Ten years down the road, making one night stands
Speeding my young life away
Tell me one more time just so I understand
Are you sure Hank done it this ‘away
Did Ol' Hank really do it this ‘away?
(Waylon Jennings, Are You Sure Hank Done It This ‘A Way?)
Damn it! Here I am, trying to get ready to re-enter the unceasing fray against the forces of ignorance and indifference next week, ear-deep in footnotes that that make no sense for a book that probably doesn’t either and the damn health care thing has gotten plumb out of hand. I tried to warn Pres. Oby that this was no time to start messing with this issue, serious as it might be for many people, but would he listen? Why, of course not!! Not content with the trifling matter of getting us out of the worst economic mess we’ve seen since the Great Depression, he can’t wait to take us into the most divisive and complicated corner of the political and bureaucratic jungle.
In a nutshell, here’s how I see the health care thing. The current system has all kinds of problems, but, before Oby reopened this can of red wigglers, the middle class people I heard talking about the urgent need for reform were mostly physicians and the occasional small business owner. Now, to hear the news pimps tell it, we’re all up in arms on this issue. I’m aware that not everybody is fortunate enough to be middle class, but the point is, slice it anyway you want it, these are the folks who are going to pay for any change that is enacted, and also the ones who are likely to defeat any representative who takes a position on the issue they don't like.
The bottom line is that, if asked to think about it, most of us would decide we want better health care, but when you ask for a show of hands on how many are willing to pay more for it, you needn’t worry about needing a crowd of folks to count the “ayes.” Regardless of what’s involved and how many cultural, social, or ideological aspects it may have, this is an economic problem, folks, and as such it has no real universally popular solution. The best you can hope for is a response that establishes a cost/benefit ratio acceptable to the people who are bearing the costs, while providing reasonable benefits to those who aren’t. This virtually assures that there will always be significant dissatisfaction with the health plan du jour or with efforts to change it. From the political standpoint, Oby has thus found a way to enable his antagonists, who have thus far failed to gain traction on issues like his religion or place of birth. And here’s the thing, he’s offered them a cover issue that will give an ostensibly sound premise to the aforementioned lunatics plus a vast array of other people who want to take their guns into airports and restaurants and day care centers or tell us what we can and can’t do in the intimacy of our own boudoir, etc.
This isn’t to suggest for a minute that there aren’t very valid questions and concerns about what's up with the ObyCare proposal, it’s just to say that this whole ruckus isn’t really about health care. It’s just a chance to rant and rage (before an accommodating media) for people who still can’t accept the fact that a Democrat, much less a black one, actually got himself elected president of the United States. Much like the folks who demand that the Ten Commandments be placed in every public building but have never been anywhere near the Book of Exodus, 95% of the folks who are so angry about the administration’s health care initiative, don’t have inkling one about what it actually entails.
Alas, any discussion of the inkling-bereft, must bring us, sooner or later, to Rep. Paul Broun, who alas indeed, represents this particular district in the United States House of Representatives. I’ve gone on ad nauseum about ol’ Brounie before, (Gluttons for punishment, mash here and here.)
but he’s actually pushed me past simple queasiness now to urgent curiosity about my proximity to the nearest porcelain urn. Here’s the latest on the tenor Brounie sets at his “town hall” meetings on the health care debate:
CLARKESVILLE - U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, walked into a North Georgia Technical College auditorium Tuesday evening to a standing ovation, holding three thick white binders.
"Folks, this is Obamacare," he said, holding the binders over his head.
"Let me start this by telling you what I think of this bill and (President) Obama," he said, and slammed the binders on the ground. [Brounie has worn his great fondness for Jesus on his sleeve throughout his time in politics. Here, however, he appears to be channeling Moses when he broke the tablet containing the Ten No No’s]
With that, Broun set the tone for a town hall meeting on health care reform. The Democrats' proposal is too expensive and will threaten millions of Georgians' jobs and lives, he said.
"This is a stinking, rotten fish, and they don't want you to smell it, and they want to shove it down your throat and make you eat it before you smell how rotten and stinky it is," he said.
At another point, Broun, who last year made national news by comparing Obama to Hitler, called Cuba's former dictator Fidel Castro and leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Obama's "good buddy."
He also spoke of a "socialistic elite" - Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid - who might use a pandemic disease or natural disaster as an excuse to declare martial law.
"They're trying to develop an environment where they can take over," he said. "We've seen that historically."
Many speakers in the senior-heavy audience honed in on a clause in the health care proposal that would require insurers to cover end-of-life counseling sessions to help healthy patients decide beforehand what types of treatments they want to keep them alive if they are about to die.
"(Obama) is going to let the old folks die, and I don't like that at all," Oconee County resident Gene Aycock said.
Young people who get sick would get preference over the elderly under the Democrats' plan, said Broun, a medical doctor who made house calls in the Athens area before taking office in 2007.
"Eventually, mama will be lying in bed until she gets pneumonia and dies," he said.
[ Ironically this “death panel” nonsense originated with a proposal by Broun’s fellow Republican, Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, who used the term “nuts” to describe this interpretation of what he actually suggested (also advanced by Brounie soulmate Sarah Palin, by the way)]….
At some town hall meetings around the country during Congress' annual August recess, conservative protesters have clashed with Democrats and disrupted events. However, at Broun's Tuesday hearing, the crowd of 500 or so clearly was almost unanimously on Broun's side and relatively peaceful.
One woman attempted to ask a critical question about covering the uninsured while Broun was speaking, and Habersham County sheriff's deputies briefly removed her from the room before allowing her back inside. When she rambled for a few seconds during the designated question-and-answer period, Broun politely asked her to respect the people waiting to speak, but members of the audience shouted, "Cut her mike." [ Now let me get this straight, it’s Obama and his crowd who are supposedly the “Nazis,” right? I just wanted to be sure because the way the anti-Obies are acting at public forums here and elsewhere sure reminds me of what Hitler’s crowd did in Germany. For that matter, it also makes me think of the tactics employed by the Commies to take over the local Elks Club, in a J.Edgar-approved film I saw in high school.]Attendance Tuesday was well short of the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 who came out to a similar meeting Broun hosted Monday in Evans, but enough people showed up that he split the group into two sessions. About 400 people packed into the 250-seat auditorium for the first meeting, and 150 stuck around for the second.
Broun assured the crowds he will vote against the Democrats' plan no matter what. [ Ah, that’s the old bipartisan spirit, Brounie. What you say about Obama or his health care plan is up to you, but since you are on record as declaring American leaders should "serve the Lord Jesus Christ," I have to say, with apologies to Waylon, Hank, and of course, Jesus, I don’t think Jesus would ‘a done it this ‘a way.]
