O bama is putting himself in a dangerous situation. If he is not careful, and does not give the American public a chance to breathe, he runs the risk of making himself irrelevant and a lame duck before he’s even had a chance to get started. Like it or not, government runs on one speed- SLOW. First someone has an idea, then it goes to a sub-committee, then a resolution is produced, then it goes before a House committee, then it goes to the House for a vote. If it passes the House, it goes to a Senate committee, then it goes to the Senate for a vote, and if it passes the Senate THEN it goes to the President to be signed into law. If there is not enough consensus and agreement in Congress for the bill to pass, or if the President vetoes the legislation, it goes back into committee and the whole process starts all over again. It takes some ideas YEARS to become law, yet Obama thinks that he can dramatically change this country in 6 months. It’s unrealistic, overly idealistic, and dangerous.
There are career politicians in Washington who have been members of Congress for decades and they have grown used to the pace of government. Along comes Obama, who expects them to strap on their running shoes and start sprinting. You try to take your grandma for a run and see if she doesn’t grumble and fuss, just like members of Congress are doing right now. I’m not saying that either one is right or wrong, just that something has to give. I’d say it would be easier for Obama to slow down and work at Congress’ pace than it would be for all of Congress to speed up to his.
The American public is not used to this degree of speed in government either. It is used to having plenty of time to ignore the issue, yet form an opinion anyway, before it actually gets voted on. Now there is the chance that yet another piece of major legislation could be passed and signed into law in a matter of weeks without the American public being aware of just how it would impact them. The polls show they are grumbling too.
The decision by Harry Reid to step in and say, “Enough”, is a very sound one. He apparently sees that even if they force a win on this battle by voting health care reform in before session ends, the Democratic Party could lose the war by sacrificing a substantial amount of political capital. They would paint themselves into a corner- all or nothing. If their plan succeeded, they would become heroes and have their names in the history books. If their plan failed, the Democrats would lose the White House and the congressional majority for years. It is too soon into their up at bat to be taking that kind of risk.
I don’t know what Obama’s motivation is for all this haste. Is he that much of an idealistic crusader that he does not see that he has to work within the existing framework to affect true change? Does he have such a strong agenda and believe so strongly in its inherent rightness that he does not care about consensus or the consequences? Is he so afraid that he will not get the chance to affect change later in his administration that he feels he must do it now, or else? Or does he feel such a strong need to be what so many who voted for him hope him to be that he will push and keep pushing, even if it s to his detriment? I don’t live inside Mr. Obama’s head to know the answer to that question.
No matter what the answer is, the fact remains that we all, Congress and the American public, need the chance to digest what has been placed on the table already (the stimulus plan and budget) before we will be ready to start sprinting again.
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