Healthcare...

I wasn't going to write on politics on this blog anymore-- It was depressing and didn't seem to get me anywhere. But today healthcare passed in Washington and while I am thrilled that we have actually turned our trajectory in a new direction, I am also despairing of a society that can't seem to grasp the great need to adjust the direction we are currently headed. It's as though we were headed into the perfect storm and yet we're so intent on getting all the profits we can out of this voyage that we won't look at the weather report. It would be easier to remove myself- to pretend that I can't change anything so what is the point. I might be happier- more content. I'd have a sort of "Don't worry, Be Happy" kind of life. A life that would amble along, perhaps responsibly (because I would not accept the BAU kind of don't worry lifestyle that they want us to have, of course) but somehow I can't quite come to grips with that. So on I press...

The long and the short of it is this: some Americans crazily think it's okay to give tax breaks to the wealthy and that corporate wealthfare is just peachy- However! any wealth redistributed to the poor is simply outrageous.

I personally think the rich do just fine for themselves- they can buy the healthcare they need and they can hire the lawyers they need when the healthcare they have is not adequate (and that applies to pretty much anything else they need). They can also buy the security they need against any uprisings that might eventually occur (but that is another story).

Unfortunately they can also game the system. And that is where we are.

The rich are not victims. They are using the rest of us to get rich. They do not work or labor- they gather the fruits of other people's labor, sell it and then watch as the rest of us are buried in debt from the system they put in place. Republicans might say "they put it in banks and other investments that make up the capital used to make loans and run other businesses?" That is a laugh. They are apparently unaware that small business loans are down-- ordinary, main street America is having a hard time getting loans for their businesses or for new businesses. That money is not trickling down! They are buying out smaller businesses so that they can become bigger and make more money and they are buying up their own stocks.(see: http://robertreich.org/)

I don't care that the government might redistribute the wealth of the wealthiest-- I don't care one wit. I think it is the right thing to do. We have a responsibility to each other as human beings. And aiding and abetting the ongoing redistribution of wealth to the upper 1% of Americans is wrong. While helping the lower (and higher!) percentage of Americans who cannot help themselves, even if the government has to force it, is right. And it is something I am prepared to fight for (and pay for if necessary- I have a city job where I get pretty good health insurance). As for waiting for "voluntary altruism"-- that grand old American Tradition-- (not just dripping with sarcasm!) well, there has been time for all that altruism to reveal itself and yet... Waiting for the wealthy to decide they want to help the children on the posters that are nailed onto the corner light posts is obviously a failed policy.

Our government should be (and I say "should be" because that is NOT what they are doing today) offering more to the sick and dying in this country.


A diary on Firedoglake had this subject, "Corporate power must not be challenged" http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/36617/