Republicans have been making inflated exaggerated claims about the disasters national health insurance would bring to America for longer than anyone can remember. Having cried wolf so many times, nobody with any sense takes them seriously. After all, Tea Party members love their Medicare at the same time they hate their government, so much so that ironically GOP pols tried their best to convince them (falsely) that somehow Obamacare would take away their Medicare, all the while that Paul Ryan, and later Mitt Romney were working hard to actually fundamentally change and weaken Medicare coverage with vouchers. And today Tea Partiers who love Medicare probably close their eyes and plug their ears when anybody tries to remind them that in the 60s Ronald Reagan himself predicted confidently that communist Medicare would be the end of freedom in America. One of the most hated aspects of Obamacare, the individual mandate, had its origins in the very conservative notion of personal responsibility, and the commitment to the idea that nobody should get sick and get a free ride at the taxpayers expense. The idea was proposed in 1988 by fellows of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation as part of a plan to expand health coverage within our private sector insurance system, without going to the extreme of socialized medicine. Of course the individual mandate imposes burdens and inconvenience on those who are uninsured yet can afford insurance. But it also imposes financial responsibility, just as requirements for auto insurance do. There was a day when Republicans valued personal responsibility, but today Barack Obama, our first black President, has turned them into spoiled whining cry babies who throw tantrums because their freedom to get sick at other taxpayers expense has been take away from them. Their is no intellectual consistency or integrity in Republican health care positions. Just raw fear and emotionally charged irrationality that seems completely disconnected from real facts and consequences. And we know well enough from long experience not to take their hysteria seriously.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 10:47:59 +0000
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