A Comment on Congress and Healthcare
Well, let’s see what they have done:
They, among other things, revised the Community Reinvestment act, Repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, stood by while the SEC lifted reserve requirements for loans setting the stage for our “Great Recession”
This is a hot topic and has been passionately covered again and again by both sides of the party aisle and everyone in between. So, rather than the right or wrong of it in terms of constitutionality, civil liberties or economically, let’s take a different approach. If one were really concerned about the welfare of the American people in terms of health, national prosperity and the American dream, what might be the best way to accomplish healthcare for all?
Seems to me that if our Congress were really paying attention to what they were doing they’d approve something along the lines of:
1. Find a captain of industry like Steve Jobs or Howard Shultz to head it – someone who has proven that they can take a faltering empire and turn it around – someone who knows about bottom lines and especially customer service. One doesn’t appoint a cabinet member to return a favor. We don’t want a politician heading this, because we know where that will lead us.
2. Have that person turn the medicare system around. Make it so that people with PPOs, HMOs and cadillac health insurance are envious and jealous of people who have medicare.
3. Then, ask the American people if they would all like to be covered by medicare. If so, extend medicare to cover everyone.
4. If after perfecting medicare, it turns out taxes will need to be raised increase the taxes for everyone.
It doesn’t need to be any more complex than that. We don’t need to create 100+ health agencies. We don’t need to hire additional police, tax people or further clog up our legal system with a set of laws to punish and go after people who aren’t or can’t pay for health insurance. This is simply an unfair and extremely complicated way to go about things.
Of course, monstrous atrocities such as the America killing healthcare bill, Patriotic Act, National Defense Authorization Act, SOPA, PIPA, or stupidities such as the Community Reinvestment Act, Repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, etc., are par for the course with a Congress (people who don’t have to live in the real world) doesn’t thoroughly review the bills they pass which are supposed to solve problems they haven’t thoroughly examined.
If one is going to pass a law that the American people have to follow and be subject to, shouldn’t the American people have the right to see the absolute final version of the bill well in advance of the final vote? That would be true representative government. Our members of congress should be proud of the work they have done and openly display their handiwork long before the final vote.
We need to be able to see the absolute final version of the any bill or allocation of funds (after all of the revisions and amendments) long before the final vote. We need enough time so that we can see whose fingers are in the pie – so that we can see the poorly thought out clauses and get them fixed -so that we can make the laws as good as they can be – so that we can protect ourselves from selfish vested interests trying to manipulate the system to their benefit – so that we can spot the loopholes and so on.
As long as Congress is permitted to add hundreds of pages to a bill in the middle of the night and pass it hours later – as long as they are permitted to amend a bill on the House floor and pass it then and there, NOTHGING is safe, and America will always be in jeopardy. A legislative procedure like that opens the door wide to all sorts of corruption. When people behind the scenes can insert clauses at the last possible minute before the vote – crimes against the American people can’t help but run rampant.
Your thoughts?