more free advice for Obama's speech-writers

It might be fun to tweak the 'loyal opposition'.

As all of you know, I prefer to find bipartisan solutions to the serious problems our country faces. Some members of my own party have accused me of pursuing bipartisanship at the expense of good policy. I don't believe that, but I recognize that bipartisanship is a means, not and end - and that achieving the goal successfully is what really matters.

To achieve bipartisan solutions, both sides at the table must negotiate in good faith, with the goal of achieving meaningful legislation that will "promote the general Welfare" of "We the People".

When I hear senior members of the loyal opposition describe a provision in the House version of America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, a provision that provides coverage for end-of-life counseling, a provision inserted into the bill by a Republican Congressman, a provision identical in scope and spirit to one in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 for which these same Republicans happily voted...
When I hear senior members of the loyal opposition assert that this provision establishes "death panels" and that I want to kill Grandma...
Well... when I hear this, then I start to wonder to what extent the loyal opposition is negotiating in good faith.

When I hear that Republican members of the so-called Gang of Six - members of the Senate Finance Committee tasked with working out a meaningful Senate compromise on the current bill...
When I hear that Republican members of the Gang of Six are issuing fund-raising letters to kill "Obama-care", and stating flatly that they will never vote for anything but a bill so watered-down it does nothing to "promote the general Welfare" of "We the People"...
When I hear these things, I begin to question the possibility of a bipartisan solution when the folks on the other side of the table just want to keep playing the same old partisan politics with America's future.

This is not "Obama-care" - this isn't about me.
This is about providing timely, affordable access to high-quality health care for all American citizens. If that doesn't count as promoting the general welfare of We the People, what does?

You know, I suspect that if the Democrats in Congress somehow managed to figure out how to provide universal healthcare coverage to all Americans, based solely on private insurers, at one-tenth the cost to consumers, but tripling the profits of insurance companies...
I suspect that because it was a Democratic proposal, the loyal opposition would be against it, too!

In this fight I look back to the example of one of my predecessors in this office: Lyndon Baines Johnson.
I'm pretty sure if LBJ had insisted on a bipartisan compromise on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965... well, there's a good chance I wouldn't be your President today.
Lyndon knew how to win a fight.
I intend to learn from his example.

Of course, I'm not one of Obama's speech-writers, and I doubt they read this blog!