Healthcare, Who Cares?

Well that is really the question. I thought I cared about healthcare. I thought that I (WE!) voted for someone who was going to bring national healthcare. I feared it slightly but that was the kind of change I was voting for. Then the congress started debating it. Then the Republicans made it clear that they were not going to agree to any reform, other then tort reform. Then the Democrats did what politicians always do, creating a bill that served a variety of special interests, towards doing a lot of good things, but short of national health care. Then they really started debating it. Then the tea Party people waded in. Just STOP they cried. Socialism! Death Panels. As I type this Tuesday night the people of Massachusetts are voting for another type of change because they like me think all this shit has got to stop, so we vote against whatever is going on. And I do not care. I know the Tea party People and the republican's will tell you it is referendum on health care, or even better a referendum on Barack HUSSEIN Obama but they are missing the point.

It is a referendum on our whole current government. Not the Democratic controlled Congress, but Congress itself. Not on the President, but the office of the President. I don't disagree at this point. the bill or bills that congress approved does not accomplish what I elected Obama to give me which was healthcare for everyone. I know we have healthcare for everyone now, but grudgingly and it is certainly not guaranteed. I would have even given healthcare to the dreaded illegal aliens. it also does not seem to be doing a lot to control costs since he cut deals with insurance companies, drug companies, the AMA etc... I don't know everything in the bill. I tried to get educated and what Glenn Beck. I tried to read summaries of it. I just could not take it all in. Neither could congress. I watched Beck and Limbaugh pull peaces out of it to demonize Congress and the administration. It didn't really tell me anything. Frankly the whole exercise has pointed out how divided our country is and watching cable news incessantly dissect every vote on every issue as the bill progressed... made me sick. I still wanted health care reform. But in the end I also want world peace. This appears to be something that is just not going to happen.

So I am assuming that weird Democrat lady in Massachusetts lost to that good looking, rich guy "man of the people" and that the republicans will be able to stymie health care reform. They will be lauded by the 20% of the country who adamantly oppose the bill. They will be vilified by the 20% of people who wanted the bill. The rest of us will just be dumbfounded and depressed that this is the best our elected officials can offer us. Seriously? This is it. Total division. Barack said he was going to "forge a new area of bipartisan politics. The Republicans made clear that anyone who would vote for ANY bill submitted by the Democrats was a dreaded RINO! The democrats then decided to play hard ball and use their elected supermajority to push through a more liberal bill, though still not as liberal as their far left constituents would have wanted. They miscalculated Teddy Kennedy's batteries and the patience of the people of Massachusetts with the current level of bull shit.

The Dems and crazy Nancy Pelosi will try and force through a bill, a watered down bill. They will likely fail and even if they succeed they fail because it will be a lot of nothing. So, we get the healthcare we deserve. Just like we get the government we deserve. You can vote these guys out but it is the dreaded "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" thing. Until we get rid of career politicians and big money special interest lobbying the game will remain the same. Demonize people who do not agree with you. Question their intelligence and their motives and their agendas and cobble together a 51% majority to try and shove your favorite policy down someone else's throat.

So. Who cares about healthcare reform? Well, you will when your old. You will when your sick. You will when your daughter marries a putz without health care from his job and she gets sick, or their baby gets sick. Ou system and the way we deliver healthcare is broke. Perhaps what Congress finally came up with would make it even worse but perhaps something might have worked and we could have started to sift through ideas keeping the ones that worked. Instead the healthcare industry will continue to dominate the debate and take up a larger and larger part of our GDP, our economy and what was formerly take home pay.

I want to elect Rush and Glenn. They have lots of creative ideas about how to fix the system. Oh, no they don"t. But they are entertaining if you can stomach them.

Democracy is a good thing. This is how it works. The Democrats have blown an opportunity here. It will be a while till they have another clear shot. Elections have consequences but this one, not so much.

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Post Script: That was last Tuesday night and not surprisingly I called it. Although it is only the Senate seat in Massachusetts, the media (and not just FOX but all the media decided it was a referendum on Obama, healthcare, socialism, the economy, everything wrong in the country. This is of course silly but... I am wrong about this one. I am out of touch with the country. It is all about the economy and when the economy is bad everything is bad and it really is all that matters. All the social issues, abortion, gay marriage, immigration, taxation and even cries of socialism are all just back ground noise for the economy. The Tea Party cannot make tea if all those people are happy, employed and employing people. But they are angry and we are scared and we are sheep. We will vote these guys out quickly and vote in a different kind of problem. If the economy stays bad we will vote them out too and bring in some more.

On a brighter note, my brother and most of my clients were very pleased and it was nice to see them happy for a few minutes. Still angry... but hopeful.

Nothing will get done on healthcare because the only "change" we can stomach is change we believe will be beneficial for us. Any other change, no matter how needed is unacceptable and when your talking healthcare there is too much to scare people out of. Once again the only wisdom of the Diner Review is that we get the government we deserve. It is actually a George Bernard Shaw quote. He was a negative guy and the quote is:

"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better then we deserve." God help us. Even better God have mercy on us because rarely has our country been collectively acting so ultimately scared and selfish.