Liberal Burblings

It’s a relief that the Health Care reform has passed in the US. Perhaps now I’ll be able to see the wood for the trees and understand what it means, once all the hoo-haa has died down. I suspect it will all turn out to be an historically good thing. It is very possible that the Republicans over-played their hand in 100% opposing the bill and have suffered a disastrous defeat- as former Bush speechwriter David Frum argues.

I was watching the Tweets about this in the dying hours of the debate. Quite extraordinary. As a simple example, one Tweeter said that President Obama should be impeached for passing Health care reform. Well, that sums up the absolutely preposterous Republican opposition to the bill (which is virtually identical to the reform Republican President Nixon tried to pass and which Republican Governor Mitt Romney passed in Massachusetts). Just ludicrous. Why would a President be impeached for implementing his key campaign promise on which he was elected by over 50% of the vote? And, in simple practical terms – der – you actually need a majority in the House to pass an impeachment resolution and a majority of the House voted for health care reform! Der!

Paul Begala writes an excellent article on the reform and the independent Factcheck.org does a very good job of setting the record straight on the more extravagant claims of the Republicans on this issue. For example, it is oft repeated that this is a “government takeover of health care” along the lines of Canada and the UK. It isn’t. The private health care providers remain, there is merely government assistance for most people to be insured. In fact, one could argue “more’s the pity”. The big winners here seem to be the insurers. They get 32 million new customers. Great for them – eh? 

That’s the irony. Obama has been regularly called a ” Marxist” and a “Socialist” because of this reform. I heard those very epithets repeated on C-Span’s excellent Washington Journal yesterday. But of course, the actual reform has absolutely nothing to do with Marxism or Socialism. It entirely involves private insurers and private health care providers, for goodness sake! It is a moderate centrist reform to ensure most people are covered by insurance, while giving them some help to do that. If Karl Marx heard this reform being associated with him, he would probably laugh his head off, presumably breaking the rules of the Celestial Library reading room in the process.