sleigh | DIsappointed...

I find I'm increasingly disappointed with Barack Obama and his administration's performance, as well as that of the Democratic majorities in Congress. For the Administration, there's been the backpedaling on the closure of Guantanamo (helped by the Senate), some of the softening of his environmental stances,, a distressing use of "signing statements" for which he had chastised President Bush, and most recently and most strongly, the handling of health care reform -- specifically, a provision to fund a public health care plan.

Sunday, two administration officials indicated that the Obama administration would be willing to take that off the table. Robert Gibbs, White House spokesman, said the president could be "satisfied" without it. On CNN, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that a public insurance plan is "not the essential element."

What it increasingly looks like is that the big corporate health care providers have won this fight. They have lobbied and cajoled, have worked with the Republicans, and have frightened the Democrats in Congress into emasculating the bills they will eventually consider. Health care 'reform' seems to be turning into a minor tweak of the system that will leave all the same problems and (most importantly for the private companies) the same profits in place. We're going to get rhetoric and band-aids, not any true reform.

And what disappoints me is that I don't hear the Obama administration calling anyone out on how Congress is folding and caving. What I see them doing is shrugging their collective shoulders. Is this the best we can do?

What I had hoped for is an administration that would take their victory and majorities in both houses of Congress and make some real changes regardless of howls of protest from the right. I wanted to see a health care reform bill that would utterly change the way health care is handled in this country. I wanted us to hold fast to the vision of country that would provide basic, essential care to each and every one of its citizens, as do many other first world countries. I wanted to see a health care system that would among be the best in the world, not one ranked #50 (as we're currently ranked in Life Expectancy, for instance). I wanted to see visionary leadership.

I'm not seeing any of that. I'm seeing cowardice. I'm seeing a congress and administration who would rather be re-elected than do what is right.

I'm sorry, Mr. Obama. I really, really was full of hope when you took office. I was looking forward to seeing genuine, substantial change. Now, hope and change are rapidly becoming "business as usual."

And that's sad.

ETA: Here's an article by David Goldhill in the Atlantic on the subject of health care that I found thought-provoking.