NEOAVATARA

Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief…August is ending.

In the last month, we have clearly seen the public become more educated, more informed, and systematically more against the type of health care reform Democrats want.  Democrats can deny it, but that is a fact.

However, the other thing we have learned is something that may take longer for politicians to realize:  that the current Democrat plan is fatally flawed.

And so what we have now is a relatively well educated public.  Sure, there are ignorant claims floating around, and there always will be.  But in general, the public has taken a good look at this plan, and they have decided they don’t like it.  Rasmussen Reports now shows support for the Congressional health care bill falling to 43%/53% against…an all-time low.  It has gotten so bad that Democrats are taking solice in the fact that the poll numbers are not worsening.  They have given up on improving the poll numbers, obviously.  And by almost a 20 point margin, people favor private insurance over any government option.  That clearly shows that as of right now, Obama has lost the argument.

But we do need health care reform.  Anyone who says otherwise is simply not being realistic.  There is a simple problem in this country:  we don’t cover enough people, and pay too much for the people we do cover.  That problem is only going to exacerbate as time goes on, and something needs to be done.  I know some conservatives want no change:  I say change that gives more control to the individual is always a good thing.  And that should be our aim.

The problem always with the Obama plan was too much centralized power.  Americans simply don’t want any day-to-day decisions made in the halls of Washington.  Whether it be what they eat, what car they drive, or what doctor they see, they don’t want the fingerprints of politicians anywhere near the discussion.  We aren’t Europeans…we like our individual freedoms.

There is a second problem with Obamacare.  Democrats frankly have not been trustworthy when it comes to the specifics of the plan.  Only the incompetence of Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership could have failed in an environment in which no Republican, not one, could stand up against Barack Obama.  The problem is, the more Democrats talk about health care, the more incompetent they sound.  They frankly don’t even know what is in their own proposed bills.  And even worse, Obama as the lead spokesman now admits that he has not read the Congressional bills, even though he has endorsed the House bill 3200.

Let us look at a few of the ways that Democrats have told one story, only to be caught in their own truth gap:

• According the the CBO, none of the bills are close to being budget neutral.
• According to the CBO and GAO, the promise that people would be able to keep their insurance is not true, and millions would lose their current insurance under the plan.
• According to the CBO, not one of the bills cuts spending overall.
• All of the bills would cut Medicare funding.

These are not Republican claims; they come from nonpartisan organizations controlled by Democrats.  It is impossible to call these people partisan hacks.

And so, the more Obama and the Democrats talk, the less the public believes them.  And it is showing in the polls.   Barack Obama now has an approval hovering at 50%.  That is among the lowest of any American President in the last half century.  (Rasmussen on Monday August 31st showed him at 46%, which would be a historical low.)

There is a simple reason for this:  Obama has not led.  He has frankly been one of the weakest Presidents in my lifetime.  Part of this was planned…he was rebelling against the liberal claim of the ‘imperial Presidency of George W. Bush’.  Instead, they have replaced it practically with a weak, rudderless equivalence of a parliamentary system, where Nancy Pelosi, and not Barack Obama, is in charge. There are times Presidents must lead, and now is one of those times.

Obama made a second, simple but stupendously foolish mistake; instead of pushing reform of health care, he proposed the national takeover of health care, something the public simply does not want.  There are reforms that would help reduce costs, could provide more access, and would limit government intrusion.  Obama could be a true leader, and move away from the left wing of his party and achieve something quite worthy.  Bob Dole, in an Editorial on Monday August 31st, stated the same thing, making an eloquent argument to start over on health care.

There is a chance.  Chuck Grassley claims that the gang of 6 has agreed to remove the public option.  If true, it could give Obama an ‘out’ on the public option, and he could blame the Senate…

However, he will not do that.  Mr. Obama has shown no backbone whatsoever when it comes to facing his own base.  And that, in the end, is his Achilles heel.  That is the reason why Independents, and even a few moderate Democrats, are abandoning him.  They don’t want extremism, either from the right or the left. So far, the extreme left has led the agenda.  Until the President is willing to tell them ‘No”, he will continue to fall in the polls.

That does not mean the fight is over.  No, Democrats who now realize they are failing miserably will try to use the failure, along with Sen. Ted Kennedy’s passing, as a jumping board to use any method (read:  reconciliation) to get health care passed.  Reconciliation, however, would be a disaster.  There would be two possible outcomes.  One, they could succeed in using reconciliation, permanently poison any good will left in Washington, and would like alienate most Americans, 75% of whom are now opposed to reconciliation.  Or, a second possibility would be they try reconciliation, fail, and still alienate much of the public.  Neither is a good option.

But for troops on our side, keep the pressure up.  Round 1 is over.  And we won.  But that was only a small battle in the overall war.  Obama presented his plan, and the public said ‘no’.  Now, the question is, will Democrats ignore the majority in this country, and just do as they wish, damn the consequences?  I frankly don’t know the answer to that question…it should be interesting to watch.

However, now is certainly not the time to sit back and watch.  As our Representatives head back to Washington, they have the tendency to forget about people back home.  It is our job to remind them that they represent us, and not the lobby groups in D.C..  Real reform, focusing on portability, affordability, tort reform, and more (not less!) individual freedom should be our goal.  Change in that direction is good…change for the sake of liberal ideology is not.  Health reform, true reform, and not government takeover of health care should be every conservatives goal.  And if Mr. Obama is willing to smarten up and join us, fine.  But if not, so be it.  The fight goes on.