Last week some fifteen Senate Democrats marched to the White House for an impromptu two-hour meeting with President Obama. They were not there to chat about BCS football standings. These Senators are up for reelection in the 2014 election cycle and came to voice their concerns about the unveiling of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), “Obamacare.”
Several of these Senators reside in Red states and are concerned about their political careers. The sad thing is, the impetus for their trek to the White House was concern about their election, not the people they are supposed to serve.
One of the Democrat Senators, Alaska’s Mark Begich, released a statement after the visit and referred to a “crisis in competence.”
I believe there is something far deeper occurring in our nation’s capital, a crisis in governance. Furthermore, I propose this crisis is rooted in a severe degradation of moral courage in American elected officials — I just cannot force myself to refer to most of them as “leaders.” Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tulius Cicero, who warned of the arrogance of officialdom, stated, “The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.” One can make the case that this is exactly where we are when gazing upon the actions and lack of character emanating from Washington.
For me, there are two points of most grave concern with the rollout of the ACA: the lies spoken and the attempt to wish away the lies spoken.
We have arrived to a point where the person holding the highest office in the land can purposefully lie to the American people over a three year period. For the President of the United States to receive a four Pinocchio rating from a major newspaper, the Washington Post, reveals a disturbing phenomenon. Now of course detractors will say that “Bush lied” in relation to Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, except there were a whole bunch of Democrats and international leaders who believed and said the same.
This is a unique situation, a President deceiving the electorate in order to advance a policy agenda. President Nixon’s case revolved around a simple matter of “breaking and entering.” President Clinton’s lascivious indiscretion in the oval office was the nexus of his untruths. However, to have the Chief Executive of America lie not just once, but at least 24 times regarding Americans maintaining their most personal decision, their healthcare plans, is unconscionable.
What is more perplexing is President Obama’s explanation of what he “meant” to say but we were too incompetent to hear, by using the “if” word. With today’s modern media, all Americans know exactly what Mr. Obama stated. Mr. Obama’s first violation of moral courage is the lie, the second is the lie for the lie, and the last is that he fails to take responsibility, or accountability, to fervently admit he was wrong.
