusive praise for Barack Obama and his political skills, but I think what we've all just witnessed is the master schooling the simpletons of the Republican Party, and many of the shallow thinkers in his own party as well. His understanding of parliamentary procedure let him know he had a health care bill in his pocket as soon as the Senate's first 60 vote supermajority was in. Didn't matter what happened in Massachusetts after that, but here is what he did and what makes me believe that he still has his eye on either a public option or even single-payer in the very near future.
Anyone who's played sports knows how demoralizing it is to take a beat down, but there is nothing worse than coming back from a large deficit to take the lead only to find your opponent was toying with you all along. That's exactly what Obama did with the Republicans. He knew he had a healthcare reform bill in his pocket so he allowed the Republicans to continue shrieking their hatred at the top of their lungs for all the world to see. Then when they were certain they had defeated him he came out of nowhere to crush their spirits.
Subsequently how does a man, such an obviously skilled legislator and leader, write such a constitutionally bulletproof bill then ignorantly leave language in it that is so ambiguous that it might fail to cover pre-existing conditions for children? Ahhh grasshopper, this is where the genius and our shot at more inclusive and complete legislation comes in.
I am a cantankerous old bastard, and no one gives two turds about whether I have health insurance or not. I think my wife may have even tried to drop me from her policy on a few occasions, but Obama has taken people like me out of the debate. Today AHIP and the health insurance companies along with their bought and paid for representatives in Congress are reduced to arguing about giving health insurance to sick kids. As bad as they have seemed up till now we are going to watch people that either make or are worth millions of dollars arguing that they should not have to give health insurance to children.
This is a master stroke of genius.
The CEOs of health insurance companies and Republicans in Congress will be standing in front of the American people arguing about why children, sick children, should not qualify for health insurance. As disgusted as everyone got listening to Republican lawmakers argue against healthcare reform can you imagine the complete and total revulsion people will feel listening to them argue against health care for sick children? Can you see the parade of kids Obama would run in front of the camera as he continued to ask the question why the Republican lawmakers protect companies that don't want to take care of these children? It would be devastating for them.
Now, did he do this on purpose? I personally don't believe the way healthcare reform was passed was any accident, rather the execution of a strategy that had been in the works for a very long time. So do I believe that someone as meticulous as Barack Obama, a constitutional scholar, would accidentally leave indistinct wording regarding pre-existing conditions for sick children in a bill that had been honed to a fine edge? Not a chance.
I think what will happen is, after we have been treated to an period of millionaires disgustingly and nauseatingly arguing against children, Obama will once again prove that he has them by the balls. I look for him to say something like the party of "No Child Left Behind" seems to not care if those children are left to die and I won't stand for it. Therefore I am proposing legislation to provide government health insurance for all children with pre-existing conditions until we can get this issue resolved. How long would it take to spread to all of us?
Try, just try to vote against it, and see if the whole world does not brand you as the party of Simon Lagree. Is this what's happening? I don't know but Obama seems to enjoy crushing his opponents and this would be like stakes in their hearts.
And yes, I think this guy is THAT good.