The Great Health Care “Surprise” (Guest Voice)
The Great Health Care “Surprise”
by The Magical Sky Father
“Going on vacation with the wife I decided I could trust my teenage son with my Porsche so I left him the keys and I know he will not drive it because I told him not to. He is a good kid starting his college interviews so I am sure this will all work out just fine, I mean the kid is still a virgin and runs around singing Bob Seger songs in his underwear what could go wrong?”
The above of course is the opening line to the movie Risky Business if it had been written from the parents perspective. Most of us know how that worked out for them.
For those that wish a cliff notes version he totaled the car ran a brothel with assorted inner city prostitutes to service his high school friends and of course trashed the house, took care of that little virginity problem as well but you may have already guessed that since 1 plus 1 still oddly equals 2. Many teens watched this film and learned that living in a Chicago suburb had many advantages over the sleepy community they were raised in, I mean Rebecca De Mornay was nowhere to be found in the entire state of Indiana in the 90′s and I can personally attest to that fact. A wise friend quickly pointed out the films most important lesson to me while we sat in front of the television watching distractedly for a nude scene while playing Monopoly “know where you can and where you cannot trust people, then you have only yourself to blame when things go badly.”
If that 9 year old is now in politics I know for certain he is not suprised by the current explosion over Health Care Reform.
We have spent a good deal of time whipping the GOP and their supporter’s for their lack of interest in joining the discussion but I think I know why and it has nothing to do with their utter creulty and inhumantiy nor their broken and dysfunctional ideology as many would like to believe. In short, they did not believe us. No, I mean really believe us as in we are doing this right now with or without you, do not make me turn this car around because you will be left home alone while the family is at Disney World, kind of mean it.
This is not even the GOP’s fault. In the 1960′s LBJ shuffled together the remaining social legislation that this country has seen and that was all she wrote. Carter nor Clinton pushed through any major social legislation and Ford, Reagan, Bush and Bush II decided they liked that just fine although Nixon came really close until Ted Kennedy saved him that black eye in the conservative history books by being a jerk.
We had discussed legislation under Carter and Clinton but what was woven did not make it out of the gate. From the GOP perspective the era of social legislation was over, this was the shrinking government era and therefore social legislation could be expected to shrink into sheer nonexistence. During the Carter presidency even the whisper of legislation from the left must have sent shivers down the spines of the GOP and their voters. They still had fresh memories of the New Deal, and the Great Society and they new what the legislation did and how much it cost in stark terms.
When a fresh faced young Arkansas Governer took the oath of office the fear had turned to concern but this time they had a plan, as Clinton sent the giant bill to the legislature they stoked the fears and misgivings of American’s and the hurt and frustration of Democratic lawmakers at the same time. The defeat was so extreme and unquestionable that President Bill Clinton spoke the words that every conservative since 1930 had be dying to hear “the era of big government is over.” He did not sign off with XX’s and OO’s but many conservatives felt the kisses and hugs anyway.
Another election, another fresh faced young president and the same plan or at least a very similar one came to Washington in 2009.
This time the legislature seemed to be much more in the new President’s corner than last time but that could have been due to his different strategy.
The good news for Republicans was that the President was relatively unknown and the economy was in a state some would describe as the apocalypse which should make it much easier to pit the people against the social legislation. In the end they rallied enough voters against the legislation regardless of the individual elements popularity to capture their entire party and half or more of independents. The young President called for bi-partisanship but they ignored it because they took it as a sign of weakness and having learned from the experience in the 90′s the best method was a total shut down of cooperation. Some bucked the party line only to come back to the fold when they could not find a deal that they desired in the end the party lines stayed as static and polarized as the WWI western front, and any that dare poke their heads out of their fox hole quickly found the use of their steel helmet.
With the battle lines drawn and the electorate polarized and turning ugly something strange and inexplicable happened, they passed the bill and worse yet the President signed it.
First they dabbled with the idea of repeal and realized it was a nonstarter as the poll numbers began to show the package suddenly was more popular than unpopular and people did not want to give up certain elements like the new regulations on pre-existing conditions. The GOP had a problem though, the legislation was expensive and if this was a pill they were being forced to swallow they needed to find a way to make it small enough to not choke.
Historically the Republican party has paid the bills and knocked off the excess of the Democratic hopes and dreams for society. That had changed in the Reagan era by ballooning military spending during Republican administrations forcing the Democratic party to pay the bills and be the responsible one while in office which of course would not allow them to create any further social legislation but then Barack Obama called them on it.
Now a funny thing seems to be happening all over the political intertubes, which are similar to tubes in no way whatsoever, GOP and GOP leaning voters suddenly want to discuss the best and most efficient ways to pay for this.
No, not the ideologues and likely not the Tea Party types either but the sober part of the GOP that realizes it is not in a one party country. I know this is usually something to discuss prior to buying something but as I pointed out earlier the GOP gave the keys to Barack Obama and the Democratic legislature but they seem to have had no idea they would actually take the Porsche out and try to get some girls which is of course exactly what they did, exactly what a grown up should have actually expected to be honest.
Some will throw rocks and say the die has been cast but the way to win a war is with arms open wide ready to embrace our brothers as they come home to the truth. The truth being that regardless of what you think should or should not be done by government in theory this is what our government is doing, actually make that has done, the only two choices that remain are trying to find a way to make it work or lighting your cigarette on the smoking pile that will be our nation which would make you many things but a patriot is not one of them.
So to those that are feeling the long cold war of ideology in US politics coming to an end and are actually beginning to discuss what is in the health and best interest of our nation instead of in the interest of one or another party or one or the other ideological extreme I salute you.
