Bipartisan Consensus Has Been Reached

Everybody hates the Baucus version of the health reform bill.

“There are honest and principled differences among all of us working for reform,” he said at another point. “And this package may not represent all of our first choices.”

Yep. That's right: Honestly and in principle, the republicans want to make sure that the American people continue to face excess deaths equivalent to a 9/11 every month and a half because they can't afford health care. In principle, the republicans honestly see no reason that the insurance companies and big pharma shouldn't continue to profit from the trickle-down, torrent-up model of business we worship in this country. Honestly, the republicans think that principles of high finance demand that the bankrupting of families should continue; if they can't afford to deal with their health costs it's their own fault. They should have thought about the consequences before they got sick or injured.

Asked if he were disappointed by the lack of support from Republicans, Mr. Baucus acknowledged that “no Republican has offered his or her support at this moment.”

I have become heartily sick of the old chestnut that goes (with variations) "if even one life was saved, it was worth any effort." That sentiment is asinine to begin with (how many lives might have been saved if that effort was directed elsewhere?); the fact that I come across it daily has rendered it so trite that it now angers me.

However, I think with a slight rearrangement, it might be fresh and fitting for our time: "If even one person was saved from paying an extra socialist tax dollar, all the lost lives, the countless person-years of suffering in agony, the lost homes and cars, disrupted and destroyed families, the lives of wondering in despair if anything, anything could have been done to save a loved one, and the anguish and fear that so many experience in the face of the unknown and unexpected, will all have been worth it."

Shorter republican health version: think happy thoughts, pray to jeebus, don't get sick, and send a nice card to the bereaved. If it's good enough for Somalia, it's good enough for you.