I've been watching the debate on health care reform of late with subdued interest. It's not that I don't care, because I care immensely. It's just that I feel so powerless. I am currently unemployed, and having some sort of "Public Option" would benefit me greatly, because if I get injured and need some sort of real procedure done, it will certainly bankrupt me or put me in debt for the rest of my life. You're probably wondering, then, why my interest isn't more than "subdued." Well as of last night, I got fired up.
Last night I was watching Larry King Live, and his guests were Ron Paul, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Dr. Paul Song, and it was the first time that I've seen where these ridiculous claims being made by the conservatives, were being properly addressed, and crushed, as they should be. Ron Paul was making the classic Libertarian/Conservative argument that any health care reform measure should include "more freedom." What the hell does that mean? Right now half of the people in the US have no health care coverage of any kind, and they currently have the freedom to get sick and die. Is that the kind of freedom that Ron Paul advocates? In watching that program, I learned that Ron Paul is a physician, and I am shocked that anyone who took the Hippocratic Oath could be against well-intentioned health-care reform like a Public Option, or single-payer system. I've said this before in various debates, and on my (former) podcast, but I believe that health care carried out for profit, is against the Hippocratic Oath. That is not to say that Doctors don't have the right to make a living, indeed they do, but so does everyone else in the country. No one should be faulted for wanting to make a good living, but for me, much of the obscenity of the system lies within the insurance industry, and the politician lap dogs to which they pay legal bribes (campaign contributions) to do their bidding.
The reason I got fired up last night was because for every canned argument/talking point that Ron Paul regurgitated, Paul Song, and Sanjay Gupta had FACTS that showed that the arguments currently being used against the Public Option are hyperbolic fiction. Song and Gupta systematically dismantled Ron Paul's "arguments" and reduced them to the pile of smoldering nonsense that they were. I love a good debate with well reasoned arguments, and for the first time that I've seen (I don't watch a lot of TV) we had a debate where the subject was actually discussed thoroughly, without a lot of theatre, and addressed properly so that the people at home could actually make a reasoned decision based on what they had witnessed.
The transcript to that Larry King Live Debate can be found here. Scroll down about half way.
Another recent Town Hall Meeting had an angry woman asking Senator Arlin Spector, why we were moving to a Socialist system, which she argued, was a slippery slope, and the next thing you know we would be like Soviet Russia. Whether or not Soviet Russia was truly Socialist or Marxist, is a debate for another time, but I have a question for this woman. Does she really believe that just because Canada and most European countries have some sort of single-payer health care system, that they actually resemble Soviet Russia? Are the people who are making these arguments truly that deluded? Do they think that if we adopt some sort of single-payer system, that Stalin will suddenly rise from the dead and banish us all to the Gulag?? Sadly the clip that I saw of this particular town hall meeting ended before I got to see Senator Spector's reply. I would be interested to know what he said.
A friend just posted this link of Barney Frank addressing a woman at a Town Hall Meeting who was calling the Public Option a Nazi health care plan, and carrying a photo of President Obama defaced to make him look like Hitler. Mr. Frank gave this woman and her claims the EXACT kind of response and consideration that they required, and I hope that all people who speak up with such nonsense at these meetings are treated exactly the same way.
What confuses me the most about these fake-grass-roots-protesters-paid-off-by-the-insurance-industry-to-disrupt-meetings-and-spread-rumours, is that their arguments are not even on point and consistent. One day they're saying Obama's plan is Socialist, and one day they're saying Obama's plan is Fascist. For those who don't know, those two things are on polar opposite ends of the economic spectrum so they both certainly can not be true. I understand that these people are there just to create chaos and use propaganda to evoke emotional memories of Hitler's Germany, and Stalin's Russia, to keep the status quo and to keep insurance industry profits high, but they should be ashamed of themselves. Ultimately they are arguing against their own better interests because with the state of the current economy and where it's potentially heading, they might need a Public Option themselves.
All of these Astro-Turfing protesters remind me of a time many years ago, when a friend of mine and I were driving past the local Planned Parenthood clinic, and my friend looked at all of the abortion protesters and yelled, "GET A LIFE!" To this day I am still not sure if his words were seen as positive or negative by the protesters that day, but to the crazed protesters whose job is to do nothing more than to disrupt and interrupt the current health care debate, I say, "GET A LIFE!" because you don't know what tomorrow will bring, and it just might be you who needs access to urgent health care.
