Posts Tagged ‘public option’

The Cure

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Stei091217

I’d like to believe that Senator Lieberman’s about-face on supporting the Senate’s health care reform bill was a principled stance, but I don’t. Either the man loves being the center of attention so much that he’s willing to break his promises, or the health care lobby that’s given him so much money got to him. Perhaps a little of both. The compromise that he originally signed on to was in fact a brilliant way to solve some of the funding issues and to incorporate a much-needed public option, and he was for it before he was against it. Given how erratic he’s been–supporting McCain during the election, then gratefully accepting the Democrats’ forgiveness, and now betraying both the party and his constituents–I’m hoping that his political career ends in 2012, when he’s up for re-election. My guess is he’ll slide over to the private sector instead of risking running again, most likely with a cushy job in health insurance.

We Can’t Have That!

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Stei090930

So, the public option, the very thing that makes health care reform doable, is evidently dead in the Senate, killed by Republicans who oppose any change in the status quo, and by timid Democrats who still operate as though they’re in the minority. How did we get to the place where the word “government” is synonymous with all things bad? The argument certainly can be made that one should be wary of too much government power when considering legislation, but that sensible reminder has been replaced with an automatic knee-jerk objection to anything government. Calling the public option a government take-over of health care is absurd on its face, yet that charge has stampeded enough frightened Dems to abandon the core of any sensible reform.

It’s a mystery why so many elected officials who hate government work so hard to stay in it term after term, and why so many self-professed government haters want to get into it election after election. I suspect it’s a lot of fun having the power to deny everyone else the benefits they enjoy, but that can’t be the only reason. But I digress.

I decided to apply the term “government-run” to everything I could think of, just to see how scary it sounded. While it’s indeed terrifying that we have a government-run military, government-run road building, government-run trash collection, government-run police and fire departments, none of these have the essential fright-factor I’m looking for. I had to go back to the very source of government itself; hence, this cartoon.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.