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If you thought politics as usual was dead on arrival in the new Obama administration you were wrong. Just take a look at what has happened to health care and global warming. Despite near universal agreement that both issues require immediate attention, the end result of months of intense political activity is the same old political horse-trading and kowtowing to special interests that makes you wonder if anyone up on Capitol Hill takes anything seriously (other than getting re-elected).
Health care reform in America has proved to be as elusive as peace in the Middle East. Everyone seems to want some kind of health care reform. Hell, even the doctors are asking Congress to please save them from themselves. So what's the problem?
First, no single idea has come to the forefront as THE solution that can be explained in simple terms to the American people. Second, nobody knows how to pay for all this. So between the politicians who owe their jobs to the special interest groups and the growing number of politicians who are genuinely concerned about the already huge debt piled up to fix the economy, the bill is stalemated. And as always, time is on the side of those who resist change.
With global warming the problem is exactly the reverse. We have a solution in search of the political will to do it. We know that the increase in average global temperature needs to be limited to 2 degrees Centigrade over the next 20-30 years. We know how to do it: reduce man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
The obvious approach would be to set mandatory emission reduction goals. We did that with fleet mileage standards for the auto industry, which bitched and moaned and only grudgingly complied. The irony is that if American automakers had wholeheartedly embraced the idea of better mileage they would never have gone broke.
Rather than absorb that lesson, Congress has caved in to the energy and agricultural interests and come up with a Rube Goldberg cap-and-trade system that is so riddled with exceptions and giveaways as to be near useless. In this case, time is not on our side, so failure to act now will have enormous consequences for our children.
I put a lot of the blame for this mess on Obama. He left too much of the decision making power in Congress. He needs to do what he did with the stimulus package: Set out a few simple but non-negotiable provisions that each bill must contain. He started out that way but then immediately caved on both bills.
Congress understands and needs firmness in a president. That's what Bill Maher was getting at when he said that Obama needs to be a little bit like Bush to get things done. It is time for President Obama to use his bully pulpit to save these two bills from being a cure that is worse than the disease.
This article first appeared in Every Man A Giant.
