Posted by
Bill Crawford on Friday, July 24, 2009 2:25:07 AM
Did I say that Sarah Palin was rambling? I was watching Obama's last gasp at gathering America before his health care mantle. He was all over the place. Red pill, blue pill? Is he kidding?
The tragic answer is, no, he ain't. He doesn't just want to recreate our health system in his new mold, he wants to take the moral grounding for quality of life that it is built on that we have all agreed on for decades and throw it out in favor of his new model.
The European one, that is. Where money is saved by weighing age and percentages and deciding that somebody gets care now and somebody else waits six months. Or if you are eighty-two and you need a hip replacement, live without and take some pain killers until you die and stop burdening us.
I realize we have problems here. I don't think the system is near perfect. But I do not labor under the illusion that we can make it cheaper. Americans have too much of a prediliction for life, and for quality of life even into old age.
And no double talking President is going to smooth over a bunch of rapidly aging Baby Boomers by rationing whatever it takes to keep them feeling and looking ten years younger than their parents did at the same age.
The man campaigned with the notion that he would look at all the possibilities. Here are two I would cheer that he mused about last fall but has condemned outright as President: moving health insurance away from employer based to individually owned (which would make private insurance for presently uninsured MUCH cheaper) and tort reform to combat defensive medicine- extra testing to avoid lawsuits.
No, if you don't want Obama's way, you must be happy with the way things are. You WANT the uninsured to stay that way.
That's the way this guy debates. My way or the highway. He has decided that he wants to set us on a point of no return now, while his political capital is at it's peak. If he doesn't get the votes now and the economy continues to drag, we'll see how many Democrats run in 2010 without mentioning his name.