The Senate is broken. Things have gotten so bad now that Obama will force through the current health care bill under an obscure parliamentary process called “Reconciliation.” (I never knew such an amazing thing existed) It’s something Howard Dean advocated a couple months ago and it got all the Democrats to laugh at him for even suggesting such a crass congressional tactic. Well let me just say this, if the Senate were to incarnate itself into an actual person, I would definitely push it down the stairs and pray to God it gets a miscarriage! (But then again, that would imply that I am a misogynist, that the Senate is female and also that I would want the current bill gestating in the Senate to die…which, I don’t, but you get the stupid analogy. But the misogyny part is true.) I would especially like to personally wall slam all of you obstructionist Republicans (self proclaimed “Tea baggers”), while I would grotesquely water-board all you petty, narrow minded senators who sought only to further your own regional and ideological interests in this whole matter (I’m looking at you Joe Lieberman, although there are more like you on both sides of the aisle.)
We all talk about how “dissatisfied” all Americans are with “Obamacare” and the oncoming socialist/quasi communist takeover within our government, but do any of you obstructionists begin to wonder how frustrated and fed-up many other Americans are at you?! In the end, your dreaded “Obamacare” will pass despite the fact you tried to hold the bill, and the nation, hostage with your promised “filibustering.”
But just to be clear on the whole matter, I have severe issues with the current health care bill, such as how it short changes many states which have great Medicaid programs (e.g. New York). Also, I am kind of worried as to how this whole bill will affect small businesses. (There are plenty more, but these are the ones that pop to mind as of right now…although we shouldn’t forget about all the healthcare lobbyists’ fingerprints on this bill either) Nevertheless, some of the positives of this bill, such as expanding coverage to tens of millions of more Americans and eliminating all that pre-existing conditions garbage, makes it better than having no bill at all.
As for what Republicans had to say about all of this, listen to Mitch McConnel, the Senate Minority leader, when he says, “They’re making a vigorous effort to try to jam this down the throats of the American people, who don’t want it. We think that’s a policy mistake, and we think resorting to these kind of tactics, to thumb your noses at the American people, is something that ought to be resisted.”
Oh, shut still your quasi-turtle face, Senator McConnel! You’re partly the reason we’re in this mess.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/health/policy/04health.html?hp
Well, nothing is really final about the current health care bill. We don’t even know on whether or not there will be a public option or not. Plus, Obama said he even include certain medical malpractice stuff in it too, to please the Republicans. Nevertheless, another thing that really worries me is how this bill will pay for itself…
Originally, the idea was that the taxes on the so called “cadillac” health care plans would boost government revenue and offset any debt we may incur over the following decade or so…but as we all know, Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, decided to significantly delay the implementation of such a tax. In the end, this probably means that the stupid tax won’t ever get implemented.
But in all seriousness Alex, wouldn’t you agree that the positives of this bill are surely beneficial, regardless? Getting rid of the whole “pre-existing” conditions stuff would do wonders. Not to mention all those millions of Americans who can now get affordable health care. The Republicans have yet to offer any serious alternative to this whole issue. It almost seems as if they don’t really care about expanding health care coverage. I’m not crazy about this bill either, but it sure is much better than saying that we should just scrap the whole thing and start anew…that just doesn’t seem feasible at this point in the game.