Healthcare reform will probably pass this afternoon. Those of us that oppose this legislation have an obligation to step back and consider where we stand on the issue from here. Do we continue to fight this and the various fixes and next steps that will come shortly, or do we support this legislation?
If you think the answer is easy I urge you to reconsider. If we help make bad legislation worse we are contributing to the damage of our healthcare system but if we don’t fight this thing now we may be allowing the change of our national character forever.
The fight over healthcare won’t end today when this bill passes. This is merely another step. The natural next step for health care supporters will be a public option followed by single payer. They’ll push that through as the fix for the cost overruns and bureaucratic bungles this legislation creates. I am not the one saying that this bill is a stepping stone to single payer. That comes from the supporters.
Some other healthcare related rants:
- Cuts to education spending have been a big part of the news these past few weeks. Stated simply, the single source provider of primary and secondary education and the cash for much of college – the government – has failed to provide that service. The same will happen with healthcare someday and we will have few if any options just as is the case with schools now.
- If I had any extra cash available to invest right now I would put it into medical tourism. That is a business with a future.
- How long until we extend coverage to illegal aliens?
- I can’t wait to hear the screaming when a Republican president or Republican dominated congress inherits all of the wonderful vote buying power and patronage Democrats are creating for themselves today. That is what will happen today; they will create a huge trough for patronage and vote buying. Someday a Republican will control that power. Oh to see the looks on liberal faces….
- I will urge readers to vote out the incumbents in November. Not just the Democrats responsible for this. Republicans that were too inept to fight it as well.
- I predict that Republicans will learn nothing from this loss. They will continue to whine about the liberal media all while failing in the fundamentals of communication. They will issue calls for a return to ‘Conservative principles,’ that will substitute gay bashing and hard line opposition to abortion for decisive, principled plans for tax reform, spending cuts, effective Congressional ethics, and vote buying/cronyism/special interests.
- Obama and his supporters will take the wrong lesson from their win. This entire process was an enormous leadership debacle that divided this nation in ways that it has not been divided in generations. They ‘knew’ all along that we were wrong and they were perfectly in the right and we were not only wrong but obviously ignorant slobs. That attitude won’t help fix the damage any more than efforts by conservatives to revise the birther movement would help.
- I am willing to bet that whatever restricitions, cuts, and redtape We the People have to deal with in the future because of the bill that passes today, Congress will exempt itself from, somehow. Meaning, no, members of Congress will not lower themselves to the healthcare they allow us.
- The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan said it best, “it is embarrassing—really, embarrassing to our country—that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he’s having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he’s been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world.
- Bret Baier of Fox News might deserve some of the criticism he has received for his tough questioning of the President, except that…the criticism should fall 100% on his colleagues in the media, the President and his staff. This was the first time that this president has faced tough questioning. Until now it was unusual for reporters to even ask follow-up questions unless those questions were softballs and the reporters were always willing to just sit back and accept whatever nonsense came out of Obama’s mouth. Obama never should have been able to get through the presidential primaries, the campaign, and a year into his presidency without facing tough questions in this type of interview. In the Baier interview he demonstrated that he was not up to the challenge. Not even close. Doubt me? Folks, go back and review the interview, but this time try and picture Bill Clinton as president sitting in that chair instead of Obama. You can’t? Of course not, because Clinton would have eaten Baier alive. For all that I disagreed with President Clinton about, at least he had substance. But Obama looked Palin-esk.
- Obama told supporters last week that passing healthcare was essential to the remainder of his presidency. That is a disturbing comment coming from the Commander and Chief while we are involved in two wars, on a constant terrorism alert, and trying to keep Iran and North Korea from launching nuclear missiles at one or more of their enemies.
- Now are you reading to consider a third party?
Looking forward to the next three years? Yes, me too.
{ 5 comments }
Wow, great post. I have been looking for an alternative to the current jokers in congress and senate. Republicans are weak, and don’t seem capable of creating a new more fundamental conservative movement, that can appeal to immigrants and people from all walks of life!
What has made us great is the capability to start businesses, enrich ourselves, and maintain a society that is open to hear everyone. Our main tenents are individualism and freedom. How come we want to copy Canada?
The funny thing is 50,000 canadians a year prefer to pay high prices and be treated here. The mayors from Ottawa and Toronto treated themselves in Boston! Why do we copy instead of creating something new? Are our creative juices gone?
People are using the fear and disarray due to the latest economic shock to create an outdated system… Obama is investing in building roads… Are this what we have become?
Thoughtful posting, thanks. I strongly agree with your point about medical tourism. Costa Rica and Panama already have a fair amount of US visitors for cosmetic procedures — this will expand to essential surgical procedures as this healthcare virus spreads. It’s unfortunate to see America come apart like this. I hope some states stand up for their own citizens’s rights. At this point, there really are two Americas. If the libs want a European socialist state, we should let them have it. They can have New York and California (i.e. Wall Street, Hollywood, Broadway, and the New York Times), we’ll take Texas and the Midwest (i.e. where food is produced). Just have to make sure we put a fence up to keep them from coming in.
Send all the Prog-lodites to Canada where their dream health care system is already in place, with the high taxes they love…
It is a prog creamland…er… dreamland…
Then build a wall ….
Why do foreign folks with means come to the US for treatment?
Really? I keep seeing that question as though it were a good point.
I wonder if it is because of deliberate obtuseness, or if people really don’t see it.
America has some of the best facilities and doctors in the world, that’s why they come here. That’s not the same thing as having the best health care – it’s not even the same question. A specialist in a well-funded facility is a lure for someone who can afford to go there for treatment. It isn’t automatically something available to any American that needs it.
As for the outdated system – we’re already outdated. Health Care, Education… we’re not even using the metric system, for pity’s sake. America needs to modernize and renovate our entire societal infrastructure, not to hold on to the forefront as a world leader, but just to keep up with the rest of the industrialized nations.
If the GOP ultra-conservatives get their way, this country will soon be a backward theocracy whose only purpose in the world theater will be to provide cheap labor and serve as a tax shelter for companies from wealthier, thriving nations.
Wonderful post, numerous interesting points. I recall five of days ago, I have viewed a similar blog.