Washington Unplugged
Health Care Is Good... And Bad!
March 4, 2010 1:33 PM
Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tell us health care is good and it's what the people want. Republicans like House Minority Leader John Boehner tell us health care is bad and it's not what the people want. Who's right? Who's wrong? The world may never know...
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Healthcare is a matter of protection and not a commodity.
It is a matter of pain and suffering of life and death. Many people die or suffer terrible pain for lack of adequate healthcare. No one dies for lack of a flat screen TV. Protection is a moral mission for the government but not for business.
Is police protection a commodity? Should one have to buy their police protection from competing security services? How about fire protection? Should the fire department only come save your house if you paid your premiums? Imagine how expensive it would be?
In the past, this reconciliation process has been used for major health-care measures, including COBRA, which allows people to retain their health coverage after they lose their jobs. The acronym stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act because that?s how it was passed. The 1996 welfare bill also passed under reconciliation.
Those measures pale in scope compared with President George W. Bush?s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which totaled about $1.8 trillion over 10 years. Both were passed through reconciliation, requiring only a majority vote. Combined they are almost 10 times larger than the health-care elements that may go through that procedure this year.
I think it is about time that our leaders give some protections to the people; protections from banks, health insurance companies and other "blue sky" corporations. We can't simply ask these corporations to act more ethically towards Americans; we must make laws to protect us.
It's called regulation. Ever heard of it?
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson 1802
Until you know what it's like to have no way to pay for all of your health care because the costs are so high, you don't deserve to be part of this discussion.