I can’t give you the keys because the car seems to be in Lake Michigan but I just put some Bob Seger on and the dance floor is all yours, I will throw in the tidy whities for free because it is the deal makers among us that are the American heroes because it is they that ensure there is always a home to come back to and its the heroes time to dance.
“The Magical Sky Father resides in Portland, OR his own little city on the hill where he longs to work at Powell’s and soaks up the liquid sunshine like a native. Personal politics are Libertarian Socialist or as he likes to put it a balanced extremist. He sits atop his rain cloud typing angry rants into the blogosphere trying to keep the balance in his extreme’s.”
22 Responses to “The Great Health Care “Surprise” (Guest Voice)”
Very fun reading! (And I hope you get to work at Powell's someday.)
“the long cold war of ideology in US politics coming to an end”
Well, whatever bigger remaining Great Left ambitions weren't brought crashing down during the 1970s and subjected to realism since 1980 are going to be subjected to even harsher realism by the 2020s.
Medicare or VA for everybody isn't going to be clamored for or rushed to — just resorted to by default.
Powell's is great. Take an afternoon to sit in the park along the Willamette when the sun comes out (in late June, early July), take in something, anything, at the Schnitz, and have the salmon fish & chips at the RockBottom for me.
Nice piece. Wish I was as optimistic as you about the coming age of group hugs between D's & R's.
“D's & R's”
The Republicans have a future by default, after 2020 — the party of taxpayers vs. that (growing) of retirees.
I don't know if we'll experience the domestic equivalent of the following.
belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/is3201_pp112-147.pdf
(Red tents, blue tents, red war drums, blue war drums, red smoke signals, blue smoke signals — peace? It depends on what's in the peace pipe we smoke-um.)
If anyone else on here (some?) read the Economist, here are new relevent articles on health care and the warring tribes.
How will ObamaCare change the US health system?
http://www.economist.com/world/united-states/di…
Business is right to be scared
http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displ…
Bi-partisanship
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinameri…
Relocation over…economist subscription restarted….should be getting it soon!
That was a good read btw!
“The truth being that regardless of what you think should or should not be done by government in theory this is what our government is doing, actually make that has done.”
Concentration of everything in Washington and looking to it first rather than last is SOP for decades now.
What will reverse or retard this, as of the 2020s, will be crashing into demographic and economic limits that will be more painful than the oil shock and the crash of more ambitious liberalism in the 1970s.
http://www.twq.com/02spring/hewitt.pdf
That was a nice, refreshing, “salty piece” * of down-to-earth common sense,
I especially like your:
Like you, I hope that many heroes will take you up on using the dance floor and doing the right steps. We sorely need this
Thanks again, great piece.
* Plagiarized a little bit from “Jimmy Buffet's “A Salty Piece of Land.” A great book, by the way, almost as easy to read as your piece.
It's going to be very tough on small business' to make it in this political climate.
I do agree, that is why I am hoping in the near term we are all beginning to see that we are all on this ship together and the next few decades will be bumpy ones. You were actually one of the prime inspirations for this piece. I had seen it all over the web yesterday but your link to the piece on VA care blew my mind and in the remaining space sat the film Risky Business.
Thanks all.
Pleasantly surprised at your reference to Jimmy Buffett… would you be a fellow Parrot Head?
I've enjoyed most all his books and was suprised that he was one of only seven American authors to have a #1 best seller in both fiction and non-fiction.
I especially liked (and related to) the Don Blanding poem “The Double Life” he included in the Epilogue to A Pirate Looks at Fifty.
Amen brother, amen.
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And all that time, at least as far as I'm aware, the progressives never once decided to pool their money and form their own insurance companies with their own money to address the problem by offering what they felt was proper coverage to the unfortunates without coverage.
Once upon a time there was this small not for profit company called Blue Cross Blue Shield, unfortunately over the last thirty years they have just become another soulless corporation…
A) It did not cover all Americans…
B) Once it became a For Profit Corporation (Thanks to the Greed Era created by Reaganomics), any hope of it offering health insurance at a reasonable price was dead…
Steve:
This one (“A Salty Piece of Land”) happens to be the first of Buffet's books I am reading, and I am thoroughly enjoying it, It is so easy to read and I plan to read his other books.
I notice he has written a couple of books for “young readers.” (The Jolly Mon, Trouble Dolls). Any recommendations on these two?
Thanks
Dorian
Nice essay MSF, two thumbs up.
I'll be the train rider. [wink]
* * *
“we are all on this ship together”
It goes far beyond health care reform (on which most agree reform is necessary, and which will culminate someday with the end of the insurance model, as well as employee benefit aspect to most people's health care situation in this country). We're going to have to get past strains in the tough 2020s-2030s onward, as government growth and costs become crushing or more wearisome than they are now, pitting taxpayers against the growing group of retirees, with government retirees forming a side show, becoming the object of resentment of taxpayers and non-government retirees alike. There's going to be a lot of debate about how large the officer caste should be, how much we should be paying them, and where this ship is headed.
Dorian: Didn't mean to take this thread off topic so I'll be brief. Recommend you read “A Pirate Looks at Fifty” as your second book. I've not read his children books. Steve
Thanks for the suggestion. And don't worry about taking the thread off topic.
It is done so often here for partisan and self aggrandizing purposes. What we are discussing is totally non-partisan, totally harmless and totally deviating from the “gotcha, I win, you lose” climate we see all too much these days, that I, and perhaps others, find it refreshing.
Thanks
Or had to face market realities. So where is the progressive replacement? If progressives think it was good originally and could work today, why not make a similar private enterprise along those principles by investing their own money in it? Where is the progressive backbone to do so?
[...] See the full article from “The Moderate Voice” [...]
Progressives can look at the “bright” side, as I have done for them: the Blue Cross system nation-wide is there, ready, and ripe someday for federalization (if by some other name).