Dr. Obama, Please Listen to your Patient

Dear Mr. President,

The American taxpayer is angry. We've been footing the bill for the nation for years now and our money has been mismanaged. We pay your salary and your staff's and that of Congress, the Supreme Court, Social Security, Medicare, the Post Office, the Pentagon, and countless other government agencies. We've funded two wars, cleaned up numerous natural disasters (due to climate change?), seen American jobs and businesses shipped overseas, and watched corrupt politicans abuse their power.

Recently we have been asked to bail out banks, mortgage companies, and the automobile industry which have failed due to greed, mismanagement, and lack of federal regulation. Then some of these companies had the gall to give million dollar bonuses to their executives while they fly around in their private jets ( as do members of Congress.) Who wouldn't be angry?

There is plenty of blame to go around for both political parties. This economic crisis has been coming for some time now. We realize you inherited this mess but we need to all work together to get out of it.

It may have been fun to mock the "tea baggers" in April, but this grass roots movement is not going away. They are ordinary American citizens who worry about the economy, unemployment, home foreclosure, fighting two wars, inflation, rising gas prices, and now health care.

What started out as small tremors (tea parties) has erupted into an earthquake (Health Care Town Hall Meetings). And the anger is real. Just ask Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) who witnessed it at her town hall gathering.

"Bitter small town Americans" as you described them during the Presidential campaign
have turned into "an angry mob" (as called by the DNC). I believe this "angry mob" is mad at both parties and most distrust government (I wonder why after the last eight years?)

Mr. President, you need to hear the American people. Remember what you said in your acceptance speech to those who did not vote for you? "I'm your President too." This is not the time to tell us to "stop talking" at town hall meetings. This forum was designed for you to stay in touch with the public.

After eight years of being ignored by the last administration, we don't want more of the same from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

Here is how I see it. You are the Doctor and we are your patient. Passing the stimulus bill, the budget, cap and trade, and now presenting health care reform is like getting a heart, liver, and kidney transplant all at one. We can't handle it!

I know health care reform was a big campaign promise from you and it is needed. But that was before the economic collapse in September 2008.

We need time to give the Recovery plan a chance to work. Allow us to heal before tackling such a complex issue as health care. There's time for that later.

This is your "teachable moment." Just ask Bill Clinton about 1994 when he lost touch with the pulse of the American electorate leading to the GOP's "Contract With America" and Republlican control of Congress.

President Clinton learned his lesson, listened to the public and got re-elected two years later.

The American pulse is still there but it is very weak. It's saying "Before you throw another expensive government progam at us, let us digest the bitter recovery pills we've had to swallow. Let's see if the medicine works, then we'll talk health care reform."

Be patient with your patient and we will do the same for you.

Comments

[muscel]

We do need health care reform, but we do need to go carefully so that we don't end up with a bureaucratic mess as in the U.K, where older people can be denied treatment as part of the rationing program to conatain costs.. We also need to be specific about where funding is coming from. Both Bush and Obama promised during their campaigns that there would be no new taxes on the middle class. And whom do we think will be funding this bill? Hopefully, Congress will do better at projecting costs for the plan than they did for the "cash-for-clunkers" program which keeps running out of funds.

From past experience, I don't trust any government promises, Dem. or Rep.. Muscel

[joeinvt]

Joan, if I believed that the tea baggers were "ordinary American citizens who worry about the economy, unemployment, home foreclosure, fighting two wars, inflation, rising gas prices, and now health care," I would feel much more sympathetic toward them. But it is hard to believe that about them for many reasons. Where were they when Bush took the country from record surpluses to record deficits, blew up the debt, started those two wars to which you refer, didn't even try to do anything about health care, etc.? No sooner do we get a Democrat in office and all of a sudden they are up in arms about the very problems THEY helped to create by their support of George Bush and his policies. It seems to me that their motives now are much like they were in the Clinton when the priority was to do everything possible to destroy Clinton's agenda. In 2000, the GOP learned during the Florida recount that an angry mob (even if really Republican staffers for the most part) can change the course of history. That's was what the current protests are really all about in my opinion.

[Joan E. Dowlin - Huffpost Blogger]

I believe a lot of the tea baggers are independents and moderates who can be persuaded one way or the other by both parties. I also know a lot of Republicans that were unhappy with Bush and his spending and the war and Katrina. Also many of the health care town hallers are seniors concerned about losing Medicare etc.

[ckelly181]

Let me guess. You have health insurance. You aren't staring at losing your home because you got sick. Or even trying to get health insurance because you had cancer, and now are un-insurable. This American wants health reform. You can sit around and wait. Some of us don't have that luxury.