The President on Politics and Principles: Accusing himself?
In a recent interview on CBS's "60 minutes" Obama made the claim that Republicans are opposing his health care reform proposals for political gain. While I would never deny that it would be politically unwise for many Republicans to support these proposals, is that REALLY why opposition is mounting everyday? Or could it be that Obama's proposals fly in the face of the principles that Republicans were elected to uphold: personal responsibility, fiscal responsibility and limited government, to name a few. From Obama's perspective, to claim that a decision like this is being made for political reasons is to claim that Republicans are choosing to make a decision that is "bad for the nation" for the sole purpose of being re-elected to office. Given the purported principles of the Republican party, such an accusation flies in the face of reason. It would be like claiming a Democrat environmental regulation proposal was made for political purposes only. I'd like to think that I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that they would make such a proposal because they actually believe it would be good for the environment (well, at least in some cases ;-).
Obama's claim that Republicans oppose more governmental intrusion into the health care industry, with a plan that we don't have the money to pay for when we are already trillions in the hole is absurd. He is either (1) showing a total lack of understanding of the Republican party platform and the conservative American public, (2) lying and making such a claim for political reasons himself, or (3) he's right, the Republicans think that a super-expensive government take-over of health care that we can't pay for would be a great idea, they are just so political that they are opposing such an amazing idea because the mass of uneducated, religeous, gun-toting, right-wingers that elect them want them to--not because such a proposal flies in the face of every principle they promised to uphold.
Posted by Caleb D
Caleb -
ReplyDeleteI've been following your blog and I was just wondering - do you see anything positive in the president?
Do you have any respect for the man? As a young teenager who doesn't vote and doesn't really understand politcs, I do understand absolute negativity. It is hard to listen to someone who only says negative things all the time - it lessens the impact of what they say.
~ Emily S.
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize Kirsten had put this comment blocker thing on here, so I just got your comment. Sorry for the late response. I'll shoot you a message on facebook or something if you're still interested in discussing this topic :-).
-Caleb