Thursday, March 4, 2010

"Change"...and Deception

Americans may never know the degree to which Democratic Party leaders actually intended to promote "change." Perhaps we the voters should have demanded that they "prove" their intent, just as they are currently demanding that Tehran "prove" that it has no intent to construct nuclear bombs. Whatever the intent of the elite, the people voted for change, and one key component of that was changing medical care from a business designed for the enrichment of insurance companies to a right of all citizens.

The right wing elite, concerned about its potential investment losses, is now claiming that legislating any requirement that everyone pay for health insurance would be unconstitutional. One wonders what they imagine we, as a society, are going to do when some irresponsible person who chooses not to buy health insurance gets sick - just watch them die? This is a classic example of the commons, a term everyone needs to know in this debate. The right wing elitists are classic free-loaders. Don't be tricked by their protests about "freedom."

You are not free to drive on the left. You are not free to refuse to pay for garbage pick-up. You are not free to take illegal narcotics. You are not free to refuse to "buy" health insurance for your sick car (i.e., annual check-ups). You are not free to refuse to pay taxes. Societies need rules to function. It is time the U.S. joined the modern world and recognized that a good society provides health care for everyone. One way or the other, we will all pay for that benefit: either we will pay to take care of the desperately ill (e.g., the beggar who sits on the street coughing and infecting everyone with TB) or we will gain the maturity as a society to decide to pay for health care to make the society healthier.

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