I’ve recently exchanged emails with a good friend and Obama healthcare reform supporter from the city of Chicago, let’s call him Keith. Keith is a die hard liberal who is quite typical of the area. No matter the argument, no matter the situation, the Democrats always right and the Republicans are always wrong.
I wrote an
article on healthcare reform last week explaining how crazy it was for President Obama to think he could do a better job of managing healthcare in this country than our current free market system. Basically saying that only a community organizer could view the $2.4 trillion U.S. healthcare system as ripe pickings for government takeover, and not the free market engine of health and prosperity that it truly is.
Keith read the piece and emailed me his feedback.
His thoughts were a fascinating example of exactly, spot on what you would expect from a liberal. Passionate, but lacking in detail. Caring for others, but not so caring for the economy.
However, even with his Democrat background, I figured at the very least Keith had to have heard one or two things about Obama’s healthcare reform that concerned him, it sure seems like everyone else has.
I figured wrong.
Keith’s reasoning was strait out of MSNBC. The first point in his email, cannily on cue, was a jab at Republicans: “The right has very little constructive to say about this subject. They simply know that they are going to shout down reasonable and important legislation offering nothing in the way of good ideas themselves.”
This seems to be the #1 thing on Democrat minds these days: idiot Republicans (I’m being kind here, liberals have been calling us much worse lately) and their backwards ideology. It doesn’t matter that Democrats have controlled the House and the Senate for the past two years, and now the Presidency itself. Rather than discuss the details of their plans for the country, healthcare, cap and trade, socialism, etc… most still prefer to spend their time bashing Republicans.
I emailed Keith back “There have been many good ideas on how to improve healthcare coming from Republicans over the years. For one, it was President Bush - Republican - who in 2007 signed into legislation the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) which guaranteed healthcare coverage to all children in the U.S.”
“President Clinton and Democrats held both houses of Congress for 2 years in the early 90's, and other than take up a lot of network air time with terminally flawed HillaryCare - even most Democrats viewed this legislation as crap - Clinton accomplished absolutely nothing to help the kids. They had to wait over 10 years for a Republican to become President to get the healthcare they needed.”
“I don't see how any reasonable person could say Republicans have had no good ideas for healthcare.”
Of course, the S-CHIP legislation is a big contributor to why the country is facing a $1.8 trillion deficit this year with mind numbing deficits to come. Doing the right thing is great, but in the end, there are no free lunches. When Bush and Congress passed the law, no one bothered to figure out how to pay for it.
Anyways, deficits or not you can't argue that this has had major benefits for the children, so no arguments here.
During the campaign, John McCain proposed $5,000 tax credits to help families pay for healthcare insurance. Programs along similar free market lines are being floated by Republicans in Washington today. However, not surprisingly these proposals don’t get a lot of airtime on CNN.
So much for the party of No.
My liberal friend described Obama’s healthcare plan as “reasonable and important legislation,” but I highly doubt he knew much about the bill. As we Republicans are aware, HR 3200 is one disturbing piece of freedom killing legislation.
I encouraged Keith to “read it yourself. You will literally freak out when you learn what Democrats really have in mind for us.”
“For heavens sake, it reads like a communist manifesto for healthcare!”
“Nothing in the legislation talks about developing additional healthcare resources, or helping those with leukemia, or training more doctors, or nurses, or building more hospitals, or improving emergency rooms, or developing new meds, or for that matter, doing jack for anybody.”
“Not one constructive, practical idea on how to improve the existing system.”
“All one thousand plus pages of lawyer talk were written with one simple goal in mind: giving the government total, complete, without any boundaries, without room for challenge, control over the entire national healthcare system.”
“The basic premise being, give the government control and we'll tell you what you get when we figure it all out.”
“Who the %$# is we?”
All of a sudden Keith was too busy to continue the dialog, “super busy ... just rest assured that I am right and if I had time to convince you, you'd see how correct I am. Just sleep well and know that the left is the compassionate and sane side of things.”
I wasn’t thinking of our emails as some sort of debate, but rather an opportunity to educate a friend on some important details contained in the Obama plan. No matter, in typical liberal fashion, he wasn’t buying it. Facts or no, healthcare for everybody is good and it needs to get done right this second! And oh, by the way, Republicans are a bunch of heartless monsters.
Obama knows perfectly well that if he were to explain in detail what really is in the bill - healthcare rationing, trillion dollar price tag, banning of private insurance, free healthcare for illegals, government mandates for doctors, denial of treatment to cancer patients, no judicial reviews, and the recently reconsidered death panels - not one American outside the extreme far left would support him.
So Obama misdirects the nation by denouncing that the opposition needs to “get out of the way!” and “The status quo is unacceptable!” Forceful language sure, but calling your opponents the devil doesn’t necessarily make you right.
I got me to thinking how funny Democrats can be when confronted with the facts.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people in this city say to me, “You don’t support George Bush, do you?” with that self-righteous look you can only get from a true believing liberal.
Sure, I like him quite a bit.
“How could you? He’s a war criminal!”
How so?
“You know, like with Iraq.”
What is wrong with Iraq?
“We shouldn’t be there.”
How does this make Bush a war criminal?
“He just is.”
Sounds like a pretty slim case to me.
There’s something about details that make all Democrats nervous, and we are definitely seeing a lack of them coming out of the left during these healthcare debates. Whether from my friend Keith, or from the President of the United States himself, liberals have no problem with demonizing Republicans, but none of them want to talk about what really is in HR 3200.
Are they scared of what they will find if they look close enough?
