Really, Really?

Published on MySpace on March 21, 2010


So here we are on the eve of yet another historic vote on health care.  For decades politicans have come and gone, trying to fix our health care system.  And for decades they have failed.  Politicians on both sides of the aisle are playing politics-as-usual, allowing their own personal interests to get in the way.

I, for one, am really sick of it.  Composing this letter makes me even angrier because it forces me to examine the shortcomings of the political party I support and the obstructionist actions of the Republican party.

Before I get to my point I am going to veer off to the left (as if I'd ever veer off to the right) and vent about what I view as the Democrats' single-minded blindspot.  Most Americans, political affiliations aside, will agree the health care industry needs reform.  There are too many Americans with little to no coverage and too many insurance companies more than willing to take us for a ride around the carousel.  Personally, I do not think that health care reform should be the Obama Administration/Congressional Democrats' top priority right now. 

Our first priority?  Fixing the staggering unemployment in this country ... finding good jobs for people who are unemployed or laid off , who are struggling.  Health care is all fine and good ... jobs are better.  Get us jobs and THEN get us health care.

Back to health care ... I have been cramming in news articles tonight from cnn.com, msnbc.com and foxnews.com (typically I substitute another vowel in for the 'o' in foxnews, I'll let your imaginations run wild) and it angers me that the vote to pass health care (which would allow these single-minded politicans to move on to more constructive matters like jobs, the economy, and clean energy) could hinge on something as inconsequential as abortion issues.

President Obama has made it clear he supports a ban on public funding of abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or when a pregnancy endangers a woman's life.  To me, this seems like a no-brainer.  Why should my tax dollars go to pay for a procedure to end an unwanted pregnancy because some woman can't keep her legs closed or use birth control and some guy can't wrap it up?  It's not my responsibility to pay for someone else's sexual irresponsibility.  If I screw up and get an STD because I'm sexually irresponsible I would never expect public tax dollars to pay for my treatment.

That being said, the behavior of some Republicans and public protestors outside the Capitol is inexcusable.  Protestors hurled racial and homophobic epithets at black and gay lawmakers.  Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) was walking into the Capitol building to vote was spat on by a protestor.  The protestor was detained by police but Cleaver did not press charges. 

It's too bad.  I would have pressed charges.  We have the right to protest in this country,  but it's individuals like the protestor who assaulted Cleaver (sorry, spitting on someone is assault) that give us all a bad name.  Who the fuck did this person think he/she was?  Hopefully some day he or she will need publically-funded health care; I hope at that time that person remembers spitting on a lawmaker.  Karma is a bitch like that.

Something else struck me as stupid: all the signs and banners that said "Stop Obamacare" and "Born in the USA not the USSR."  Really?  Really?  How is publically-funded health care not American?  Oh wait, maybe it isn't?  Maybe it's really the American way for the poor to middle class to suffer disease and near poverty while the rich get access to the best doctors.  All these dipshit-dumbass-douchecock protestors who keep calling Obama a socialist need to actually look up the definition of socialism in the dictionary because they are really beginning to look like idiots.

As Americans we have this deluded idea that we are the best at everything, that our policies and procedures are better than everyone else's, and we look down at everyone else who has this idea about their own policies and procedures.  Just because we are a democracy does not mean we are perfect.  How many more years are we going to bury our heads in the sand while health care providers and insurance companies clean out our pockets?

I am not saying the Democrats' plan is perfect; it needs work.  Rather than criticizing and playing politics-as-usual, why don't Republicans actually come up with a compromise?  Rather than being a party of obstructionists, why not come up with a solution? 

I could sit here and roll my eyes all night long at both sides, but I'd rather roll my eyes at our country as a whole.  How many citizens globally laugh at us when stupid shit like abortion funding could be the wrench in health care?