NEITHER DISASTER NOR NIRVANA
It is truly amazing that any legislation gets done in today's horrid Congressional climate. Had President Obama taken the bull by the horns and led the march toward health care reform, we would have had a less cluttered and compromised bill. HOWEVER it is nothing short of an historical accomplishment that Obama was able to get this major legislation passed in the aftermath of the mess left to him by Bush, and the irrationally contentious legislature.
After 100 years of trying, including strong efforts by Republican Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon and others, health care reform has finally come to a place where legislation is near. There is no celebrating. We leave the celebrations and slander to the extremes of the political spectrum. But there is more hope today than there was a short while back. This is a tribute to President Obama. His strength and will withstood a scandalous onslaught of lies, deceptions, threats, lobbying, scandal, and organized mayhem by right-wing demagogues. The huge corporations that poured hundreds of millions of dollars into lobbying against health care reform underestimated the intelligence, will, and principle of the current president. He was not as easily defeated as were all the past presidents who tried and failed at health care reform. President Barack Obama, I salute you.
Now more hard work lies ahead. The current bill will need major tweaking and amending. There is much reason to be thankful for what the current bill does for the vast majority of the American people. But it does so without the better aspects of one-payer health coverage that allows for private insurance companies to make a decent profit. And there will still be 10 to 15 million Americans not covered by health care insurance. We cannot allow these things to stand. A humane and more united America would not allow this to continue.
We simply could not continue on the present course of health care. All the scare tactics about the reform costing us so much money is wrongly alarming; it is a pittanance compared to the cost of continuing along the path of health care, greed capitalism style. The ship of state was on a course to disaster. Luckily, this time we had a principled captain of the ship. And to leave out 40 to 50 million Americans from health care coverage is immoral and unethical. Let's get on with the work started.
It is a time to come together as Americans, and stiff arm the lies, slander, deceptions, and hate that has been prevelant through all the health care reform battles. It is not a war to be won, it is a start to be improved upon. Whether you are a conservative or a liberal, treat the hate-mongers of your perspective with disdain. All of us should listen, consider, discuss, act humanely, and make the U.S. a better place for all of us. A new dawn is upon us, but it is only the beginning of a new day. You will have to decide how you want to figure into the future of America. As a positive force? As a negative impediment?
