Healthcare reform: Git r done

I ain't committed to no "public option," an' I ain't wedded to no "single payer." (Two words I figger only a turd mite could love.)

    And, like most of my feller Americans, I don't have anywhere near's the mental stick-with-it-er'ed-ness to fret much about health care costs that are spiraling out of control.

    (Sounds like a rolly coaster!)

    But on his blogamacallit, last week, that mute movie guy Roger Ebert said what I'da said if I coulda laid tongue to it:

It is a moral imperative. I cannot enjoy health coverage and turn to my neighbor and tell him he doesn't deserve it. A nation is a mutual undertaking. In a democracy, we set out together to do what we believe is good for the commonwealth. That means voluntarily subjecting ourselves to the rule of law, taxation, military service, the guaranteeing of rights to minorities, and so on. That is a cheap price to pay.

    I can't imagine any o' my feller Americans would disagree with that. Not out loud, anyway.

    Let's go on ahead with this.

Comments

[Kristen]

I've said this before, but it boggles my mind that the vast majority of Americans were just dandy with their government spending multiple trillions on a war that accomplished nothing and which will have the county in debt until Scout's grandchildren graduate college, but they actually riot over the idea of spending a few hundred million to provide access to health care to their friends and neigbours.

It's not like the people who presently can't get proper access to health care are not making a contribution to society - the very rich and the very poor are all taken care of. The people we're talking about here are working, and working hard in most cases to provide for their families, and through no fault of their own [working for a small business who can't afford to provide health benefits, or a child with a pre-existing condition] they are stuck in a "vise of the middle".

The vehemence with which the opponents are fighting this suggests to me an implicit "every man for himself" position that they aren't willing to admit to outright so complaining about this or that aspect of what Obama is proposing is an easy out to try to make the whole thing fall apart, like it did when Clinton tried.

All I can say, is I truly hope none of the people who are so vehemently opposing this plan ever find THEMSELVES in a situation where they cannot afford to take their sick child to a hospital because they can't pay and have to agonize over what to do.

[David Murray]

I'm not normally one to blame dark forces, but I believe American resistance to proposed healthcare reform is mostly Corporate resistance, cleverly used to appeal to American fears and our native childishness.

The corporate motives can't be reasoned with; they're genuine attempts by companies and their shareholders to hold onto what they've got.

So the fears and the childishness must be the target.

[Thomas Jefferson]

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have."