{"id":15582,"date":"2009-08-14T10:27:53","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T16:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=15582"},"modified":"2009-08-14T10:27:59","modified_gmt":"2009-08-14T16:27:59","slug":"the-health-care-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/14\/the-health-care-debate.html","title":{"rendered":"The Health Care Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Rachel Maddow<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

What’s being called a debate about health care policy right now is so far from an actual debate about health care policy that the charge from his critics that the President of the United States has to rebut in public is whether or not he wants health care reform because he secretly wants to kill all of the old people. And apparently he doesn’t.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The debate has been masterfully (and nefariously) turned into slogans and symbols and diversions by the Right, the Republicans, Big Medicine\/Insurance\/Pharma, in order to make it not <\/em>be a debate over people unable to get adequate (or any) health coverage, hence not getting adequate (or any) health care. That prospect so scary that people tend to only want to think about it when it’s happening to them, and that reluctance has been seized upon and exploited by waving big colorful targets for folks to latch on: labels of “socialism” and ridiculous charges about “death panels” and the like.<\/p>\n

It’s all smoke, mirrors, and side shows, in order to retain (or retake) power and\/or profits. It is, in its own way, an ultimate test of our representative democracy: not, as some on the Right would frame it, whether we vote ourselves bread and circuses, regardless of the cost, but whether an opposition can subvert democracy by sending the populace (or a substantial, vocal part of it) hallooing off after will-o-the-wisps of artificial and rhetorical terror.<\/p>\n

If we do not get substantive health care coverage reform out of this Congress, it will mark the ultimate triumph of the old catch phrase, “If you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit.” It will be a sign that we can be diverted from what the majority (of both populace and representatives) clearly want by making the debate about stuff and nonsense. It will be, arguably, the greatest failure of our system of government.<\/p>\n

So let me close with another quote, this one from James Madison<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance. And a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If the the opposition can control the information the people have, keeping them in ignorance with distracting lies about euthanizing grandma, they control the people. It’s really that simple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Rachel Maddow: What’s being called a debate about health care policy right now is so far from an actual debate about health care policy that the charge from his critics that the President of the United States has to rebut in public is whether or not he wants health care reform because he secretly … Continue reading “The Health Care Debate”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fourth-estate","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133151,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/24\/does-the-ahca-defeat-signal-that-the-health-insurance-debate-is-settled.html","url_meta":{"origin":15582,"position":0},"title":"Does the AHCA defeat signal that the Health Insurance debate is settled?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Mar-17 11:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Or, put another way, has the Overton Window[1] on public discourse around how health care is made accessible in this country solidly moved further to the \"left\" than it was a decade ago? While there are certainly hard-core folk in Congress who balk at the very idea of the federal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/obamacare-cartoon-2-a5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133910,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/20\/on-the-barrier-to-universal-health-coverage-in-the-united-states.html","url_meta":{"origin":15582,"position":1},"title":"On the barrier to universal health coverage in the United States","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 20-Jul-17 7:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"The author notes that the Canadian model demonstrates that the US could ensure essential health care for all, but goes back to the bitter early days of political argument around the single-player plan (which originated in the province of Saskatchewan. The significant difference pointed out was that in the Canadian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128470,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/the-horrific-evils-of-the-polio-vaccine.html","url_meta":{"origin":15582,"position":2},"title":"The Horrific Evils of the Polio Vaccine","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 29-Oct-15 4:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If only someone had held congressional hearings and defunding votes to stop it! Mike Huckabee Inadvertently Praises Fetal Tissue Research At GOP Debate At last night\u2019s Republican presidential debate, Mike Huckabee offered a convenient solution to all of America\u2019s health care concerns: Rather than focus on improving access to health\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133932,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/21\/the-senate-parliamentarian-says-the-senate-gop-health-bill-needs-60-votes-not-50.html","url_meta":{"origin":15582,"position":3},"title":"The Senate Parliamentarian says the Senate GOP health bill needs 60 votes, not 50","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Jul-17 6:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Senate has an elaborate interlocking set of rules that dictate how and in what ways it conducts business and passes bills. For most legislation, for example, the Senate must vote to close debate on the bill. These cloture votes require a super-majority of the Senate -- 60 votes [1].\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128673,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/10\/well-this-should-be-interesting.html","url_meta":{"origin":15582,"position":4},"title":"Well, this should be interesting","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Nov-15 6:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Colorado residents will be voting on a single-payer health insurance system next November.(More commentary on it here: http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/opinion\/ci_29081521\/guest-commentary:-coloradocare-is-health-care-for-everyone)In general, I think single-payer has a lot of significant advantages over the bureaucracy and (mostly) for-profit-motive of the current mixture of private insurers. The devil is, of course, in the details, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128455,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/28\/getting-health-insurance-from-your-employer-is-dumb.html","url_meta":{"origin":15582,"position":5},"title":"Getting health insurance from your employer is dumb","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Oct-15 1:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In a world that is increasingly dominated by automation, multiple part-time jobs, and job insecurity, having the major method of obtaining health insurance coverage be via one's employer is increasingly less viable.Unfortunately, that's the solution that the US (pretty uniquely) has developed and is saddled with, and it's a solution\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}