A Leprechaun Riding a White Unicorn
By David Glenn Cox
I had promised myself that I would make nice this week, being Christmas and all, but politicians do what politicians do; it is the way of the world and the nature of the beast. We must expect that, and as the Bible maintains: you will know them by their fruits. The "New York Times" has published an Op Ed by Vice President Joe Biden about the Senate health care bill. I have thought all along that Vice President Biden has done a good job of returning the Vice Presidency to its more traditional role of ribbon cuttings and attending state funerals.
However, Biden’s editorial really struck me, not with its logic but with its tone. He speaks to us as if we are ignorant children, and we should hush and be quiet because our betters are our betters for a reason. I have been skeptical about the health care debate since single payer was thrown out without even being heard and have become ever more so watching the public option die.
Father Joe begins, “IF I were still a United States senator, I would not only vote yes on the current health care reform bill, I would do so with the sure knowledge that I was casting one of the most historic votes of my 36 years in the Senate.”
Or, I was in the Senate for 36 years, so I am an authority and you are not. Being in the Senate 36 years means I could never be wrong about a bill.
“We have been here before. In the past, as the moment of decision drew nearer, criticism from both the left and the right grew louder. Compromises were derided. The perfect became the enemy of the good.”
If I hear “the perfect became the enemy of the good” one more time I’m going to scream. That term has been overused because there is not much else you can say when you bring a camel to a beauty contest. How about some other truisms: the strong exploit the weak, the rich exploit the poor.
Biden’s argument is that we should accept a bad deal because we cannot get a good one. Mr. Vice President, whose fault is that? You try and sell us this as a comic book, good guys and bad guys scenario when the failure is your own. There comes a time when you back away from a bad deal. I won’t sell a car or a house for less than it's worth just to make myself look like a dealmaker. I’ll walk away from a bad deal in a New York minute, or perhaps I should say intelligence is the enemy of the sham.
Biden continues, “Most recently, in 1993, Democrats had a chance to forge a compromise with Senator John Chafee, Republican of Rhode Island, on a health care reform bill. Congress’s failure to pass health care reform that year led to 16 years of inaction — and 16 years of exploding health care costs and rising numbers of uninsured Americans.”
The bill in 1993 died for the same reason this one needs to die, corporate interference in the operation of public government. More to the point, the Vice President pins the Clinton health care failure on a chance, not a guarantee, a chance, a mythical leprechaun riding a white unicorn.
“While it is not perfect,” The Vice President says, “the bill pending in the Senate today is not just good enough — it is very good. Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions or drop coverage when people get sick. Charging exorbitant premiums based on sex; age or health status will be outlawed. Annual and lifetime caps on benefits will be history.”
Except who decides what is exorbitant? Who decides next year and the year after that? Who is in control of this program? You know damn well who!
“I share the frustration of other progressives that the Senate bill does not include a public option. But I’ve been around a long time, and I know that in Washington big changes never emerge in perfect form.”
Joe says, gee guys, I’m a progressive too, and well gee, it doesn’t have single payer or a public option or even a Medicare buy in, but it is still a swell bill because in Washington nothing is ever really that good. No one is looking for perfect, Joe, but this bill is the antithesis of perfect. This is insurance company welfare with government checks made out to private corporations in the amount of forty billion dollars a year. I don’t expect perfect but I do expect someone to fight for our corner.
“Is America better off today because a chance at a compromise health bill was missed in 1993? For my friends on the left, the rising toll of the uninsured provides an emphatic no. For my friends on the right, the soaring share of federal spending on health care likewise provides a no. Let’s not make the same mistake again.”
“Is America better off today?” Forgetting that this is a totally disingenuous argument, let's turn it around; after all, turn about is fair play. Why is America not better off? Leadership in the White House? Certainly. Leadership in Congress and the Senate? Of course, and you were in the Senate for how long, Joe?
“If the bill passes the Senate this week, there will be more chances to make changes to it before it becomes law. But if the bill dies this week, there is no second chance to vote yes. What those who care about health insurance reform need to realize is that unless we get 60 votes now, there will be no health care reform at all. Not this year, not in this Congress — and maybe not for another generation.”
If it does pass it will be marked as a project completed and so there will be no changes made to it and it will not be fixed for at least a generation. The Vice President's own argument is the very reason to defeat this Gorgon. Should we trust that the good changes will be suddenly made when all we have seen made so far is the opposite?
When Franklin Roosevelt proposed Social Security it wasn’t because he just had a soft spot in his heart for seniors. It wasn’t because America was the only major power in the world without such a scheme; it was to move seniors out of the workforce. The more seniors you moved out the more young people you could move in. Seniors were the poorest demographic in America. So the seniors were aided, their families were aided and the job market was aided. It wasn’t the perfect being the enemy of the good, but it was the good being a friend to the poor!
In 1948 Harry Truman brought a single payer health care plan before Congress. Years later Lyndon Johnson credited Truman’s plan as being the basis of modern Medicare. Truman lost in the Senate by one vote and over the next two decades of his life he never once said, we should have compromised with those Republicans. Gosh, we should have just caved in to a bad bill! Instead he said, “To hell with them. When history is written they will be the sons of bitches - not I.”
So, the Vice President’s argument is that he is a progressive who doesn’t think that lack of single payer or a public option or a Medicare buy in are important enough reasons to vote no. That no good legislation ever comes out of Washington anyway, so you must take what is the least bad. Mr. Biden forgot to mention several things. First, that this bill will begin to be phased in after the mid-term elections and won’t come in to full effect until 2014. Then, that it will cost the average family 17% of their income, and it will be mandated by law that they purchase insurance from a private corporation.
“The Republicans believe that the power of government should be used first of all to help the rich and the privileged in the country. With them, property, wealth, comes first. The Democrats believe that the power of government should be used to give the common man more protection and a chance to make a living. With us the people come first.” Harry Truman said that. Joe and Harry don’t sound very much alike, do they?
The push for health care reform by the Democratic Party extends back more than fifty years. It has always been based on a single payer system and has always been open for frank discussion. When a Democratic vice president makes an appeal for a Trojan Horse health care plan in the "New York Times," and forgets to mention mandates and subsidies to private corporations, fines and penalties on working American families, he is patronizing us and misleading us. Want to save 25% on health care costs? Kill private health insurance.
This is a ticking time bomb; it leaves the health care corporations in full control of health care. When that day comes when millions of Americans are filling out their tax forms and find they are no longer getting a refund because they didn’t purchase the health insurance they couldn’t afford in the first place, then you will see true anger. As they discover the reality that their refund checks have been bundled up and sent off to Aetna or US Healthcare, then Democrats will become a rare commodity, as rare as a mythical leprechaun riding a white unicorn.
“It's plain hokum. If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em. It's an old political trick. But this time it won't work.” (Harry Truman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/opinion/20biden.html?ref=opinion