Saturday, August 08, 2009

The Best Republican Argument Against Health Reform

I'm not sure why the Republicans are comparing health reform to Hitler, Stalin, and Joseph Mengele, or why they're talking about euthanasia and "death panels."

What the should be talking about is themselves.

By far the strongest argument against Obama's health reform plan is that the Republicans might win another presidential election someday. If somebody like Mitt Romney or Bobby Jindal wins the presidency, that means there will be more determined lawbreakers like Dick Cheney and David Arrington and more incompetents like Mike Brown of Katrina fame or Doug Feith ("the dumbest fucking guy on the planet" according to Gen. Tommy Franks). There will be more Grade B GOP activists choking off research that offends the religious right.

And that's nearly not as bad as Sarah Palin becoming president. Then, we'd be getting her classmates from Wasilla or James Dobson coming out of retirement to run the health care apparatus.

If the Republicans want to scare people about health care, the best thing they could do would be to put Sarah Palin's face on a poster with "Do you want this woman in charge of your health care?"

That would certainly make me think twice.

Finally, a Republican president means that the people running Government health insurance will be people opposed to government health insurance. It will mean that the government will start looking for a variety of ways to raise prices and deny coverage in order to drive people back to private health insurance.

In other words, a Republican president means that the Government will become just like the private health insurance companies--

Only Much Worse.

And that's the best argument the Republicans could make against health reform.

5 comments:

Todd Mayo said...

You covered it all in a few sentences. The same tactics are applied to the only truly universal social insurance which exists in the United States; Social Security. They failed in that endeavor. Social Security remains. The problem with health care reform that includes a strong public option is that Americans are not used to viewing high quality health care as a human right. Social Security is something of an institution in the United States. Americans...(sort of) understand it and they cannot be easily frightened by it.
Health care as a universal, publicly guatanteed right for every citizen is an unknown. Americans are notorious in their fear of the unknown. That's why the factually incorrect and even blatant lies about publicly funded health care on the part of private insurers and their lackeys in the republican party and the "blue dog" Democrats, (a sort of republican wing of the Democratic party), are able to frighten people so easily. People ought to be more informed but they aren't and they won't be anytime soon. So health care will be an uphill battle.
In my opinion,if the "blue dogs", the republicans, the giant insurance lobby, and the maniacs this coalition has hired and trained to threaten lawmakers and intimidate ordinary citizens at town hall meetings are successful in purging the public option from health care reform, or watering it down to uselessness, then I see no point in passing ANY health care legislation. Without the public option, 50 million-plus Americans (including me) will remain without coverage.
So, I don't care how the President and progressive members of the House and the Senate win passage of a bill with a very strong, very high quality public option, I just want it done. We could use LBJ right about now.

Anonymous said...

Typical liberal - he wants someone else's money and time. And he wants the government to go get it for him. Think about it. That is the common thread among all of these losers.
Hey Todd - go get a job. Get 2 or 3 of them if that is what it takes.
"Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security."

Robb Mitchell said...

While I was in graduate school in London, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of England. She presided over the most popular social welfare program in the history of England - the National Health Service. Thatcher knew that she could not destroy, dismantle, or deconstruct the National Health without serious ramifications to her future..

If you took the time to look at other countries with widely divergent and vastly different health care systems, you'll see that Christian Democrats, Conservatives, Social Democrats, Liberals, Laborites, Socialists, and Communists alike always remain committed to the best interests of the citizens rather than their ideological dogma.

Medicare and Social Security in America are essentially single-payer government mandated programs to aid the elderly. Why haven't Republicans dismantled these government programs when they've gained control of the Presidency or Congress?

Because it would be fatal to their hopes and aspirations as public officials.

Anonymous said...

Excellent post Caric. You should apply your wit more often.

Unknown said...

No co-pay and no-deductible is the most expensive health insurance. People tend to abuse the health system when they don't have a cost associated with their visit. Anyone who thinks that the proposed health care system will be an improvement is in lala land. I don't want the govt to go into my bank account (the plan calls for them to have your dda account number) and take money out for services rendered. If I have a problem with a hospital, the insurance company goes to bat for me. What about people without insurance? Help them out - it will cost us, but not so dearly as the plan that is being force fed by people who haven't the time to read it before supporting it.

BTW What does Doug Feith - the idiot - have to do with government run health care?