Democrats' party of No

The Republicans in Congress have been called - rightfully so, in many cases - the Party of No. The goal for many seems to go no higher than just stopping the Democrats from doing anything. There is very little offering of different ideas and solutions for the various problems facing the country right now.

And then there are the Democrats and their Party of No. NO discussion, NO debate, and absolutely NO dissent.

Think about it for a minute. This past spring, Speaker Pelosi and her personal staff wrote the entire bill. There was zero Republican input. She didn't even let most of the Democrats contribute to writing the bill. Since the bill was released, there's been some negotiating among a few members of Congress but I really don't take that seriously. That kind of "negotiating" is just arm-twisting and putting unrelated things into the text to get someone to accept the overall premise of the original bill.

Members of Congress were not dispatched to their districts this month to discuss various options for changing the health care system. No, indeed. They were sent to sell the bill as it is. That's all. Have you heard any sort of give and take from anyone at all this month? Yeah, me neither.

President Obama is the same way. He's not listening to any options besides the government "universal health care" plan. He's just trying to convince enough people to support the House bill so they can pass it while minimizing the backlash they'll get in the next election.

This is one of the things that irritates me the most about this entire debate - that it's NOT a debate! The Democrats never intended it to be a debate or to work with anyone who has a different idea - any different idea. They've had their dream plan of universal government health care for decades (I can't tell you how many times I've seen in the past 3 days that Ted Kennedy has been pushing for it since the 60s), and now that they have the majority of both Congressional chambers as well as the Presidency, they consider that their ticket to the Promised Land and everyone else be damned.

Forget even having a question about the House bill - no dissent is just that. NO dissent. If I hear one more time that opposing or even questioning the House bill means that I'm bought out by the insurance companies and I'm a heartless harpie ... there is nothing more that I'd like to do than reach through the monitor to grab that idiot by the throat and slam their head on the desk repeatedly. Maybe I'm fine with the status quo, and guess what - that's not a crime. Or maybe - just maybe - I think that health care reform is needed, but just not that particular idea of the government taking over the system entirely. Whatever my thought process, it's not allowed to the Democrats. It's the House bill as is or nothing.

Party of No. It's the Democrats just as much as the Republicans.