Disappointing Indeed

Our very own Louisiana Senator David Vitter pronounced President Obama's healthcare speech to Congress " a disappointment", because "he obviously is not listening to the American people", by which I suppose he means the freedom-fighters at the tea parties, etc. I am confused by my senator : on the one hand, he professes to be a Christian stalwart in every particular; on the other, Jesus's second injunction is to "love one another". Does Senator Vitter think this means "love one another except those with preexisting conditions", or "love one another but only if they are insurance company shareholders or executives " ? Vitter and his ilk ran Congress for a decade and yet did nothing on healthcare except expand Medicare to enrich the pharmaceutical companies. There is nothing Christ-like about opposing at every turn any attempt to help the government address the needs of those left behind by insurance company profit-logic, or in protecting the interests of the rich (read, tax cuts) and powerful (insurance companies) no matter the effect on everyone else. It is the task of elected officials including Vitter to identify the problems and solutions of ALL of their constituents, not only those egged on by talk-radio to oppose, by denying the existence of the problem, the "tyranny" of a government trying for once to act, in real 21st-century terms, upon Jesus's command.