The British are not coming. Neither are the Canadians, nor the French, nor the....

The British are scared. They are frightened that their Conservative party-led government is going to blow up their long-established system of public health care and replace it with something like the American privatized system. This would not be acceptable to them and so they are worried and their politicians are having to repeatedly reassure them that no such plans are being made.

Remember the health care debate in this country a couple of years ago? Remember all the bombastic, jingoistic right-wing commentators who loudly proclaimed that America has the best medical care system in the world and that people from all those countries with inferior systems, like Britain and Canada, want to come here for treatment? Remember all of that? Well, like so much else spouted by the right in that debate, (Death panels, anyone?) it was a blatant, bald-faced lie. The British are NOT coming and neither are the Canadians nor the French. In fact, citizens in just about every other industrialized country in the world - all of which except for the U.S. have public-financed health care systems - are happier with their health care than Americans are. That goes for the British and the Canadians, too. Why would they want to come here? The myth that they do is all part of the "American exceptionalism" nonsense which is central to the fervent political religion of the right-wing. If they could remove the blinders from their eyes and see this country as others see it, they would be in for perhaps a fatal shock.

Unfortunately, the blinders are firmly in place and the stupidity goes on. People in large numbers in this country, unlike any of our fellow industrialized countries, continue to go without insurance and without needed medical care because they cannot afford it. That would never happen in Britain.

Facts vs. Opinions

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts."
- attributed to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reviews bills that are being considered by Congress and determines how those bills will affect the budget. Since its creation, the CBO has always been accepted as apolitical and disinterested by both ends of the political spectrum. Its expertise about budgetary matters is unquestioned by any fair-minded observer.

They have reviewed the Republican Congress' centerpiece, ballyhooed legislation, the bill they are calling "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act," which will be considered this week. They have concluded that repealing the reform law would drive up the deficit by $230 billion over the first decade and much more in later years.

And what was the Republicans' response to this review by the CBO? Did they take another look at their bill and try to come up with commonsense ways that it could be made cost neutral, or perhaps even reduce the budget? Don't be silly! No, John Boehner's response to the budget experts' report was that they were "entitled to their opinion" but that he disagreed. He offered more basis for his disagreement.

Furthermore, the new "deficit hawk" Republican majority in the Congress has loudly touted their new rule that any bill that increases spending must be offset by cuts in other programs. How did they get their "Repealing the Job-Killing...etc." past this new rule? Again, don't be silly! Rules don't stop these people. They can do anything! They simply exempted their bill from the rules. I suppose this means that anytime they have a bill that cannot live up to their rule, they will simply wave their magic gavel and exempt it! They've already said that any bills cutting taxes don't have to pass this rule.

So where does this leave us? It leaves us with an unserious "Keystone Kongress" that does not rely on facts, but instead chooses to govern based on its opinions. Those opinions will, this week, lead them to pass a bill which, among other things, will do the following:

1. Allow insurance companies once again to deny children coverage because they have pre-existing medical conditions.

2. Allow insurance companies to once again rescind a policy after a person becomes sick and needs its benefits.

3. It will allow insurance companies to cap the amount that they will pay for medical care over a lifetime.

4. Parents will no longer be able to keep their children on their health insurance policies until the children are 26.

5. Insurance companies will no longer be required to cover preventive care in new policies without cost-sharing.

6. Insurance companies will not be required to spend at least 80 percent of their premium income on medical care and quality improvements, rather than profits or administrative costs.

7. Small businesses will no longer receive federal tax credits to help them provide insurance coverage to their employees.

8. It will also put an end to a reinsurance program that is helping more than 4,700 employers, large and small, provide health coverage to early retirees.

9. Many people will be required to pay more out-of-pocket for their health care, as estimated by the CBO. The "doughnut hole" for people on Medicare Part D will return.

And what are the Republicans offering to replace all of these benefits? Don't be silly! They don't believe that the government should have any part in assisting people to get health care. They would see us return to the early 1900s - each man, woman, and child would be on his or her own. That is their philosophy, their morality, if you will. It is a morality and a philosophy that is based entirely on opinion. And a very self-centered, narcissistic, "I've got mine, who gives a flying fig about you?" opinion it is.

Are these really the kind of people that we want governing our country?

Chickens for checkups

Finally, after all these months of debate about health care reform and after final passage of the bill, the Republicans have come out with their own plan for paying for medical care. It is simplicity itself. Instead of money, you are supposed to offer your doctor something of value in return for his/her services. In other words, you are supposed to barter for your medical care. In the famous, and now infamous, words of Sue Lowden, Nevada's Republican candidate for the Senate, you should bring your doctor a chicken to pay for your care.

We used to keep a few hens in our backyard. They are wonderful animals and I value them, but, frankly, I don't see them paying for our medical services. The priciest hen would be valued at around $6 to $10.

My husband recently required a medical procedure the total cost of which was right around $100,000. That's a lot of chickens. I don't think our backyard could hold enough of them to pay that bill.

I wonder if the Republicans have thought of extending this innovative plan to other areas of commerce. Ms. Lowden, I understand, works for a casino in Las Vegas. I wonder if her employer would consider taking chickens from its patrons to pay for their losses at the casino.

Or perhaps the Republicans would consider taking their campaign donations in chickens instead of dollars. After all, if it's good enough for doctors, surely it's good enough for politicians.

