I found it fascinating that this week President Obama presented to Congress his personal jobs bill, The American Jobs Act and encouraged them to act on it fast and pass it in full.
Why did I find it so fascinating? Because it stands in stark contrast to how the President acted during the push for Healthcare reform when
he presented no bill to Congress even though as a candidate he had a fully formulated plan for the basics of reform which included:
Drug negotiation for Medicare
Drug re-importation
A Public Option "like Medicare"
And that whole time, as reform was being mangled and deformed and turned into the Preserving Private Delivery of Healthcare Bill (as Rahm phrased it), many people asked where was the President's leadership? Why was he not taking the wheel and guiding the debate and legislation for this, one of his signature issues during the Presidential campaign?
And how many countless times were those questioners admonished that:
the President's hands were tied,
the Congress writes and passes legislation, you dolt,
the process has to take place,
that would be usurping the role of Congress,
blah, blah, blah blah.
Yet, recent events like the debt ceiling debates, where the President pretty much excluded the entire Party and its leaders like Pelosi and Reid, and the President's upcoming proposals for the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cuts, as well as the Jobs bill, prove that the President can be assertive and independent and reins grabbing when he chooses to be .
So, I am left to assume that he did not present a healthcare reform bill containing the items I mentioned above because he chose not to. And of course, we all know what actually happened to those supposed centerpieces of reform.
Actions, not words, tell the story. As do inactions.