Sunday, November 08, 2009
'Answer the call of history'
Hub Blog is of two minds about the health-care bill passed last night: 1.). I like the move toward universal health 2.) This is a deeply flawed bill. Seriously, how many House members do you think read the entire 1,990-page bill before last night’s vote? I’m guessing about five. …
A few weeks ago, Peggy Noonan wrote that the president now ‘owns’ the nation’s problems. She was premature. Now he owns them. The banking system still isn’t fixed. The economy isn’t performing even close to the benchmarks set by the president when he pushed for the stimulus package. The jobless rate has topped 10 percent. The government is still propping up GM and Chrysler. The dollar is crashing. The nation’s debt is soaring to truly scary levels. The nation is involved in two wars. But the president last night exhorted House members to make history by passing a health-care bill -– and they responded. He made passage of health-care reform his top priority in recent months (“the call of history”) -- and so now he must take responsibility for it and all the other problems he set aside to ensure its passage in at least one chamber. He's the one who set the nation’s agenda. He now owns it. All of it.
Update -- Charles M. Blow agrees with the 'own it' assertion: "Job creation has dropped from top priority to one of many. ... This is now Obama’s crisis." ...
He who makes the agenda owns the agenda. The president is no longer working off of an inherited agenda. He remade the agenda. He now owns it.
Hub Blog is of two minds about the health-care bill passed last night: 1.). I like the move toward universal health 2.) This is a deeply flawed bill. Seriously, how many House members do you think read the entire 1,990-page bill before last night’s vote? I’m guessing about five. …
A few weeks ago, Peggy Noonan wrote that the president now ‘owns’ the nation’s problems. She was premature. Now he owns them. The banking system still isn’t fixed. The economy isn’t performing even close to the benchmarks set by the president when he pushed for the stimulus package. The jobless rate has topped 10 percent. The government is still propping up GM and Chrysler. The dollar is crashing. The nation’s debt is soaring to truly scary levels. The nation is involved in two wars. But the president last night exhorted House members to make history by passing a health-care bill -– and they responded. He made passage of health-care reform his top priority in recent months (“the call of history”) -- and so now he must take responsibility for it and all the other problems he set aside to ensure its passage in at least one chamber. He's the one who set the nation’s agenda. He now owns it. All of it.
Update -- Charles M. Blow agrees with the 'own it' assertion: "Job creation has dropped from top priority to one of many. ... This is now Obama’s crisis." ...
He who makes the agenda owns the agenda. The president is no longer working off of an inherited agenda. He remade the agenda. He now owns it.
