posted by Damozel |
If you enjoy a good eye-roll, read Robert Novak's column about the intra-party squabble over the bipartisan State Children's Health Health Insurance Program. It's pretty funny to watch the Guardians and Patrons of the Inalienable Right to Take All the Benefits of Living in America without Giving Back More than They Freely Choose order their poodles to dance...or else. Sometimes I despair of my compatriots. At other times, I just take a ring-side seat where I can point and laugh.
Hey, I imagine these think tanks mean well. It's just that they seem to be staffed entirely by stern, square jawed idealists who live in a bubble and/or wall-eyed optimists who can only see things from one angle. In a perfect world, we'd all be healthy rugged individualists who started with equal advantages and didn't need the government to do anything for us except build the roads and maintain an army. In a really perfect world, our fellow citizens would all be clear-eyed visionaries and all-round good people who weren't okay seeing even middle-class adults die of brain tumors or children go without dental care because they waited too long to go to the doctor/dentist due to the cost and we'd voluntarily band together to help such people out of the goodness of our hearts, except we'd never have to, because it would always be too late.
This is not that world. If politicians would realize this, they wouldn't go round making promises that no reasonable person who had all the facts could or would keep in light of spiraling health care costs and incontrovertible evidence of what most citizens in this country need. I heard all the arguments from my father when I was growing up about why "universal health care" is "socialized medicine" and a bad thing for everyone, but since then I went to the UK, and I know better. And yeah, all of us who benefit from living in this great land will have to contribute something to the cost. But there again, our families won't go bankrupt when we get that brain tumor surgery or have to have full-time care after we develop Alzheimer's. Which I personally saw happen to two respectable, hard-working middle-class couples and their families.
In the meantime, interested spectators can enjoy The Battle of the Conservative Think Tanks and the writhings of Republicans who are trying to serve two (or even more!) masters.
LINKED, CITED OR QUOTED.
Robert Novak, A GOP Muddle on Taxes (Washington Post)
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