Hit the Reset Button

I’m probably contradicting myself here. I told you earlier that health care was the angel that we had to wrestle with, like Jacob in the Bible, until we got the blessing out of it. The angel, though, may not be Senator Baucus and his bill. Or maybe he’s Jacob and the bill is the angel. I’m confused.

The bill does good things and bad things -- but if it’s hundreds of pages long, it’s doing too many things. It’s just going to be another big game to play, like the tax system. But the bottom line is, this country isn’t ready for full health care reform.

We’re just too used to putting up with abusive systems, on the grounds that it’s the way life is. Most of us just aren’t dissatisfied enough. We’re not mad as hell, and we’re still OK with taking more of it. While insurance companies screw a lot of people, they perform a great service for others – they shield them from having to deal with costs. If your insurance company pays off on the $40 your hospital charges for a toothbrush, it’s not your problem – that’s what you pay premiums for. As long as you have a job and you’re covered, other people’s problems aren’t yours.

This will only be solved comprehensively when enough people demand that it be solved. We’re just not there yet. If we begin from the premise that there is a moral obligation to provide health care for all with a reasonable set of rules, we can make it happen, but most Americans just don’t feel that way about it yet.

The President is trying to argue that reform can be accomplished without raising taxes. It’s beginning to rhyme with READ MY LIPS, and he’s painted himself and this effort into a corner. If we really want reform, it will likely involve raising taxes. If there’s a real commitment to reform, that wouldn’t be an obstacle. But we’re not ready. The declaration “We can’t afford it” can be easily translated: that’s not a priority now.

The perfect doesn’t have to be the enemy of the good, but with all due respect to the legislators who have worked so hard on trying to reach a compromise, it certainly should be the enemy of the s—tty. I say, hit the reset button and start over on this, and bite off what we can really chew.