Today, in case the country didn't get how serious they were about enriching their pals by screwing the little people, the majority of the House Republicans made a game of pretending to care about balancing the budget by voting to defund Obamacare, a booby trap they set up to stop the budget bill in its tracks, threatening to shut down much of our central government if their crazy demands weren't met. (Clever fellows. They chose to defund it this time, saving themselves the embarrassment of having to vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act for. . .ready for this?. . . the 42nd time.)
(Oh, wait. Hold the phone. . .Here's a guy who says the 42nd time will be the charm. I am not kidding.)
Obamacare will not be perfect. For every person it helps, there will be those who will find it lacking--or even awful. But it's a start. It's the first opportunity we've had to hobble runaway insurance dictates, to slow down medical care costs, to get on the bandwagon leading to health care sanity. We're doing it large-scale through the government--the only way it can be done effectively and efficiently. The only way. And if this is the best we can do because of the obstacles put in place by the high-flyers who will most definitely see a drop in their beyond-the-bright-blue-sky profits, then shame on them. We'll keep moving forward, they'll keep throwing up obstacles, but eventually we'll catch up with those civilized countries that see so much value in their citizens they've figured out a way to keep the majority of them fed, safe, educated and healthy.
We thought we were heading in that direction. All these years we thought we were moving toward the kind of democracy Lincoln envisioned when he spoke of a government of the people, by the people and for the people, and now, when the chance is ours to do the right thing, when the need is so acute, we're hounded by a bunch of Republican congressmen so mean even junkyard dogs won't mess with them.
It's panic time now, with only ten more days left to demonize the ACA before the real stuff goes into effect, an action that will show up those Republican Servants of the People for the lying mercenaries they are. In their panic they've had to align themselves with some pretty nasty bedfellows. Some of them are hoping, come 2014, we won't notice, but until then they're feeling pretty free to keep on toying with us. And why not? Their benevolent benefactors, ALEC and the Koch Brothers, show no signs of either going away or running out of money. And some of us have very short memories.
But here's what's going to do them in: We don't like bullies. We don't like watching bullies hold weaker people down and use them for punching bags. Sooner or later we'll get up off our asses and do something about it. And if we're lucky the "watchdog" press will shake themselves loose and do the same.
And how's this for bad timing? The Republicans voted to eviscerate the food stamp bill in September, the month designated as "Hunger Action Month".
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(Obamacare myths debunked at FactCheck.org.)
