Sarah Palin being a fraud is not news. We all know that (at least anyone with more than 10 or 12 brain cells). She is a college drop-out, repeatedly. She quits everything she has ever started. From college (4 times) to governor of Alaska, to a 5k race to her own Hawaiian vacation. She isn’t even smart enough to know that she’s not smart. All of you Palin worshipers take note: you’re being played. You’re being manipulated. You have been since August, 2008 when Senator John McCain picked this train wreck as his running mate. And you’ve been falling for it ever since. Which makes you all accomplices. Accomplices to fraud, and to the potential destruction of this country. Make no mistake: Palin will be the end of this country if she gets elected to any other office. ANY other office. Elect her to Dog Catcher and she will rain destruction down … until she quits.
Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) called me this afternoon. Well, not Senator Burr himself of course, but one of his staffers called. They wanted to talk about Health Care Reform, since I have sent them a series of letters over the course of the past year. I think they were under the (sadly mistaken) impression that it would be an easy and congenial talk. Boy were they wrong. I guess they normally don’t reach informed, opinionated and passionate voters when they call constituents.
We began by talking about the Medicaid wait-lists that currently keep over 300,000 people with disabilities on waiting lists for medicaid access across the country. Medicaid is underfunded by the Federal government, and was sent to the budget-butchers by the republicans over the last 8 years. Senator Burr was one of those that voted — repeatedly — to cut funding to medicaid. But that was just the beginning. The poor staffer made the mistake of asking me what I thought should be done to fix the situation, and we were off to the races.
I complained about Senator Burr’s refusal to support Health Care Reform. His staffer responded that he didn’t “not support reform” he just “doesn’t support this bill.” Ok, said I, then he could have signed on to the “Medicare for all” bill, which would achieve 100% universal health care. Whooo boy! It went downhill from there.
But then Senator Burr’s office did something they never should have done. The staffer I was talking to must have mistaken me for some uninformed voter without the gumption to go fact-check her statements. See, she started saying that under the current bill, premiums would go up — standard republican talking point on this bill. But I pointed out to her that the CBO had pointed out that it was not true, and that President Obama had repeated that fact at yesterday’s Health Reform Summit. And here’s where she lied: She said that the “President issued a press release last night admitting that he had been mistaken in his assertion and that Lamar Alexander had been correct.” That’s right, she told me that President Obama had issued a press release amending his position on the fact that premiums would increase. So I checked. I can find no such press release. In fact, in checking politifact and factcheck.org, those assertions are bot still listed as ‘partially correct’ in just the way that the President stated them: Premiums for most would go down allowing them to purchase a better policy, which might cost more.
But that wasn’t the end of it by any stretch. I asked the staffer if Senator Burr had voted for the various funding bills that funded the war in Iraq, and the subsequent rebuilding of Iraq. She of course said that yes, he had. Proudly. Until I pointed out to her that he thereby supported giving every Iraqi citizen universal health care — at our expense – while not supporting giving every American citizen that same benefit. She wasn’t so thrilled then.
I asked her how he could justify continuing to leave the United States of America as the only modern western country in the world to not provide universal health coverage for its citizens. Her weak reply was that the Senator knew of some Canadians that didn’t like their universal care system. Well, I know some people that believe that humans co-existed with dinosaurs, but that doesn’t make it true, does it? No, it doesn’t. It’s just as much a crock of shit. Just because people believe something does not make it true. There are facts in this world. But I digress (and I did not get into such a discussion with the Senator’s office). She said people “didn’t want government-run health care.” Really? Ask anyone that actually has it if they want to give it up. Ask anyone with Medicare or VA Health benefits if they want to give it up in exchange for, say, the privilege of having United Healthcare insurance. Or Wellpoint. I’m dead certain that none of them would be willing to give it up (even the poor ignorant teabaggers with the signs of “keep the government out of my medicare!” don’t want to give up their government-run health coverage — that they don’t understand).
I continued to press the point that it was wrong, and indeed immoral, since Senator Burr claims to be such a Christian, that so many of our fellow citizens die every day because of a lack of access to healthcare (and if even one of you starts down that George Bush idiot-road of “everyone can just go the emergency room” I may very well have to come find you and send you to the emergency room. That is a complete pant-load and is, in fact, part of the reason that our costs are so high now as it is). It is just wrong. Until every single American has health coverage — universal health coverage — I will continue to dog his office on the matter. And until he gets on board with making universal health coverage a priority, I will not support him, and will, in fact, actively work to elect an opponent — any opponent – that will support universal health care.
Frankly, I think she was shocked to end up on the phone with a constituent that was better informed on the issue than she was. I’m sure she didn’t like the discussion as her syrupy sweet demeanor rapidly degenerated into a combative, disagreeable one when it became clear that I was not just going to agree with her. And for those of you that know me well, yes, I was extremely pleasant with her. I was friendly and factual. I just knew more than she did, and I have a morally defensible position, which she — and indeed the entire Republican party — does not on this issue. Not covering everyone is wrong. It just is.
I normally just post these things without comment, but not this time. NOT THIS TIME. You see, last summer I started having headaches. they got worse and worse and worse. To the point that I literally begged to be killed. I could not take it any longer. I was then admitted to the hospital for treatment. I got no relief. I lay in the hospital all alone, scared out of my mind. In utter agony. No one was reading me Thurber stories every night. No one was having discussions with the Doctors for me. I was a human pin-cushion being put under every machine in the building and I was unable to do anything about it. And I got no relief. After 5 days I was sent home. I was not sent home because I was better. I was not sent home because I was no longer in pain. the agony had not subsided in the least. If anything it had gotten worse. I was sent home because my insurance plan only covered 5 days of inpatient treatment for severe migraines. I was sent home to continue suffering and to wait for the bills and to hope that I didn’t lose my job because I was essentially unable to work and to worry about how I was going to pay for all of this. I was sent home to suffer BY MY FUCKING INSURANCE COMPANY. If you think your insurance company cares about you, about your well-being, about your health, you are more than mistaken. You are delusional. Your insurance company loves you as long as you are two things: healthy and paying your premiums. If either one one those things ceases to be true, they will no longer love you. They will no longer like you. They will find a way to get rid of you, or charge you more, or, ideally, both. So when you hear the teabaggers scream about “government run health care” and the evils of it, do yourself a favor. Go ask someone who actually HAS “government run healthcare” what they think of it. Go as a senior citizen (anyone over 65) if they like having Medicare. Ask them if they’d give it up. Even the tebaggers who can’t think clearly or spell to save their lives want “the government hands off my medicare!” Ask a vet if they’d give up their VA benefits. Both of those are single-payer, government-run health insurance. One’s even fully socialized medicine (perish the thought). Then try getting sick — and I mean really sick, not just a cold or the flu. We need to fix the health insurance crisis in this country, and we need to do it now before it’s too late. |
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Copyright © 2010 David G. Simmons - All Rights Reserved |
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