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By Bradley Blakeman
FOXNews.com
If Democrats manage to get health care passed by the House
using whatever parliamentary trick or maneuver they choose, the Senate still
must take up the bill. The question then becomes, what tricks will they employ
to pass a bill through their chamber and how long will this continue to drag
out?
It is clear that the American people do not want -- and the country
does not need -- health care reforms at a time of economic crisis.
If the
health care bill was the greatest thing since sliced bread, Democrats would be
proud to support it and would be lining up to vote for it instead of lining up
to be paid off to support it.
Assuming Democrats are successful in
passing a bill that the president will sign, they still lose. The American
people are against health care reforms as dictated to by a democratically
controlled Congress and White House.
Democrats have ignored the majority of Americans and have
dismissed their concerns as naiveté and not knowing what is best for them. Well,
I predict that Americans will enact their revenge at being dismissed and
disrespected this coming November.
Democrats have been hell-bent on
expanding government health care for decades. They know that this may be their
only opportunity for years to come to accomplish their ultimate goal of
government-run, mandated health care for all Americans. There is no question
that due to fraud, mismanagement and abuse that Medicare and Medicaid will go
bankrupt within the next decade unless serious measures are taken to save it.
Likewise, Social Security is on a path to certain bankruptcy unless it is
overhauled within the next few years.
Why on earth would Congress want to
expand the government's incompetence in managing health care for our elderly and
poor to all Americans? Why is Congress not trying to fix that which is already
broken?
Democrats are blinded by ideology and raw power. Instead in
concentrating on jobs, reducing the deficit, reining in federal spending and
giving Americans hope, Democrats are seeking bigger and more expensive
government and just ballooning the deficit.
If health care represents
1/6th of our economy and 5/6ths of the economy is ailing, why concentrate on the
1/6th at the expense of the 5/6th? It is like a fire department dousing a
detached garage with water that is not on fire, instead of saving the house that
is on fire.
There is no doubt that, if passed, the health care bill will
be Constitutionally challenged on many levels. State governments are already
looking into ways to refuse to obey mandates that affect their duties and
obligations. Republicans most assuredly will call for the bill to be repealed
and will make that argument in the 2010 midterm elections.
At a time when
Americans in every part of our country are struggling to make ends meet and
provide for their families, they are being asked by Democrats to pay into a
health care system they will not see a benefit from for years.
Democrats thought they were clever in not beginning the actual
health care reforms until after the 2012 presidential elections. Their strategy
is to govern by creating programs that they do not have to administer and thus
it becomes someone else's problem.
Well, my message to Democrats is a
simple one: you can fool some of the people, like you did in 2008, but you
cannot fool enough of the people in 2010.
Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy
assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-04. He is currently a professor
of Politics and Public Policy at Georgetown University and a frequent
contributor to the Fox Forum.