(June 8, 2009 - Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America)
Congress returns from its summer recess officially today, and it is time for the Republicans who represent us there to finally go on the offensive. They must channel thier “Inner Newt” and call upon the framework laid out with the Republican Revolution. The months leading up to the recess saw most Republicans on Capitol Hill bunker down and chip away at DNC and administration positions when they were expedient or convenient; but those days won’t cut it any longer. Healthcare, cap-and-trade, czar proliferation, and the inevitable myriad of progressive legislation that has been “thinktanked” over the recess by the whole gambit of interest groups and public action committees are far too detrimental to this nation for GOP representatives to stay in a defensive posture. They cannot simply pass the time and hope for public sentiment and opinion polls to serve as the only deterrent to socialism actualized.
Republicans must seize this moment and offer legislation of their own – and take it to the American people rather than just passing dead-end bills amongst themselves. Conservative radio and television personalities have been interviewing each other lately rather than the leaders of the Republican Party because quite simply – there are none. If the mainstream media won’t give them a forum then they must take it to the conservative airwaves and let the message echo amongst their listeners.
I have no doubt that today’s speech to our nation’s youth will produce an outspoken “party leader” who will attempt to give a reply as if it was a state of the union address; and I have no doubt that he/she will speak in terms of what the speech could have been or might have been and no one will care. The GOP cant continue to get bogged down in these little victories. The real opportunity that will present itself will be on Wednesday night as Americans tune in to see the President’s address to Congress. As soon as it is complete, Republicans should swarm the airwaves with ”Republican” proposals. There will be a standard GOP response which will undoubtedly miss the mark – aka Governor Jindal; but it has to be a bigger move than that. They don’t have to wait and see what Obama has to propose – they know what he is going to push for.
Contrary to public sentiment, President Obama has played this healthcare game with a great deal more savvy than did his DNC predecessor Clinton. He has allowed Congress to spend its political capital and take the brunt of the public backlash. He has stayed above the fray and only now endeavors to enter the fold to offer a “reasonable” solution – and that is what his proposal will appear to be if Republicans aren’t there with options of their own.
The vast majority of Americans on both sides of the aisle believe that healthcare reform of some kind is needed. Lifetime and yearly caps, pre-existing condition limitations, rising premiums, and tort reform are issues worth discussing and it should be Republicans leading the conversation – not the President sweeping in to the rescue. As long as the progressives control the debate it will never stray far from expansive and restrictive regulations and federal abrogations of the entire medical services industry. There will be no compromise. There will only be “triggers” and slippery slopes to eventual universal healthcare or at least to a federally mandated public option.
This is truly a transformational week for the Republican Party of 2009. It can be a week of triumph and positive leadership or it can end up as simply the beginning of the next cycle of retrating and caving to the wishes of the Democratic Majority and the administration. To guide their steps, Republicans have a playbook to follow that is just over a decade old. The tort reform proposed in the Contract with America is a reasonable and viable first step to actual healthcare reform in this country. It would help to stave off the rising cost of medical insurance and lead to a system that allows doctors to practice medicine rather than preventative treatment and lawsuit avoidance. It will never be included in any liberal legislation because the trial lawyers and those who support them will be drafting the legislation. Republicans are the only chance Americans have at real healthcare reform and this is their week. Will they have the voice to lead the effort? We shall see.
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