What a fool believes: a liberal discourse on health care reform
While watching the daily parade of tweets roll by today, I caught wind of a thread by a couple of big name tech bloggers and writers (their names will remain my secret) about how horrible it is that the conservatives are actually speaking out against health care reform. Since everything that they were writing was being written on the virtual graffiti-covered wall that is Twitter, I figure it’s fair game to reproduce. Here’s the thread and some of the commentary that was going through my mind as I read their drivel:
Twit A: “I dislike politics to begin with, but the level of political discourse in this country is so pathetic now that it sickens me.” “I am tired of people screaming and shouting at each other. I am tired of disagreement being treated as sedition or anti-Americanism. Stop.”
I agree! I wish that we didn’t have to scream and shout at each other. Unfortunately, your president has decided that he’s going to ram a horribly expensive social health care package down our throats. He has the media giving him free airtime, we have to yell to be heard.
Twit B: “No liberal and conservative gov’t policy will kill America. What will kill it is a growing culture of not wanting to hear any opposing views”
No, we’d like to hear honest debate instead of having the Democrats call us “Astroturf”, “paid protesters”, and the like. And you’re the two people who stopped following me last fall on Twitter because you couldn’t believe that someone could actually support the McCain / Palin ticket.
Speaking of paid protesters, what about the Dems paying protesters $10 – $15 an hour in support of Obamacare. Is that fair? No, that’s paying people to drown out our valid and unanswered concerns by chanting loudly and waving their union-printed signs and banners. I was at the Tea Party in Denver on April 15th, and everyone there was attending for love of the US Constitution and their Country, not for pay. All of our signs are handmade, not professionally printed.
Twit B: “Ah, but the strategy is to use funding & demagoguery to destroy civil discourse, allowing special interests, the powerful to win.”
Yes, that IS the strategy of the Democrats. Of course, he was referring somehow to the mass of common citizens who are against this so-called health care reform package.
Twit A: “Of course, I’d say that. Politically, I’m a moderate. Which by today’s standards makes me half socialist, half christian redneck. Nice.”
Gee, thanks. I’m glad to know I’m a Christian redneck. Christian, yes. Redneck, no. Although I do own and use firearms…
Twit B: “Teabagging, etc., has funding behind it (whether indirect via Fox or direct) a la Saudis funding Al Qaeda.”
Asshole. They are tea parties, thank you. Teabagging has another meaning behind it, not something that many conservatives are apt to take part in. Funding by Fox? Get outta here. We attend tea parties because we want to save our country, not because someone is paying us.
Twit B: “Not to say teabaggers are terrorists by any means; but this isn’t a spontaneous uprising. There are paid agents provocating this.”
OK, time to put on your tin foil hat, buddy. I’m not a paid agent, and it most surely is a spontaneous uprising. If you had ever gotten off of your soft liberal ass and gone to one of these tea parties, you’d realize that these are not well-organized events!
Twit A: “Yes, it’s astroturf. The health care stuff incenses me because US health care is a disaster. It needs fixing. No counterproposals?!”
You guys love that term AstroturfTM, and especially love using it without the little trademark sign behind it… I agree, health care needs fixing. But that monstrosity of a health care reform bill that is being proposed is not the way to do it. Any time a Republican comes up with any idea for a counterproposal, it’s being shouted down. That’s why you aren’t hearing the counterproposals.
Twit B: “I’m in a position where any healthcare change probably saves me and my family money. We spent like $20K/yr on insurance +out of pock”
Ahhh, so it all rolls down to having someone ELSE pay for your health care, doesn’t it? Sure, my wife has an excellent health care plan, and it’s paid for in part by her employer. Our out of pocket expenses for medical aren’t that big, but we do contribute to our health care plan. You just want someone else to pay, and that someone is that successful doctor, lawyer, or athlete who is making more than you are.
Twit B: “Individual policy. On east cost, I’ve heard it’s far worse. How could I spend even more? If nothing changes, I will.”
There’s your problem. Get into a group plan. Group rates are much less expensive in most cases than what you’d pay as an individual. I can’t believe you got this far in life without knowing that.
Twit A: “You forget, Cameron and the Tories are apparently socialists too. Because they wouldn’t dismantle NHS and replace it with our plan.”
No comment.
Twit B: “I know, I know, I know!!! And I wanna see a Republican explain that the VA is being privatized, and Medicare eliminated.”
Where the hell are they getting this shit? It sounds like something in the health care reform bill!
Twit B: “As I’ve said before: I have an inefficient bureaucracy sitting between me and my doctor ALREADY. And trying to make a profit on me.”
Oh, so you want an even more inefficient bureaucracy sitting between you and your doctor? They won’t try to profit from you; they’ll just refuse care.
Twit B: “Robert Reich on his mother’s end of life, & the lie behind Republican scare tactics on “health-care rationing.” http://bit.ly/3dBH46“
Health-care rationing is a fact in Britain and Canada. I wonder how much Robert Reich was paid to write this?
Twit B: “I have a remarkable insurer in WA state that seems to fairly & quickly pay for procedures with no monkey business. HOW??!”
Uh, probably because they’re not being told what to do by the Obama administration. As opposed to the horror stories you hear from the Democrats, this is actually fairly common. I actually LIKE our health care plan, with the exception being that they won’t pay for my wife’s knee replacement because she’s “too young.” Health care rationing is turning into a fact of life at HMOs, and it will only get worse under Obamacare.
At this point, the tweets stopped, and the two characters seemed to get back into their regular back and forth banter about Twitter, how much Comcast sucks, etc…
It was fascinating to see what these two well-respected writers actually believe. Of course, both of them live in very liberal cities (San Francisco and Seattle), and have been drinking the liberal Kool-Aid for years.
