The Monday morning news seemed promising: USA Today’s headline read “Obama may drop public option in health care.” This news was derived from the comment by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on CNN Sunday Morning that a government-run health insurance option “is not an essential part” of health care reform.
Less than twenty-four hours later, the White House was already back-stepping. An anonymous administration source said last night that Sebelius “misspoke” with her comments on the president’s health care plan. Sound “fishy”?
According to Linda Douglass, director of health reform communications for the administration, “Nothing has changed. The President has always said that what is essential is that health insurance reform lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and increase choice and competition in the health insurance market. He believes that the public option is the best way to achieve these goals.”
Whether Sebelius “misspoke” or not is really irrelevant. As the Heritage Foundation points out, the public option is only one of the highly objectionable points in the health control bill. President Obama was right when he said, “The public option, whether we have it or we don’t have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it. One aspect of it.”
For the first time in what has been the most fiscally wasteful seven months in American history, the president is feeling some real opposition to his policies and principles. Americans are fed up with the out-of-control spending in Washington. From the failed stimulus spending to the irresponsible bailouts and the ludicrous Cash for Clunkers program, this administration has shown that they simply cannot be trusted with something as crucial as health care.
This is not a time to sit back and relish this imaginary victory. Instead we must increase our level of commitment. The left is doing everything they can to discount our efforts with insults and name-calling. They want to believe that they can silence us through intimidation and lies, but that is being proven untrue.
Next Saturday we will be focusing our efforts at Senator Claire McCaskill’s Florissant office at 5850 A Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63112. It does not seem that the senator understands yet that the majority of her constituents are opposed to the current bill. The Franklin County Patriots will be there to show the senator what we stand for: Less Government, More Freedom.
