The Need for Boldness...and Universal Coverage

It is so frustrating to see the Democrats rocking back on their heels, once again shocked, shocked by the misinformation and outright lies about the health care plan. As usual, they look like kids who are new to the schoolyard and keep trying to give the bullies lunch so they won't get beaten up. So they give the bullies their lunch (and their lunch money, and their favorite sweatshirt) and guess what happens? They get beaten up anyway.

The Republicans were never going to support this health care reform, period. What they are doing is coyly holding out the idea that if only certain changes are made, certain things are stripped from the bill, then maybe they'll consider voting for it. And the Democrats, who seem to want to do this bipartisan bullshit (why? who cares? what's the electoral upside to this? I bet you a hundred fucking thousand dollars that no one in America votes based on whether or not someone is "bipartisan") keep falling for it. But what is really going on here is this: the Republicans will dangle their meaningless promises, and get the Democrats to effectively castrate their own bill. Any meaningful change will be eviscerated, and what will be left is a bloated, incomprehensible cluster of fuck that will do nothing, but somehow cost a kazillion dollars. All of the Republicans will still vote against the bill. Then, in the 2010 midterm elections, the Republicans will point to this bill, rightly call it bullshit, say "Government is not the solution to problems, government is the problem" and point out how they staunchly voted against it, because of the freedoms. Then the goddamn Republicans will win back the Senate and proceed to fuck the Democrats six ways from Sunday.

And all the Democrats will be shocked, shocked, that the Republicans are such mean old bullies.

The only health insurance reform worth contemplating is a system of universal coverage. It is the only way that Americans will have a simple answer to the question: what's in it for me? It is the only way to undercut the current propaganda which says that some people (some brown people) will get something at the expense of other people (some nice old white people). With a universal plan, everyone gets a health insurance card in the mail next week that they can then use to get actual health care. Just like Medicare. For everybody.

Sadly, though, it's party politics like it's 1999. Where once again we are reminded that Democrats too are corporate shills, bought and paid for, and they're not about to go against the insurance industry or the pharmaceutical industry. Even if it's better for people, better for the society, and essential for American businesses to remain competitive in the global market.

Thanks for the change, Obama. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

The Prosperity Gospel

I find Christian fundamentalism (of the American flavour) fascinating, and from time to time have lost myself in the woods of the Internet, following a breadcrumb trail about things like the Quiverfull movement, Proverbs 33 Women, male religious groups like the Promise Keepers, the Dugger family, and so on. Mentions of the "prosperity gospel" picked up a couple of years ago, but my plate was already pretty full with learning about how Proverbs 33 women escaped from the cruel shackles of "feministic thinking," so I passed.

The New York Times occasionally throws up these pieces of How the Religious Among Us Live, and today they had another article about more prosperity preachers. This couple, the Copelands, have a ministry worth 100 million dollars a year. They get this prosperity through the grace of God, of course, who moves lower-middle-class people to send them $2000 to get a new Gulfstream. So that they can fly around the world ministering to people, of course: because a merciful God would never want you to fly coach (actually, I think that this is true, and that airline travel will convince anyone of the absence of God).

I should get worked up about this, but it just makes me sad. And it also makes me think, not for the first and not for the last time, that the real racket is religion. I should start one of my own. The Eternal Church of Mockingness and Cynicism.

Howl.

So Sarah Palin (who has obviously become a bugbear of mine) recently posted to her Facebook page this gem: “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”

Such a system would be 'downright evil,' indeed! It would be as if certain people had jobs which were rather arbitrarily decided to be worthwhile and deserving of healthcare (i.e., 'productive'), like C.E.O.s and Governors of Alaska, and others were equally arbitrarily decided to be not deserving, like the caregivers at daycare centers helping children with special needs.

This quote has been passed around the Intertubes, and Timothy Egan mentions it in the NYT today. I read Egan's post, and then scrolled down to the comments, expecting liberal solidarity, if not even groupthink. Instead, I found THE HORROR, THE HORROR, Real Americans:

'TJ': Yet, being an illegal citizen, who doesn’t even have the right to be in the US in the first place, will be eligible to have free health benefits, off the taxpayer’s money."

'Barbarian': Just attack the messenger, the only one with the spine to look at the fine print and the implications for privacy rights and human dignity...Personally, I don’t want my government, that also taxes my estate, getting involved in recommending a living will. LOL." [Is your estate worth a lot more than most, these days? Because the Estate Tax was basically repealed by your friends, the Republicans. I'm just sayin', LOFL.]

'Ogre' : "I see the combination of Obama, the Democrat Senate & Democrat House as a real danger because there is no real debate, no balance to hold the reins of a government that is growing, gathering power and repressing more & more personal rights." [ What a fascinating time to become concerned about all three branches being controlled by one party. It is CERTAINLY unprecedented.]

And, The One Who Made Me Stop Reading, because I do not have nearly enough hard alcohol in the house (let alone anti-depressants, which I can no longer get because I don't have healthcare, but what the hell, I'd be the last to say I'm a productive member of society) brace yourself for: 'Nancy Rody,' who writes,

"You still don’t get it. We are NOT Abortionists or Euthanasia supporters. We are Christians. We believe ALL life is sacred from the moment of conception. All life weather useful to society or not. It is that special quality that defines us as human beings.

God’s people are those who reach outside of themselves to love and care for others. I do not consider this a health bill but a death bill. A bill that sets up a commission to decide on who will live and who will die. It is promoted as being good for all Americans but it is a lie pushed on the American people by supporters of “Planned Parenthood” and other groups that helped form this legislation.

This comment may end up on Obama’s email blacklist. Put there by a politician who has not read the bill or a “Death Care” supporter but I would rather be on that list than to stand before God and say I did not fight back against this legislation. Also, please make sure my name is in bold extra large lettering. I admire John Hancock for putting his life on the line by signing the Declaration of Independence in a bold and large hand."