At last Mr. Obama realizes that there is no crossing the aisle on health care reform. It is clear the administration will be forced to craft a bill unilaterally and force it through Congress. This will please few people but at least it will be viewed as some progress and provide the Democrats with some political cover this fall.
The debate on this issue highlights a concern I often have; we are probably too democratic for our own good. Minority rights, granted by the Constitution, are what has always set us apart, the tyranny of the majority has never been accepted in this land. (OK, I know we locked up the Japanese during WWII and so on, but for the most part, we have zealously protected the rights of small groups) In the global world, I am beginning to think we need to adjust our vision as to what constitutes an adequate level of control over majorities. We now have the tyranny of the minority in place.
Health care costs are going to make life difficult for our business community in the global marketplace. I give the President credit for his professorial long-term view; he sorely misjudged our willingness to sacrifice for the future of this country. We want it now. And we want someone else(?) to pay for it.
The thinly veiled public relations exercise going on in Washington today over health care reform reminds of a story about Benjamin Franklin. As you may recall, Mr. Franklin, always a master of self-promotion, invented a machine powered by heat that made enough noise to convince passersby that he was working on projects well past midnight. In his autobiography, he boasted that this device greatly improved his reputation amongst bankers and other community shakers.
I think the President needs to eschew these Franklin-meetings and seize the bully pulpit. He should look to Mr. Truman for inspiration; that President was faced with a similar nihilistic Republican Congress. He labeled them the “Do Nothing” Congress and rode that slogan to victory in 1948.
I realize people are sick of name-calling, but it is time to clearly define the teams and their goals. Health care reform is complicated and probably will not pay dividends for years. But we have to start somewhere. Consider this fact; when India’s Tata first rolls their cheap sub-compact down the assembly line, the costs to build that car starts at zero. Ford’s Focus, on the other, starts down the line with about $7,000 of expense to pay for past retirees, a large portion of which is for health benefits. Something has to be done to lavel this playing field.
I have finally made peace with my new reality. And it is probably yours as well. All of us are facing a new era of working longer, harder and for less money. If you are looking for someone to blame you are missing the point. What we are seeing is a return to normal global economic patterns. The play is the same, only the characters are playing different roles.
Thomas Freidman last week referred to us as the “grasshopper generation”. Americans are used to feasting on the bounty left by the Greatest Generation. We have collectively failed to work or save enough. The home equity line became our dope; the banks the corner drug dealer.
The great post-war era of prosperity is over. We shot ourselves in the foot when we discovered Italian shoes and Volkswagens. It has been downhill ever since. Only we could not see it coming. Regaining that time is not going to happen. Auto workers cannot expect to retire at 50 with a boat and cabin on the lake. Public sector workers are not going to be quitting early either, our governments are equally bereft of largesse.
The Tea Party people are perhaps the most misguided of all. This crisis is not about feckless bankers, government debt or big-spending politicians. This problem is more about the rise of other countries; whose npeople not used to feeding on the wealth left by their predecessors. They are by nature more hungry and more willing to work harder. What we first need to realize is that the Cleavers have left the room. The sooner we do that the sooner we will regain our footing.
