The problem with the current rabble in the health care debate is the shift from talking about the actual facts to shooting at the straw men that Democrats and Republicans find easiest to negate. When the Speaker of the House calls a number of citizens Brooks Brothers wearing swastika-brandishing paid protesters instead of keeping on point, it really makes me question the aptitude of our current legislative branch. Yes; some protesters may be going too far in carrying out their dissent at town halls. The reason isn’t that they are nazis, Congresswoman Pelosi, it’s that they have a legitimate fear: that Government is going to step in and ruin something that is working well for them.
Don’t Take What I’ve Got!
There are some legitimate debatable points in this bill which are losing airtime to insults flying across the news. For example, how can one keep their coverage if their company drops the health plan to pay into the public option? Will abortion be included in the public option insurance? Issues like these are understandably contentious. The White House’s blog is giving way too much effort to playing down ‘euthanasia’ rumors, and not enough to issues like the ones mentioned above.
And back to the public option… can someone just come out and say it? The public option really is a Trojan Horse for a single-payer system. Here is the contentious video making the rounds. What’s your opinion?
President Obama even used the Post Office in an argument for the public option while in Portsmouth, New Hampshire: “If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” Yes, and the Post Office is also mandated by law to be the monopoly mail carrier in the United States. It also has severe budget problems. Is the Post Office really a good model for what we’re trying to achieve? The problem is, out of all the actual public health care options to highlight, (Veteran’s Affairs, Medicare, Medicaid, the Massachusetts System) there isn’t a program that can be held up as an example of how the government can keep on budget in health care.
Again, the main source of the anger is the perception (real or otherwise) that people will lose something they have now.
A Final Word on Protests
Dissing protesters as ‘astroturf’, implying they are paid shills for a cause, is ridiculously disingenuous. The right of the citizens to organize is constitutionally (under the first Amendment) protected. If a group got money to support their own cause and organize, how is that ‘manufactured anger’? Someone is concerned enough to donate. What does it say when the President’s own campaigners show up at another town hall debate with laminated signs? Does it diminish the credibility of Democrat protest organizations like MoveOn.org? Remember, under President Bush the quote of the times seemed to be, “Dissent is patriotic.“ Well guess what? A change in President doesn’t change that fact. Dissent is Patriotic. If people have legitimate gripes with any legislation, it’s their duty to voice their concerns. Dissent is not poisonous… apathy is poisonous. The quote of the time should be this, often attributed to Alexander Tytler:
“The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage. ”
Both parties are currently speaking to the lowest common denominator (I can wish for legitimate third parties, right?). Bring on the true debate; I’d prefer a release from the White House on what it believes a bill must reform, instead of snipes against some of the easier to dismiss claims (I’m sure euthanasia won’t be in the final bill). If you’ve got a problem, speak up.
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