Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Where's the Outrage for Politicians Who Won't Vote for ANY Health Care Reform?


In recent weeks we've seen the spectacle surrounding healthcare reform bill H.R. 3200. There has been a lot of chaos. We've seen uninformed townspeople showing up at Congressional town hall meetings shouting down their Congressmen. We've seen a loon with a picture of Obama made to look like Hitler. We watched the President clear up some of the vicious rumors out there but not lay out details. We've seen an elderly gent say, "Keep government out of my medicare." We've heard someone say they heard a story about someone in Canada who couldn't get treated for an emergency for 6 months - well, I heard a story about someone who says they saw a strange light at night...third hand investigation makes piss poor evidence.

There's also been some earnest debate, but more often than not we've followed the TV cameras around cranks.

The thing is it should be expected we are seeing a lot of chaos; I still think the moments of moronic zealotry is shameful. But this is a complicated subject. Most people I hang out with don't know that much more about the nuances of health care expenditures (on a national level) than they know about the mathematic equations governing planetary mechanics. What we do know is the average family spends 15% to 30% of it's takehome pay on health insurance. And the U.S. annual budget goes primarily to defense and health care. Every responsible Senator and Congressman of any party has noted that health insurance costs have increased drastically in recent years and that national health care programs will require more and more money to sustain the current level of spending when the baby boomers all retire.

So my question is where is the outrage for these resistors who are dead set against ANY sort of health care reform plan? I'm not talking about your local Congressmen who thinks we need to work out some kinks in the current bill. I'm talking about the guys who are content to sabotage any effort to improve the status quo. These guys deserve to be tarred and feathered (metaphorically).

Or at the least town hall attendees need to go after these cherry pickers as vigorously as they are going after the people who are trying to actually fix things. The people saying "No" to EVERYTHING and aren't offering any ideas except for the status quo sure as hell shouldn't be rewarded for sitting around and playing the socialism card!

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