Dumb arguments against health care reform

You hear them all the time. You just have to be able to recognize dumb when you hear it. I plan on updating this post every time I hear new dumb.

Some are suggesting a surtax on soft drinks as one way to help cover the costs of universal care. It’s a good idea, but there’s an ad that says new taxes are the last thing we need at a time like this. BS. Think of the surtax as part of your health-insurance premium. It’s not a tax — it’s an insurance payment without an invoice or a payroll deduction.

My own Democratic senator is running ads that say she supports health-care reform that DOESN’T restrict your right to choose your own doctor. That’s Republican-speak for opposition to a public option — which, in the long run, could spell the end of private insurers. That’s BS too. Medicare and Medicaid patients can see any doctor they want (providing of course the doctor accepts such patients). That still leaves a lot of damn fine doctors from which to choose from — the kind of doctors who care about patients. Many private plans give you a list of “approved” doctors, and if you pick a doctor off the list, you pay more. I’m disappointed in Senator Hagan, who leaves me with the impression that she’s been bought off by the private health-care and drug industries. I think she owes more to Obama than these companies for winning her seat, considering he carried North Carolina.

A message to Congress

President Obama was elected by a healthy margin because the promises he made struck a chord with voters. Democrats were given a healthy margin in Congress because voters knew Obama would need Congress to deliver on those promises.

So, dear Congress, what part of that message don’t you get? Meanwhile, you leave us with the impression that you were elected to serve private health-care interests, rather than we who elected you. You leave us with the perception that you’ve been bought and paid for by drug, health-insurance, and private hospital corporations. But your lame excuses for not being able to do this and that don’t wash.

Show us you care, for a change. There are reasonable ways to pay for (at the very least) a public option that would provide coverage for everyone. Appeal to the charitable nature of your devoutly Christian friends, who I’m sure would happily do what Jesus would do if you reminded them. What is so wrong with asking the wealthy to subsidize health care for the poor? Goodness knows much of their wealth results from one kind of subsidy or another, all gifts from you. Isn’t it time they gave a little back?

The results of some hard thinking

It still amazes me that there are those out there who think the last eight years have been pretty good and we should have more of the same. But there are, and among those who don’t there are a lot of short memories to go around. Me, well… I hold a grudge — and while the Constitution prevents George Bush from running again, he’s been aided and abetted by the other Republicans in government.

A lot of us are concerned about the Democrats self-destructing come convention time, somehow turning off the independents and sending them McCain’s way. Those would be the ones with short memories. We have a mess to clean up right now, and another Republican administration isn’t going to go far in the fixing department.

Neither Obama nor Clinton were my top choices, and to be honest I favor neither over the other. I’m of the mind that either would be better than any Republican. What I want is a ticket that will bring in a few more senators and representatives with it, enough in both houses prove a real mandate for change.

With that in mind, I suggest that Clinton and Obama make a deal… end the primaries and declare a ticket, real soon. It would show unity and in my mind put the interests of the country above politics. In other words, a Clinton/Obama ticket — almost a shoo-in (barring more closet bigots than we realize). They would then campaign against Republicans all the way to election day, and they should succeed.

With a successful administration, Obama would be positioned to be the natural Democratic presidential candidate in 2016. He’d be older, wiser, and more experienced.

This is what we’re stuck with, but as they say… when someone hands you lemons, make lemonade.