Senate election not repudiation of Obama

The media and political pundits have been all ablather since the Senate election in Massachusetts, saying it was a game-changer and repudiation of the Obama administration's policies, especially for health care reform.

That's debatable; don't forget that Massachusetts already has nearly universal health care: 98 percent of its citizens are covered, so one has to wonder how much those voters really care if the rest of the country gets health care reform.

But if it is a repudiation, it's not so much from people who've bought into all the right-wing lies, propaganda and scare tactics about reform being a government takeover of our health care system, leading to grandma being denied care. It's a repudiation of the status quo.

Corporations and lobbyists have owned Capitol Hill for quite some time now and with the Supreme Court decision weakening campaign finance laws, Congress will be even more at the mercy of their corporate funders from Wall Street and the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

That means that when President Obama tries to deliver on the change he promised, he runs into a nearly immovable wall of special interests who will fight to the death to keep their sweet deal.

Meanwhile, the majority of us Americans are left to fend for ourselves, trying to find or keep our jobs while also trying to afford the continually skyrocketing costs of health care, not to mention keep our homes, put our kids through school and just live a decent life.

When will it all end? Not until we drastically change how elections are conducted and financed. But while that's a long way off, we still have a very important opportunity right now - to get some form of relief from inadequate health care coverage and high costs.

Debbie Phillips-Donaldson

West Dundee