Maria Brewer of the Decoder Ring has a perceptive retrospective of the long and winding debate:
For those of us who have been watching the misinformation stream coming out of the Obstructionist’s Party on the right, it has been a head-scratching fight. Though the Republican Party had ten years in the majority to study and pass health care reform legislation to their liking, they did nothing. They continued to let an ever increasing portion of America’s GDP get sucked out of our hides and into the pockets of an industry whose profiteering callousness knows no bounds. Every day American families spend 18% and still rising of our household budgets on healthcare. Well, those of us lucky enough to get it. And now the right’s rallying cry is a weak “Code Red.” Indeed, they have waited until the patient is dying on the table to start their inadequate wails of “save us,” blaming those who are trying to sort through a difficult diagnosis as if we caused the disease….
Now, as the Congress readies itself to pass legislation, we must look past the hype, the media moment of the day, the manufactured winners and losers of the horse race. No one thinks this legislation is perfect, but the Republican Party needs to start telling the truth about this issue. There is no time to start over, they had their chance, and they lost their majorities.
Perhaps we have reached the end of one battle, but this is really just another step on the long path of liberty and justice for all. Thanks to our Founding Fathers, we are no longer yoked by fealty to King or Crown, but my how the Framers would be appalled by our bent knees before the throne of Corporatism and Profiteering.
Go read the rest. Maria’s voice is one that has been hiding too long in Sumner County. She needs to be heard.
T/F/B: Speak to Power
Dean, you should totally get yourself a blog!
Very good stuff. I have got to get me one of them blogs. And Maria Brewer, I think I love you!
Re: Health care — it ain’t done yet. We’re damn close, though. The media will try and distort the truth by saying it’s a tainted victory, that the Senate used reconciliation and the House threw out the whole deem-and-pass that “has never been used before,” (even though it’s been used more than 80 times since 2005).
Two major points where Maria’s hammer hit the nail:
1. When this passes, the Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves. Had they “governed from the middle” — as they tell Obama he should — and addressed some of these issues when they wielded power, they would have credibility when talking about reform. But their desire to shrink government put them behind, and now the only way to play catch-up is to take the air out of the ball.
2. Republicans really have trouble with the truth, don’t they? I mean, politicians of all stripes usually have their version of the truth, but a lot of the misinformation is about stuff that’s easily verifiable: Death panels. Birthers. WMD in Iraq. Waterboarding isn’t torture. Climate change.