Collegiate Times

This past summer the various news organizations have been overrun with the attempted overhaul of the nation's health care system.

Be it a conservative or liberal organization, it is undeniable that this is the top story of the summer. Under a microscope that most other governments have never experienced, the United States government's every mistake and misspoken word has been exploited for political expediency.

However, this intense scrutiny provides the citizenry with the extraordinary power of questioning the government's attempted impulse buy.

Yes - the very impulse to buy that everybody indulges in every now and then, but later regrets once they try to take money out of their bank account.

This obvious attempt at an impulse buy has infuriated the people. Constituents are making themselves known at town hall meetings all across the country in an attempt to get answers out of their congressional leaders. So why is this happening? Why did President Barack Obama and top Democrats in the House and Senate try to ram this through in such a small amount of time?

H.R. II is 1,018 pages long, and Obama expected the bill to be signed by August. This is the man that ran on the campaign slogan of "change." How is this change? This follows the typical Washington politics that have gutted our nation and landed us a trillion dollars in debt, which we students will be paying off for the next 30 years.

Now on top of this debt, Congress wants to add an additional trillion and an entire health care overhaul in less than a month. Is this logical?

What the U.S. needs is baby steps. Health care reform is without a doubt necessary, but what we do not need is another trillion in debt and a bill rammed down our throats with little deliberation. The president and Congress need to sit back, take a breath, pinpoint the problems of health care and deliberate them as such.

This would be the most logical option at the moment, but it does not look like it is anywhere in sight. Washington has continued with their typical political games, even going so far as to discuss a possible "nuclear option" to once and for all jam through this bill.

With midterm elections approaching and bringing a possible political backlash, Obama may wisely attempt to take this off the table if he values the rest of his presidency.

The truly sad part of this entire situation is not that this stupidity is happening, but the fact that this is such a serious issue for American citizens. This is not a political game to regular folks and should not be treated as such.

Unfortunately, both sides of the aisle are maneuvering their pawns to either keep the power or take it over.

Hopefully, in the midst of these political wars, we the people can stay out of the crossfire.