begin quote:
WASHINGTON – Coming soon to daytime television: America's long-running civic drama over how to provide better health care to more of its people without breaking the bank.
President Barack Obama summons anxious Democrats and aloof Republicans to a White House summit Thursday — live on C-SPAN and perhaps cable — and gambles that he can save his embattled health care overhaul by the power of persuasion. Adversaries and allies alike were surprised by Obama's invitation to reason together at an open forum, as risky as it is unusual.
Ahead of the meeting, the White House will post on its Web site a health care plan that brings together major elements of the bills passed by House and Senate Democrats last year. Policy is important, but not as critical as the political skill Obama can apply to an impasse that seems close to hopeless in a pivotal congressional election year.
"It's a high-stakes situation for him more than anybody else," said Gerald Shea, the top health care adviser for the AFL-CIO. "If the judgment is either that it's a political farce, or if it fails to move the ball forward significantly ... that would be very damaging to the issue and to him."
A viewers' guide to the White House meeting, looking at Obama and his plan, Republicans in Congress and divided Democrats.
Obama:
He has two main goals. One is to show the American people that the Democrats' health care plan is reasonable, and much of its complexity reflects the sprawling nature of the insurance system. The other is to argue that lockstep Republican opposition is not reasonable and could spoil a historic opportunity on a problem that concerns all Americans.
"I don't want to see this meeting turn into political theater, with each side simply reciting talking points and trying to score political points," the president said Saturday in his radio and Internet address. "What's being tested here is not just our ability to solve this one problem, but our ability to solve any problem." end quote.
The title words stuck in my head as I read them. Yes. This is the issue. Is our government now so dysfunctional to the needs of the people that it cannot solve "ANY" problem at all? And is it that way because corporations, lawyers, and countries that want to harm the U.S. have made it this way?
These are important questions to ask.
I believe presently that it doesn't matter who is elected because it won't work whoever is in charge in Congress. So, the question Obama is asking applies to all political views in America.
Here is my question for you, "If our government is dysfunctional doesn't that mean we don't have an effective government? And if this is true there is at present no, 'of the people, by the people and for the people' until we have an effective government again.
So, until we have an effective government that is neither democratic or republican but American we have at present no effective government in place protecting the rights of the people.
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