Lieberman, Moderates Hear America; Will Obama and Liberals Also Listen?

Monday, December 14, 2009

It took a while, including multiple tea party protests around the country and heated town hall debates on health care. However, it looks as though the middle in Washington finally gets what the American people have been saying throughout 2009:

Listen to me - we don't want this level of spending and this is not the change that we voted for.

American lawmakers voted on party lines and ignored the will of the people in early 2009 regarding the high levels of spending in Washington, particularly for institutions that now are willing to pay back taxpayer loans without giving anything back to taxpayers in regards to jobs, unfrozen credit, or economic stimulus - the very reasons the loans were given in the first place. American citizens were left on the sideline to watch moderate Democratic senators be forced into voting for cloture on Senator Reid's health care bill some weeks ago, seeing that democracy in today's America has a heavy hand and a bully's heart.

Through it all, the American people protested, blogged, talked, and pursued some champions in Washington, all in the interest of getting a better handle on things within the country.

Finally, with Senator Joe Lieberman's stance to join Republicans in protesting the Senate's version of health care reform along with some moderate Democrats, many Americans are now able to breathe a small sigh of relief.

Finally, someone decided to listen to me. After all, I am their boss.

How far this will go depends on the American people from here. The misnomer that the Republicans do not have a viable set of options for successful and beneficial health care reform is as inaccurate as Senator Reid's slavery comparison to this health care legislative debacle from last week. Lieberman's thoughts - along with others including Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) - echo the sentiments voiced by everyday Americans since the beginning of 2009: Congress must stop instituting legislation that adds to taxpayers' burden and increasing the deficit, particularly at a time when America is holding a historic deficit while facing discouraging unemployment, urban crisis, and 2 war efforts. Health care reform is necessary, but spending our way to it is not, much in the same way that getting out of this recession is vital but President Obama's opinion that we must "spend our way out of this recession" is misguided historically.

True reform within America never comes from its republican government. It only comes from those represented within that republican government. Thus, the call for true, successful, and non-toxic health care reform in a systemic fashion will come only from a successful message being carried throughout our system of government, starting with the foundation.

You.

Namely, you going to representatives, senators, and government operatives that you support in Washington, letting them know.

Listen to me. It's my money. It's my government. It's my nation. And I know what I'm talking about, particularly when it comes to what I want.

And if they won't listen to you, you have to propose:

Listen to me, or leave in November.

Lieberman, McCaskill, and some others are saying it. Health care reform is not an excuse for more irresponsible spending, something that recently started under President G.W. Bush and Congress but the Obama Era has taken it to a whole new level. It's time that we listen to folks like Lieberman when it comes to the proposed health care spending in Washington. It's time for us to remind our government represenatives and elected officials through blogs, office visits, radio comments, and the like that excessive spending does not equal effectiveness or success.

And it's time that they hear you when you say: listen to me.