After all the criticism of ObamaCare (as in Bury ObamaCare), of "Obama's health care plan," when of course there was none, and warnings that forcing insurance companies to actually pay for the care that their customers signed up for would destroy the entire American Way of Life--after all this heated though unenlightened "debate," now, finally, there actually is an actual "Obama" health care plan. It was revealed today, and has been posted on-line.
Mostly it is similar to the Senate's bill, but also is described as making a few concessions to the more expansive House bill, too. It isn't in particular similar to the Republican bill, since there is no Republican bill, although it does i
ncorporate a number of Republican proposals. Still, the GOP advanced nearly all of great thoughts during the 8 years of the Bush administration, which mainly included Part D drug coverage for Medicare recipients, which was set up in an irresponsible way to be sure to maximize profits to the drug-makers. Now they are simply exhausted from the suggestion that they might have to
think, and think hard, about actually addressing a problem faced by ordinary Americans (but not of course by them: the government pays for most of their health care).
However, Republicans now are simply apoplectic that Obama wants to discuss the way forward legislatively with them. With them! Their condemnation mills are buzzing. They are against health care reform; they are against anything that Obama or Democrats might propose; they are against the results of the 2008 national election; and, just to make things clear, they are against the wheels of democracy turning at all. They want it shut down permanently, as in the big snowstorm, the one that proved Al Gore's "global warming theory" is simply a myth. Really, they don't want representative government at all, they want decisions to be made by tea-party mobs in the street. Legislatively, "just say no" has morphed from a rather ineffective method of preventing pregnancy and venereal diseases to the philosophy of a once-grand American political party.
Indeed, if Obama were to endorse motherhood, apple pie, and the Fourth of July, well then by golly they would oppose those too: "Thanks, but no thanks." We don't want any "federal" holidays! You can't tell us what to eat! And motherhood is up to God, not the govinmint!
Really, let's face it, the Republican party only exists to support the plundering of the federal treasury on behalf of the wealthy and their corporations and banks and brokers. It is wholly uninterested in legislating solutions for a public that they see as a bunch of losers anyhow. So having a government that is stuck in neutral, spinning its tires, unable to function, hampered by gridlock, is exactly what they want.
I am imagining Abraham Lincoln right now, standing over the dead of two armies at Gettsyburg, and offering those same profound and memorable words, which will echo through the ages: "Just say no."
And I can imagine how Sarah Palin would have dealt with the issues separating the American states and dividing our nation in battle, nearly permanently: "Drill, baby, drill."
That is what she would say, if she remembered to write in on her left hand.
And I can imagine how they would have worked out the dispute over human slavery: "This is a matter for the private sector to address. There is no call for overweening governmental socialistic fascist intervention! Prices for slaves should be set by the free market, just as they always have been, as God orders, and the Constitution requires. Remember, most of our great Founders were slave-owners themselves. If it was good enough for George Washington, why isn't it good enough for us?"
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