Monday, November 23, 2009
Straw Man, I'm [not] together with your plan (apologies to Soundgarden)
Last week in the Nashville City Paper, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) published an op-ed entitled "The problem with the status quo." Here's the concluding paragraph:
Keeping today’s sickness care non-system is not a viable option. It not only needs to be changed, it is collapsing on its own weight. Congress is having some difficulty agreeing on the most necessary improvements, but that debate is necessary. There are ways to reform the non-system that we can agree on that will make all Americans, and America itself, healthier and stronger.
Of course, no one in America is arguing that the status quo vis-à-vis health-care should be maintained -- insurance execs included. Cooper is merely ripping a page from his boss's playbook (his boss being Nancy Pelosi) when he props up such a straw man.
If Cooper really wanted to "reform" America's "non-system" of health care, he could do so in a profound way, almost overnight. All he'd have to do is sponsor a bill for medical malpractice reform, expanded Medical Savings Accounts, and reforming the IRS "code" to give individuals the same tax breaks that companies get when it comes to purchasing health insurance.
Every Republican in the U.S. House, as well as a great many of his "Blue Dog" colleagues [I'll have more to say about Jim Cooper the Blue Dog at a later date], would get behind his effort, and he'd be the Champion of health care Choice and Competition ... which, supposedly, is the Holy Grail of the B. Hussein Obama Administration.
Cooper ain't gonna do all that, however, and we all know it. Jerry Lee will kick him square in the balls - literally and monetarily - if he does.
Keeping today’s sickness care non-system is not a viable option. It not only needs to be changed, it is collapsing on its own weight. Congress is having some difficulty agreeing on the most necessary improvements, but that debate is necessary. There are ways to reform the non-system that we can agree on that will make all Americans, and America itself, healthier and stronger.
Of course, no one in America is arguing that the status quo vis-à-vis health-care should be maintained -- insurance execs included. Cooper is merely ripping a page from his boss's playbook (his boss being Nancy Pelosi) when he props up such a straw man.
If Cooper really wanted to "reform" America's "non-system" of health care, he could do so in a profound way, almost overnight. All he'd have to do is sponsor a bill for medical malpractice reform, expanded Medical Savings Accounts, and reforming the IRS "code" to give individuals the same tax breaks that companies get when it comes to purchasing health insurance.
Every Republican in the U.S. House, as well as a great many of his "Blue Dog" colleagues [I'll have more to say about Jim Cooper the Blue Dog at a later date], would get behind his effort, and he'd be the Champion of health care Choice and Competition ... which, supposedly, is the Holy Grail of the B. Hussein Obama Administration.
Cooper ain't gonna do all that, however, and we all know it. Jerry Lee will kick him square in the balls - literally and monetarily - if he does.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Monday, November 23, 2009 
