No Time For A Breather!

Now, that we’ve passed the House Bill on Healthcare Reform, the temptation is to sit back and take it easy. But that would be just the wrong thing to do for any number of reasons.

We are not at the finish line yet; --not by a long-shot.

We still have a long way to go to make Healthcare all it can be.

There is no doubt, either, that the “Party of No” is committed to impeding the bill any way they can.

Moreover, the time to prepare and strike on other issues is long overdue.

I think Obama was reluctant to play that card because he felt that there was still hope for support from Republicans; but he now must realize that bending over backwards to accommodate Republican recalcitrance accomplishes nothing; and that no matter what he does, the Republicans will still not support an Obama initiative.

Therefore, let’s keep the momentum going.

Let’s reverse all of the Bush legislation that put America on its present chaotic course, a course that the Republicans with their traditional short memories are blaming on Democrats.

They seem to have forgotten that most of the problems arising today began during the reign of Bush.

Remember, under Clinton we had a surplus; it seems that message was lost somewhere in the mix.

We have a whole list of unfinished business, from reform of Wall Street and the “big lenders” to consideration of promulgating alternative energy programs. We need to address the challenge of global warming as well which now most scientists agree is a reality. We need to fix the economy with bold programs that will return us to our former leadership position. And we need to put an end to wasteful spending.

We are told that we are tax and spend liberals; but let us not forget the disastrous Star Wars program that Bush continued to support with falsified information that cost America an estimated 264 billion dollars; And if we are worried about democratic overspending, consider who will be responsible for over 2 trillion dollars and the blood of our youth invested in an unwarranted War based on speculation and misdirection and what many believe is naked imperialism in order to lock up natural resources for special interests!

We also need to address the questions of justice.

We need to investigate the former Attorney General’s use of Federal Prosecutors to go after Democrats.

We need to examine the efforts of his staff to justify torture. We need to investigate the NSC’s continuing efforts to snoop on innocent people without the FISA’s court’s sanction.

We need to punish those who have arbitrarily violated our Constitution and evaded the penalty of the laws to show favoritism to special interest. We have only scratched the surface here, but there can be no closure until such issues are addressed and subjected to a legal test.

And we must go on, build our relationships with our fellow man, and seek peace in a world where America once before seemed like a global bully and a 19th Century Colonial power. We must revoke NAFTA in its present form so that private interests cannot supersede America’s government. And we must reduce the power of lobbyists to continue to exercise their clout over our government leaders and remind our leaders that they don’t represent business, but the people.

There is much work to do to save America and re-imagine the American dream. And the best time to begin is now!

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon