Health Care: Caring Too Much or Not Enough?

Just let me work through this. We'll all be better off for it.

First of all, let me be plain that this is a futile exercise because it is based upon a premise that will never be: that I will get a shot at putting down a vote for or against the health care bill as it stands.

The Right Wrong Machine

I listen to the right. A lot more than I should. I know it's "more" because all the idiocy and lies and bullshit and fear-fear-fear makes me numb, makes me reluctant to get in the pool and when I do I tire quickly and leave early. And it makes the next dive all the more painful.

These people - if I may be so bold to address the Rightist Wingist as such - have no idea that their blind rage and hate and diametric opposition to anything at all Democratic or Liberal (or Black) is actually hurting the country.

They keep their listeners ignorant and therefore keep listeners (see following post on Rush and Net Neutrality). They say they support reform but when asked how present straw man arguments like state line expansion. They have no desire to help so long as helping means turning off the fat insurance CEOs that line their pockets. Because that's Capitalism!

And in the meantime Glenn Beck tells CPAC that he learned socialism was bad by going to the library because "books are free."

I'm tired. I'm numb. I'm tired.


The Left Wrong Wing

I respect the fact that we have the first female Speaker evar, but for fuck's sake, did it have to be Pelosi? She's twitchy, inattentive, and a little too close to what someone would consider coked-up. We should ask Bush on this one. She is not a viable, solid, staunch leader. Leaders need to be staunch. She is not staunch. No staunchness. Staunchless.

And what do we as the left wing come up with? Health Care Reform all in caps! Kinda. No, not really.

Wait, how'd that happen?

We started with a robust, dream-filled jelly roll of wonder: Single payer marmalade, public option buttercream, and fuck-the-insurance-companies fudge sauce. But then the Right said "You do that and we're going to take our ball and go home!"

So we said "Okay, we'll play a little your way."

"NO! I said NO!"

"Okay, here's a little more..."

And on and on until someone on the left woke up and realized that the jelly roll of wonder had turned into a cold crepe that fell behind the stove three weeks ago and these douchebags weren't going to play ball with us. Ever. They were just going to bitch away the time to scare the shit out of America to make sure the left couldn't get anything done.

No one realized we were the ones holding the ball the whole time.


About That Crepe

So now we get tough and everyone's shopping up reasons we can - and should - still eat. I'm not talking about reconciliation. Reagan passed his whole econ drama with it. I'm talking about some of the "deeming" shit that's come down the pike the past few days.

And the crepe? It kind of sucks. I don't care how much you knock out your spices and skills. It fell behind the stove three weeks ago. It's going to be not so nice.

But then, you're not just talking to regular folks who've had the snot beat out of them by the insurance companies like most of us; we're discussing the starving kids too.

We're left with, well, let's look at Obama's push in Ohio and the tale of Natoma Canfield. I understand and agree that Natoma got screwed by the system. But the bill Obama's pushing in her name still lets insurance companies use the pre-existing condition for 4 years - 4 years! And that's a death sentence for any number of hundreds of thousands of Americans even if this mess gets passed.

I hope Natoma can live on dog food for 4 years.

And that's where I'm on the fence.

(Note: I know the Cleveland Clinic has come forward about charity and said they'd never place a lien on her home. No shit. You'd put her into collections and they'd do that dirty work for you. That's how it happens and saying otherwise is counting every American as ignorant.)


So Say You're Dennis Kucinich

I'm a fan. I was a 35-percenter in the last election. Hell, I grew up in Parma, OH. Do you vote it down because the bill still gives insurance companies the upper hand? Because it literally mandates everyone get health care with the evil conglomerates that this bill is supposed to phase out or at least rein in?

Do you vote up just to get something passed? Do you vote up in hopes that eventually we'll make it work? Do you vote up because the bullshit statement of the corporate-hungry right wing to start from a blank piece of paper is, well, bullshit?

Who wins?

The Republicans, even if we pass it, have already done their duty of stripping it down enough to say it's worthless. The Democrats have already sat on their hands long enough that it's only a little better than what we have now.

So I ask again: who wins? Do you win? Is there a winner? Is there ever a winner in politics? Is there ever a winner in politics when the right and the left have it out so much for each other that no one remembers what we're fighting for?

I abstain. And self-prescribe Miller Time.