And what is the triangulation that is possible on health care? The fundamental building block of the Obama program is the individual mandate to buy insurance. Without that requirement, all that is left is a consumer protection bill that limits insurance company practices. How can the mandate be scaled back but still preserved? Would it suffice to lower the fines the uninsured must pay? Or to reduce the requirements of how much insurance they have to carry? Neither of these proposals would satisfy the American people. Either the mandate is in place or it is not. There is no middle ground.
On cap and trade, the other major pillar of Obama's secular temple, either we tax carbon or we don't. The left will deride and the international environmental community reject any program without coercion or tax increases (even though the evidence suggests that voluntary measures are bringing down our carbon emissions nicely). Once again, faced with a choice between a tax and no tax, there is no middle ground.
The conservatives have America in their corner on all of these issues. We can easily see how far Obama has moved off the center of gravity of the American people by measuring his losses in the House of Representatives. If conservatives stick to their principles and pass their programs in the House, they will set forth an agenda that the nation can follow. If they compromise to suit Obama's big government objectives, they will muddy the waters, antagonize their energetic base and provide no clear alternative to his socialism. It is time for bold and clear contrasts. It's not 1994.
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Dick Morris, a former political adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton, is the author of
2010: Take Back America. To get all of Dick Morris’s and Eileen McGann’s columns for free by email, go to
www.dickmorris.com