PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

A friend of mine called me to task recently for, in one of my blogs, using a reference to “ObamaCare” to describe health care reform enacted during the former president’s tenure.

This friend thought – probably properly – that “ObamaCare” was a pejorative reference.

With a nod to my friend, from here on I will use what I consider to be a neutral term – “Federal Health Care Reform.”

I decline to use the other term for health care passed during Obama’s term – the “Affordable Care Act” – because I know that term was coined with an eye to its positive connotation. Of course, the reverse has happened – health care premiums have risen across-the-board.

I also could call Republican efforts to repeal what was passed on Obama’s watch the “McConnell Health Care Resistance,” but that, too, could be taken to be a negative reference to the Senate’s Republican leader who – Mitch McConnell – who, like Obama, did not try to find the smart middle ground.

He and his colleagues on the right side of the aisle only resisted Obama at every turn without any attempt to compromise

In my most recent blog on health care policy, I provided a list of what “my platform” would be if I was involved in a new reform effort. Of course, I won’t be so involved, which, I suspect, will strike many as a good thing.

My platform was intended, not as a final answer, but as opening gambit.

That’s what this country needs to be able to do what it should be able to do, which is reform health care. We need “opening proposals” which would go to group of Republicans and Democrats, who, with Executive Branch involvement, would find middle ground.

It can be done. In the past, at the State Capitol in Salem where I lobbied for about 40 years, I saw and was involved in many compromises, including on health care.

In Washington, D.C., I say a pox on both Congress and the federal Administration, including both parties. All they have produced is disagreement and discord. It’s way past time to find the smart middle.

So, I advocate for “Federal Health Care Reform.”