PAY ATTENTION, DAMMIT!

The current tug-of-war over health care is exactly the kind of case where I stress to non-involved Americans that they have to PAY ATTENTION!

Yes, it’s hard. But anything worthwhile is hard. No, it’s not always exciting. But again – anything worthwhile is not always exciting. The republican movement seems to be “Anything that the president wants, we automatically oppose.” So when you see an ad about healthcare saying that the Obama plan will make you change your doctor to some kid who got his doctorate at Dope U. in Tijuana or whatever, look beyond the ad and find out what the truth is.

The most important aspect of this attention-paying is that you need to develop your own idea of what American health care should look like, or if we should have it AT ALL, and make sure that our representatives are doing that. If they’re not, vote against them next time.

For instance, my idea of American health care is that A) all Americans should have some kind of health care, including basic services that are not now covered by welfare such as annual check-ups and well-child checks, B) large employers should be REQUIRED to provide affordable health care for their employees, and C) small employers who DO provide affordable health care for their employees get massive tax breaks. President Obama’s plan seems to be similar to this. In four years, if either we don’t have health care, or if we do and it’s not satisfactory to me, then I’m going to see what my representatives and the president did or did not do on this issue and vote accordingly.

Peace.

Randal