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Healthcare: Why a bipartisan solution is needed
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I've been watching the health care debate in our country. Never have I seen such a highly polarizing issue in the public discourse. The stimulus was hotly debated, but the health care struggle right now completely dwarfs that. We're talking about something all Americans care about: What will happen should injury or sickness strike, and how much it will cost.
Much attention has been given to the town hall protests. I've heard the criticisms. Right-wing this and that. I've heard the weird stories. Swastikas this and that. I've seen the footage. And angry young veteran, an angry elderly woman. Some blame the protests squarely on the far right-wing establishment. I do not agree with this. The far right, like the far left, is always up to something, but most of the people speaking up in town hall meetings, directly to their representatives, sound like sincerely concerned citizens to me. Maybe they are disrespectful sometimes, but shouldn't a democracy err on the side of disrespect that on quiet acquiesence? It means we care enough to shout. That's a good quality for a democracy.
I can imagine how those against Obama's health care plan might feel like they're being ignored. When it comes down to it, In a Democrat-dominated government, why does anyone even need to listen to them? Congress could basically pass this thing if it really wanted to. Nothing you or I say is likely to stop that. Thankfully, the bill has been slowed down in the Senate in time to give us a chance to really think it through. This, I feel, we desperately need. You can't just throw together a sweeping health care overhaul hastily and shove it through. It affects us all.
On primetime news today--the Lou Dobbs show, I might add--I was confronted with the opinion of one of the guests, who said that the real solution to this needed to be bipartisan legislation. As I was thinking about that--an opinion I had not actually heard someone give yet, surprisingly enough--I decided I couldn't agree more. That's how these really big issues need to be solved. So far American liberals and American conservatives are definitively split on this issue. Neither wants to give any ground to the other. I really don't think our Democrat and Republican representatives and Senators are much different. But through the age-old method of compromise, which legislatures are supposed to be good at, I think we could arrive at a piece of legislation that could actually allow us to do something about our current problems and that wouldn't be full of hasty mistakes.
Is this a populist angle? I don't think so, because all I'm asking is for us to exert the effort to compromise. I don't think of populist ideas as asking us to exert real political effort, I just think of them as catchy clichés. Just because my idea is bipartisan (or even nonpartisan), does that make it populist?
Insurance is too pricey. There must be a bipartisan solution to this, one that is not overly ideological in either direction. This is how we have solved many problems before. There are too many uninsured Americans. There must also be a bipartisan solution to this. While everyday we wait to act, Americans are shelling out more money than they ought to be, it's more important that we stop and really think this through, so we can produce a wise set of policies that will leave a lasting, positive legacy.
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