Countdown

We are in the final countdown to Congress' action on the Health Care Reform bill and the opponents of reform seem to be getting more and more desperate, hysterical, and unhinged from reality and the norms of common decency.

Yes, indeedy, there was another tea party at the Capitol today and the partiers showed their true colors - not that there had ever really been any doubt about their colors. They run the full range of hues from white to - um - white.

These party-goers today jostled and shouted abuse at Congressional Democrats entering the Capitol to perform their duties as elected representatives of the people. Many of them carried signs with entirely heinous slogans, some threatening violence. The obscenities shouted, as well as the signs, clearly revealed the homophobic and racist tendencies of the crowd and said a lot more about the shouters than about the recipients of the verbal and, sometimes, physical abuse. At least one of the representatives was spat upon.

Really? Is this the level of civic discourse that we've come to in this country? We reason with elected representatives by spitting on them?

This story makes me sad and mad, in equal portions, but honestly, these little people are so pitiable and frightened that it is hard to sustain any feeling about them other than compassion. They are dupes. They have been lied to and scared out of whatever wits they may have had and misled into to thinking that their "cause" is saving their nation, when, in fact, they seem to have very little idea of what their nation is all about. Their true cause is what their leaders stir them up to support - namely protecting insurance companies and other corporations that use them for their own financial gain. This is most certainly not in the financial interest of the tea partiers themselves who would benefit from the policies against which they protest so loudly.

But, in their minds, it seems that their "noble cause" is all about God and guns and white male domination of society. If they could - and this is the one REALLY scary thing about them - they would create a theocracy based on their own very narrow interpretation of the Bible. They are the American equivalent of the Taliban.

Their interpretation of the Bible certainly doesn't include any of Jesus' teachings about caring for the poor or being a "Good Samaritan" to your neighbor. Who is my neighbor? Is it the woman who will die tonight because she has no health insurance? I think I know what Jesus would say. And I think I know what tea partier Dick Armey would say. I believe I'll stand with Jesus on this one.

Is this finally it?

Is this the week when we finally get a major health care reform bill, however weakened it may be, signed into law by the president? The signs are looking favorable and yet one is almost too terrified to hope at this point. The opposition has been so implacable and so utterly devious and unreasonable, so concerned for the welfare of their corporate sponsors rather than for the average citizen. I am sure they will fight an entrenched battle right up to the very end, so it is essential that those who are trying to pass this bill stay alert and stay strong and do not falter as they near the finish.

From what I understand of what will be in the final bill, it is certainly not what I and many others had hoped for. It will not provide universal health care coverage to Americans, as most countries in the industrialized world provide for their citizens, and yet it is an important step forward.

It is important because it is the first step, the foot in the door, so to speak. Once the principle is established, one can only hope that the law will continue to be amended and improved over the coming years, so that, finally, in a number of years, we may find ourselves on a par with Costa Rica or Canada or France.

Until then, we will continue to be at a disadvantage in the world. A disproportionate percentage of our gross national income will continue to be spent on health care. Money that could be spent to take care of other national needs will be consumed by the monster that is our health care system.

I'm really tired of reading and hearing about this issue. I'm particularly tired of all the lying, hypocrisy, and disingenuousness of the dishonest opponents of reform. I sincerely hope that this week will finally bring them the defeat that they so richly deserve and that we can then move on to some of the other pressing issues facing our country.

Reform of financial institutions and services, for example.

It's done

He did it! Harry Reid, excoriated by both left and right and underestimated by almost everybody except possibly his caucus which elected him leader, has done what no other Majority Leader of the Senate, even the most legendary, has been able to do. He has held his fractious caucus together through months of bickering, marching them, cajoling them, bargaining with them toward this final result - passage of a Health Care Reform bill.

It's not the end, of course. Under the arcane rules of legislation, this flawed bill must now be reconciled with the House's more generous bill and then voted on by both Houses again before it can finally land on the President's desk for signature.

Still, this accomplishment must not be underestimated. It is a first, a beginning, and Harry Reid has done it. Good on him!

The one hundred percenters

Sometimes I just don't get it. Liberals have been trying to bring meaningful health care reform to this country for my entire lifetime - and longer. Now we are closer than ever before to achieving that, and yet a sizable minority of so-called committed liberals rail against it.

Every night on Keith Olbermann's Countdown, we hear his heated hyperbole about everything that is wrong with the Senate and House bills. THEY DON'T HAVE A STRONG ENOUGH PUBLIC OPTION!!! THEY DON'T COVER 100% OF ALL PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES!!! THEY ARE TOO KIND TO THE PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES!!! THE DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS AND IN THE WHITE HOUSE HAVE SOLD US OUT!!! THE WORLD WILL END IN 2012!!!

Well, I made that last one up, but not really. Olbermann and his hyperventilating kind seem to believe that if we don't get 100% of everything that liberals wanted in this bill that there is just no hope for the Democrats in elections in 2010 and in 2012.

The truth is that life is a compromise and one hardly ever gets 100% of what one wants, but if one gets 50% or even 30% and that is the best that can be had in the present climate, isn't that a deal worth taking? Then we can work to change the climate so that perhaps next time we can get closer to that 100%. The pragmatists and realists believe so and I count myself among them. Half a loaf, particularly a half that extends Medicare to a significant portion of additional Americans, is definitely better than no loaf at all.

(Read more at Daily Kos.)