A Perfect Health Care Reform Bill???

Congress will never achieve the perfect bill in seeking to enact true health care reform for the benefit of all Americans. But that will be OK.

Indeed, that will be just fine.

When the 1787 Constitutional Convention was in its last day, and still there remained deep divides among the delegates Benjamin Franklin penned these words and, too weak to actually deliver the speech, asked fellow Pennsylvanian James Wilson to deliver his words. Here are selected lines from his speech:

"Mr. President –

I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. ..

It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error.

...I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us…

…I doubt, too, whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?

…It, therefore, astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats.

Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best…"

It is my hope that at least one representative in Congress will rise this fall to repeat Mr. Franklin’s words for the benefit of all his colleagues…and that each will bear Mr. Franklin’s words in mind as he casts a vote in favor of health care reform.

Bush 43 White House: More Like "The Office."

I have been saying for years that tales of the Bush 43 White House, written upon his retirement from office by his former staff, are going to make your hair curl. Scott McClellan got the ball rolling with his book, What Happened.

Now comes a book by former speech writer, Matt Latimer, Speech Less: Tales of a White House Survivor. In an article I saw this morning, he writes, “In 2007, I finally made it to the Bush White House as a presidential speechwriter. But it was not at all what I envisioned. It was less like Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing and more The Office.”

I have to get this book.

On the other hand, I know already I will not enjoy reading it. I know it will make me sick to learn more of the incompetence of the Bush 43 White House and of the damage Bush/Cheney did to the republic. I think I will buy it and put it on a shelf to read a few years from now.

Throw a Shoe!

First it was the right-wingers who got so upset when they heard President Obama was about to deliver a speech to their children on the first day of school. They warned of a brainwashing experience…and they wouldn’t let it go.

Then it was the left-wingers who really got riled when that crazy Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted, “You lie!,” at President Obama during his speech to the joint session of Congress…and they wouldn’t let it go.

What’s the matter with people? Can’t we cool it just a little bit. We’re about to get this thing completely off the rails. Are there any grown-ups in the room?

I like the idea of throwing shoes at the person we disagree with and letting it go at that. It’s far more civil and certainly makes the point clearly and unambiguously.

Who of us didn’t smile as we watched the Iraqi reporter throw both of his shoes at GW Bush last year in disgust. That said it all, didn’t it?

How much better would it be – and how quickly the issue resolved – if we all just threw a shoe – two shoes if we felt strongly – at the person making the statement we didn’t like.

For example, teachers could throw worn out shoes with a big hole in each sole at TV’s Glenn Beck for trying to convince us President Obama was trying to brainwash our kids. Most of his opinions have holes clean through them, don't they?

South Carolina reporters could throw a high heeled shoe at Governor Sanford the next time he brings up his Argentina mistress.

When former VP Dick Cheney brings up how great everything was during the Bush/Cheney administration, reporters could throw a pair of rubber galoshes at him.

Even Congressman Joe Wilson could have thrown one of his Gucci loafers at Obama if he really thought the President was misleading America on health care reform. Wilson wouldn’t have hit him because Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia would have jumped up, caught them, and walked out with them so he could compare expensive loafers with the health insurance industry lobbyists waiting in the hall.

Don’t you think we should cool off this altogether too hot attempt at public discourse today?

Just throw a shoe!

Urgent Obama Alert

Please take immediate action and help save our children from President Obama’s first indoctrination speech. I understand President Obama will address the nation’s school children Tuesday and tell them to…uh, do their best. Can you imagine? The very idea. We must protect our children!

I also understand he is going to tell them to…uh, stay away from drugs. What!? There he goes again, messing with our health care. Sounds communistic to me!

It’s great that the right wing of the Republican national political party is on the case and alerting the nation to this terrible danger.

This just in: The Bulloch County Georgia board of education has decided, as a first step, to tape the speech on Tuesday and review it carefully for any evidence of brainwashing. Whew! Thank Goodness for their alertness. Maybe we’ll save a few of the children.

This message brought to you by the “Palin for President 2013 Committee.”

Emotion...or Power

A friend asked me today if the current health care debate was the most emotional issue since the civil rights debate of the 1960s.

I told him this debate has nothing to do with emotion; it has everything to do with power. For the people, it is an emotional issue. For the country's elected leaders, it is ONLY about power.

For the Republicans, it is about their very existence. If they lose their all out battle to defeat ANY health care reform, they believe viscerally that the people will like what the government gives them (just as they like Medicare today, "don't you mess with my Medicare"), and they believe the people will not be inclined to replace Dems with Repubs at that point. That means Rs lose power big time and will likely be relegated to minority status for a long, long time.

They are rolling the dice on this one. If they can defeat Obama, they know they have a chance to regain control of the Congress and soon thereafter, the White House. If they lose this fight, they lose whatever small amount of power they have left....and must be content to be the powerless naysayers in the corner for a long time. That is why the battle is so bloody, and why the Rs are attempting to make it the most emotional you have ever seen ("don't want no death panel telling me when I can die," "don't want my country to become another Russia," "don't want no socialized medicine in America.")

The right wing is fomenting much of the irrational comment AND behavior. The racists and the crazies are coming out of the woodwork. This is going to be a tough fall.

I don't know if the Dems in Congress have the spine to stick with what is right for America. Nearly everyone agrees we need to rein in private insurance companies and get premiums under control; we need to accept all applicants for healthcare regardless of pre-existing conditions; we need to guarantee a minimum package of benefits for everyone. Frankly, I can find no one on Capitol Hill who disagrees on two basic elements of reform: the need to reform of health insurance markets, and the need to expand healthcare coverage, with federal subsidies for some. Even Repubs recognize consensus can be reached in these areas...........BUT, right now, they are fighting all -- I repeat -- ALL efforts at reform, because they fear risking the lost of that true mother's milk of politics -- POWER.