The Florida court’s ruling against Obamacare could be America’s new “Sputnik Moment.” First a federal judge in Virginia courts ruled in December that the individual mandate was unconstitutional. But when a Florida judge ruled that the entire healthcare law was unconstitutional, the confirmation came for millions of Americans and thousands of small businesses who employ them that they were justified in believing it had all gone too far.
[See a slide show of 10 ways the GOP can take down Obamacare.]
Politicians usually don’t know when they overreach until it happens. The Obama administration is still trying to define the law, writing the thousands of regulations that will soon be imposed on our nation. Americans voted for a Republican majority in November as a message that this madness should stop. Spending money that America doesn’t have, placing more burdens on employers who create jobs and requiring individuals to have insurance is not what the voters thought would happen after the 2008 election. Corporations, businesses, and associations are receiving special waivers so they won’t have to suffer the economic consequences from healthcare mandates. Even the AARP received special exemptions for the work it did to promote passage of the healthcare plan through Congress.
[Check out a roundup of political cartoons on healthcare.]
After Democrats lost the majority and President Obama shook up his staff, we thought he understood what America wanted from its elected officials. But we only had to wait a couple of months to see that the president hasn’t received the message. Before Obama delivered his State of the Union, I was providing commentary on C-SPAN’s pre-show, describing the pomp and circumstance around the affair. This was the Oscars of Washington. And at such a critical time in our nation’s history, he was expected to live up to delivering substantial positive changes.
[Read the U.S. News debate: Should the healthcare law be repealed?]
Like many political strategists, I pontificated that the president would politically move to the center on cutting spending and regulations, and emphasizing job creation. Instead, we heard more of the same tired spending rhetoric masked in creative language like spending on “investments.” He masked more energy regulations and a cap-and-trade scheme by talking of “clean energy.” Obama spoke of America being a place of innovation and that this was our Sputnik moment.
[See editorial cartoons about Obama.]
But our Sputnik moment isn’t something that America must create once again. Maybe it’s a moment when we stop the direction that we are dangerously headed towards. It could be an awakening by the other side that Obamacare must not only be changed, but be entirely eliminated. It could be the opportunity to tear up the government credit cards that House Speaker John Boehner says must be done. Many of us were disappointed that the State of the Union Address wasn’t the first step towards this, but now the Florida ruling against Obamacare could be the game changer.
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Kevin of MO 12:33AM April 26, 2011
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