WBOB Original Reads

I'm for the concepts of healthcare reform, if not universal access to healthcare, in principal. While I see the slippery slope, and often argue vehemently against it, I also reason that it's impossible to pursue life, liberty and happiness if your 6 year old has leukemia and you can't afford the necessary care.

When the bold candidate Obama was elected on a platform of hope and change, I assumed he'd at least try to bring true reform to whatever venture upon which he looked to burn his political capital. When it became clear that venture was to be healthcare I expected him to seek consensus; ignoring ugly politics, discarding entrenched campaign financiers and actually fixing a very deep problem with some bold solutions and solid leadership. These were his promises after all.
What we got instead was business as usual: A massive expansion of government bloat costing us trillions of dollars and rolling back cherished freedoms while actually improving nothing. Our great Orator in Chief turned out to be a terrible listener. When the voters of Massachusetts, of all places, elected a Republican to fill the seat of Democratic stalwart Ted Kennedy in a de facto referendum of these reforms, their voices were ignored. Some of the most die hard liberals in the country rejected the well laid plans of their anointed one and still they marched on.
Under margins slimmer than expected, this terribly flawed legislation was rushed, unread, through Congress. No meaningful debate was aired, the pleas of the people were discarded. The Federal government got bigger, the insurance companies got richer and the common citizen paid the price. What was, by now, supposed to be the dawn of a better day has instead seen this country slip deeper into darkness.