It's my duty and pride tonight to be able to announce exactly what the Republicans plan to do for health care in America... It's a very simple plan. Here it is. The Republican health care plan for America: "don't get sick." If you have insurance don't get sick, if you don't have insurance, don't get sick; if you're sick, don't get sick. Just don't get sick. ... If you do get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: "die quickly."
Yesterday, I wrote about the emergence of Rep. Alan Grayson (R-FL), one of the few Democrats with anything except hot air in his ball sacks. The fact that it's taken a previously obscure first-term Congressman to stand up and speak truth to power should be taken as proof positive of how much the Republican MINORITY has hijacked health care reform. In a system in which the majority is alleged to rule, Republicans have succeeded in delaying and degrading health care reform to the point where one could lay even odds on nothing at all happening.
The faux controversy surrounding Grayson is yet another indication of how ineffective Democrats have been at turning their majority into successful policy. After eight years of George W. Bush and Congressional Democrat forcing their narrow, self-interested agenda down our throats, Democrats have decided that bipartisanship is the way to go? Since have Republicans shown any interest in anything resembling bipartisanship? That would require compromise and the willing to actually talk about ideas. While Republicans have displayed a penchant for propaganda, lies, and facts made up out of whole cloth, compromise seems nowhere to be found. And yet Democrats still believe in bipartisanship? Well, I used to believe in the Tooth Fairy, but that didn't work out so well, either. Meanwhile, Congress continues to dither while close to 4,000 Americans die every month due to a lack of health insurance. Ah, leadership....
How sad and pitiful is that the United States of America, the most economically and militarily powerful nation on Earth, cannot guarantee each and every one of its citizens, regardless of the contents of their wallet, quality, affordable health care? How absurd is it that a vocal MINORITY in Congress is able to derail all efforts to fix this problem? How alarming is it that so many in Congress have been bought and paid for many times over by the health care industry? Say what you will about the health care industry, but they certainly have the best legislative presence money can buy.
From where I sit, the bottom line is pretty clear: We can conduct and finance two wars halfway around the world, but we can't come up with an alternative to a system that allows 45,000 Americans to die every year because they lack health insurance. Thousands more see their health insurance canceled or denied, often for the most specious and callous of reasons. Because health care in this country is a for-profit business, the bottom line and the financial interests of investors trump the health and well-being of Americans. And yet far too many drooling nutjobs still decry "socialized" or "government-run" health care...and yet the have no problem demanding Medicare take care of them. Far too many are still convinced, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the government wants to kill the elderly.
And how is it that government-run flood insurance is perfectly acceptable, but government-run health care is the worst sort of "Socialism"?
It would be nice, perhaps even productive, to have a debate based on facts, reality, and hard evidence. Of course, that might lead to something resembling progress, so Republicans have decided to derail health care reform (and serve their corporate masters) by any means possible. If that means engaging in lies, hyperbole, misrepresentation, and shameless Right-wing propaganda, so be it. If it means working against the interests of those who sent them to Washington...well, where do think the balances in their campaign coffers have come from? If it means refusing to accept the responsibility to lead...hey, somebody's gotta say no, right??
More than anything else, I'd like to know why it's so important to President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress that health care reform be bipartisan? Republicans have already amply demonstrated that they have no interest in compromise. Their only interest seems to be in obstruction and propaganda. So why is it that the Democratic MAJORITY won't tell the Republican MINORITY to fornicate themselves and pass health care reform? Why? Perhaps because so many ConservaDems are more concerned about their own re-election prospects than in doing what they were elected to do. Perhaps because the President who came into office promising to carry the fight for health care reform forward simply doesn't seem to have the stomach for the fight. Or perhaps it's simply because the health care industry has purchased so many Congressman that they're now simply expecting to get what they've paid for.
I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed, and I'm angry as Hell. I voted for a President who promised to fight for universal health care. What I got was one willing to pander to the lowest common denominator. How is this change we can believe in?
WE DESERVE BETTER.
