Seventy-five years ago, on August 8, 1935, the United States Congress passed the first sweeping legislation creating a welfare safety net for the American people, the Social Security Act 1935. Its champion was President Franklin D. Roosevelt….
Support in Congress was both overwhelming and bi-partisan.
Thirty years later, in July 1965, Congress passed the second major piece of the national safety net, the Medicaid and Medicare act.
It, too, passed by an overwhelming majority with bi-partisan support. That bill was championed by another Democratic President, Lyndon B. Johnson….
Now comes the third major piece in the safety net when tomorrow (local time), President Barack Obama signs the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010, introducing almost universal health care.
The bill passed yesterday in the House by a slender and contentious majority, 219 vote to 212.
Not a single Republican voted ‘yes’.
Great report by an outside (Aussie) observer, Paul Sheehan. He aptly notes Obama’s glaring hypocrisy by contrasting Obama’s acceptance speech when he was elected, appealing for an end to bitter partisan politics, and his actual behavior since the president has actually escalated the ugly partisanship enormously. Sheehan also deftly cites the WSJ and other reputable sources that rightly scoff at the credibility of the Congressional Budget Office report that tries to pretend that this massive new social welfare scheme is affordable.
But I especially loved the long quote toward the end from eloquent conservative columnist George Will, who nailed it. After noting the immensity of the fiscal challenge already before us with 10,000 Boomers retiring now every day, Will caustically adds,
“[i]And Congress moved closer to piling a huge new middle-class entitlement onto the rickety sturcture of America’s PONZI welfare state.[/i]” Yeah, a Ponzi, Enronesque plan indeed.
Maybe someone thousands of miles away can see things more clearly than many Americans seem to be able to do.
David Handy+
It’s because the moderate Republican wing of the Republican party have all become Democrats.