by Jerry Kolber<\/i><\/p>\n
What the hell happened to health care<\/a> reform? It turns out that not only is Barack Obama not some sort of savior, messiah, or angel, as his post-election pre-office halo seemed to suggest, he is also not even able to push a clear mandate for comprehensive health care reform <\/a>through congress – Harry Reid<\/a> must now shepherd the health care reform bill through another series of compromises and deals before it gets near the President. And the President must deal with a Republican congress whose political mandate seems to be to respond to anything from the White House with “I’m rubber you’re glue, anything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.” <\/p>\n On the day Obama took office, wars didn’t end, the sick didn’t miraculously heal, falling profits didn’t turn into showers of gold, polluted rivers didn’t start shimmering with fish and sunlight. Heck, he didn’t even make good on his promise to ” have the But how did this happen? How did we go from tremendous momentum for the plan the president proposed to a swampy soupy bill of watered down intentions?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meanwhile, freshmen Rep. Alan Grayson The Republicans continue to apparently have God on their side (many Of course, I haven’t read every last word of scripture, so maybe there’ But here’s the problem. As a Buddhist (or frankly, anyone with a But then I come back to right now, and one guy with big ears who did a Because otherwise, you could end up just being another Jimmy Carter, only without the big peanuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jerry Kolber What the hell happened to health care reform? It turns out that not only is Barack Obama not some sort of savior, messiah, or angel, as his post-election pre-office halo seemed to suggest, he is also not even able to push a clear mandate for comprehensive health care reform through congress –…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-right-lifestyle"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n[health reform] negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making
\narguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments
\non behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.” Meh, fail. <\/p>\n
\n
The Republicans have done a truly magnificent job of co-opting the
\nhealth insurance debate on behalf of the insurance companies profits,
\nconvincing many people who are smart enough to know better that: “Not
\nonly will killing the public health insurance option keep more money in
\nyour pocket (benefit), it will also keep Obama from killing your
\ngrandma (clobber the competition).” It’s a perfect advertising slogan –
\nthe benefit of OUR product and why THEIR’S sucks. And short enough to
\nbe Twittered, no less. <\/p>\n
\nof Florida offered the only Democratic version of such beautifully
\ncrafted propaganda: to paraphrase him, “The Republican health care plan
\nis for you to not get sick. And if you do get sick, they want you to
\ndie quickly.” While not quite right speech, at least he got the
\nclobber the competition part right. He failed to offer the benefit of
\nthe Democrats plan, though, so even as the media breathlessly reported
\nthe shocking discovery of an actual set of balls in the Democratic
\nparty, he didn’t get even fifteen whole minutes of fame.<\/p>\n
\nreferring to the GOP as God’s Only Party), though last time I checked
\nGod is not a Republican. God also mentioned in a few books he wrote
\nthat taking care of the least among us is a top priority for good Jews
\nand Christians, so that would seem to make a moral imperative of actual
\naffordable universal health care. Heck, I don’t need God to tell me
\nthat doing whatever it takes to make sure that people can just go to a
\nfucking doctor is the right thing to do. We’re not talking about how
\nto give people free ice cream. It’s freakin’ health care. <\/p>\n
\ns a chapter coming up about how God’s chosen people are the insurance
\ncompanies. Or maybe God is on vacation from the Republican party.
\nMaybe right now GOP stands for God’s Out Partying, or maybe God just
\ntook a break from the Republicans to see if he can fashion a new spine
\nfor the Democrats.<\/p>\n
\nwell-developed sense of personal place in the world) I can’t point over
\nthere and say “See, those people over THERE are why we are the only
\nindustrialized nation without a simple, straightforward and fair system
\nof health care.” There is no Republican or Democratic party – there are
\njust people who identify with those parties, and then coalesce around
\nthe most vocal members of those party’s agendas. There’s me. So, I have
\nto ask myself these questions:
\n How does our intentions and desires overcome a handful of lobbyists with a whole lot of cash?
\nOn a personal level, what I am doing on behalf of health care?
\nAm I taking care of my own health and the health of those around me,
\neven (or especially) the physical and mental health of people I don’t
\nknow?
\nWhat have I done today, right now, to end sickness and suffering and violence in my own corner of the world?
\nHow many wars, on how many fronts, am I personally waging right now? (answer: a lot more than two…)
\nWhat would it take to end those wars?
\nWhat would a healthy, non-violent, spiritually mature life look like for me?<\/p>\n
\nwhole lot of listening and a whole lot of talking. So, listen up Prez.
\nThis ain’t Chicago. You don’t know yet who your friends are and who
\nyour enemies are. But we elected you because you promised. Right now,
\nyou’re still coasting on good willl and a decent popularity rating.
\nYou’ve still got a little more than 75% of your term left to accomplish
\n100% of what you said you would. Start talking again in the same
\nclear, meaningful, actionable, direct language that made us believe in
\nyou last year. <\/p>\n