Last night I was watching Larry King Live, and his guests were Ron Paul, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Dr. Paul Song, and it was the first time that I've seen where these ridiculous claims being made by the conservatives, were being properly addressed, and crushed, as they should be. Ron Paul was making the classic Libertarian/Conservative argument that any health care reform measure should include "more freedom." What the hell does that mean? Right now half of the people in the US have no health care coverage of any kind, and they currently have the freedom to get sick and die. Is that the kind of freedom that Ron Paul advocates? In watching that program, I learned that Ron Paul is a physician, and I am shocked that anyone who took the Hippocratic Oath could be against well-intentioned health-care reform like a Public Option, or single-payer system. I've said this before in various debates, and on my (former) podcast, but I believe that health care carried out for profit, is against the Hippocratic Oath. That is not to say that Doctors don't have the right to make a living, indeed they do, but so does everyone else in the country. No one should be faulted for wanting to make a good living, but for me, much of the obscenity of the system lies within the insurance industry, and the politician lap dogs to which they pay legal bribes (campaign contributions) to do their bidding.
The reason I got fired up last night was because for every canned argument/talking point that Ron Paul regurgitated, Paul Song, and Sanjay Gupta had FACTS that showed that the arguments currently being used against the Public Option are hyperbolic fiction. Song and Gupta systematically dismantled Ron Paul's "arguments" and reduced them to the pile of smoldering nonsense that they were. I love a good debate with well reasoned arguments, and for the first time that I've seen (I don't watch a lot of TV) we had a debate where the subject was actually discussed thoroughly, without a lot of theatre, and addressed properly so that the people at home could actually make a reasoned decision based on what they had witnessed.
The transcript to that Larry King Live Debate can be found here. Scroll down about half way.
Another recent Town Hall Meeting had an angry woman asking Senator Arlin Spector, why we were moving to a Socialist system, which she argued, was a slippery slope, and the next thing you know we would be like Soviet Russia. Whether or not Soviet Russia was truly Socialist or Marxist, is a debate for another time, but I have a question for this woman. Does she really believe that just because Canada and most European countries have some sort of single-payer health care system, that they actually resemble Soviet Russia? Are the people who are making these arguments truly that deluded? Do they think that if we adopt some sort of single-payer system, that Stalin will suddenly rise from the dead and banish us all to the Gulag?? Sadly the clip that I saw of this particular town hall meeting ended before I got to see Senator Spector's reply. I would be interested to know what he said.
A friend just posted this link of Barney Frank addressing a woman at a Town Hall Meeting who was calling the Public Option a Nazi health care plan, and carrying a photo of President Obama defaced to make him look like Hitler. Mr. Frank gave this woman and her claims the EXACT kind of response and consideration that they required, and I hope that all people who speak up with such nonsense at these meetings are treated exactly the same way.
What confuses me the most about these fake-grass-roots-protesters-paid-off-by-the-insurance-industry-to-disrupt-meetings-and-spread-rumours, is that their arguments are not even on point and consistent. One day they're saying Obama's plan is Socialist, and one day they're saying Obama's plan is Fascist. For those who don't know, those two things are on polar opposite ends of the economic spectrum so they both certainly can not be true. I understand that these people are there just to create chaos and use propaganda to evoke emotional memories of Hitler's Germany, and Stalin's Russia, to keep the status quo and to keep insurance industry profits high, but they should be ashamed of themselves. Ultimately they are arguing against their own better interests because with the state of the current economy and where it's potentially heading, they might need a Public Option themselves.
All of these Astro-Turfing protesters remind me of a time many years ago, when a friend of mine and I were driving past the local Planned Parenthood clinic, and my friend looked at all of the abortion protesters and yelled, "GET A LIFE!" To this day I am still not sure if his words were seen as positive or negative by the protesters that day, but to the crazed protesters whose job is to do nothing more than to disrupt and interrupt the current health care debate, I say, "GET A LIFE!" because you don't know what tomorrow will bring, and it just might be you who needs access to urgent health care.
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