Mike Murray essay -- Hurry Up and Wait

21 July 09

Hurry Up and Wait

-- by Mike Murray

Although President Barack Obama never served in the military, he has one of its characteristics – one of its most unattractive characteristics – down cold. Specifically, he has become adept at rushing things along one moment, stalling them the next. Every former dogface, every swabie, every airman recognizes the practice. We call it: “hurry up and wait.”

If you’ve served in the Armed Forces, you know what I’m talking about. Basic Training is a never-ending series of sing-song reversals. One moment, an NCO is barking at you to “get the lead out.” The next, he or she is telling you to keep your pie hole shut while you wait in some excruciatingly long line.

Isn’t that the way Obama and his Democratic consorts in Congress have been handling legislative matters lately? How many times during the past six months have they insisted that some obscenely expensive piece of legislation is “critical,” and must be adopted immediately (lest, of course, some great tragedy befall the country)?

They tell their Republican and independent “colleagues” not to fret themselves over messy details, such as how to pay for it. Don’t deliberate. Don’t bother sharing it with your constituents back home. Don’t solicit feedback from anyone at all. Heck, don’t even bother reading it. Just pass it, damnit!

So what if it costs hundreds of billions – or trillions, even – of dollars? Time’s a wastin’, folks. Lives (and livelihoods) are at stake! So don’t question anything. Just adopt a “go-along, get get-along” mindset.

Once passed, things slow down considerably. The first stimulus package (there could be a second), for example, was passed in a whirlwind. Dems in Congress bulldozed it through – just as His Oneness asked. But, having received legislative approval, urgency disappeared.

Obama jetted with his family to Chicago. Treated himself to a mini-vacation. Had a relaxing dinner out with wife Michelle. Returned a few leisurely days later to (finally) enact the “critical” measure.

Republicans had not even been accorded enough time to read the document in its entirety. But, once approved, the ultra-expensive, “crucial” measure suddenly became less pressing. It sat and gathered dust while it awaited Obama’s grand signing ceremony.

And the results? Well, they’re somewhat slow in arriving, too. The positive ones, anyway. Because, far from being revived, the economy continues its downward spiral. Making matters worse, massive waste and fraud is suspected; many billions of appropriated greenbacks are disturbingly unaccounted for. Still, Barack Obama insists that his stimulus plan is working.

And now he’s back in hurry-up mode, this time over “health-care reform.” (Running into stiff opposition, he’s lately taken to calling it “insurance reform.” Shucks, who doesn’t have an insurance horror story or two to tell? And who doesn’t, as a consequence, think the industry in need of a right-good spanking?)

But the public, and even a few media toadies, are more skeptical these days. We’ve been suckered once. We bought a used car from the Telepromper-in-Chief, one that turned out to be a lemon. A really expensive lemon.

You know what they say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” And so, many Americans are not about to do it again – take Obama and his Congressional cohorts completely at their word.

We believe that anything that is as expensive as the change the Democrats are proposing – and that so profoundly alters medical care for decades to come – deserves careful consideration. This time around, it is We the People who should control the tempo. In order to get things right, it is we who should now keep them waiting.

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