Reply #6: These same people (sometimes clothed as Southern Democrats, sometimes as Republicans) opposed [View All]

[JDPriestly]

They call themselves "conservatives." They are obstructionists.

They switch parties, but they can be counted on to oppose anything creative, anything new. In the past, they opposed

1) Abolition of Slavery
2) Women's Suffrage
3) the New Deal
4) the United Nations
5) Unions
6) Civil Rights
7) an earlier end to the Vietnam War
8) Women's Lib
9) Women's Choice regarding abortion
10) Medicare
11) Social Security
12) Bank Regulation
13) Securities Regulation
and now, access to health care for, well, not all, but pretty close to all Americans.

They should be handled like children throwing tantrums. (After all, that is what they are.) They should be told to sit in a corner until they feel like playing nicely with others.

We have to make sure that as many of these characters are replaced by progressive Democrats in the Fall elections as possible.

The health care reform bill is not to my liking. I hold my nose to support it. I wish we had a better bill. But this bill starts a process and will lead to more reforms.

At least children -- all American children -- will have access to more affordable health care.

And if and when the insurance companies raise their rates, we will bring in a public option. The public will demand it. When people can no longer shift the responsibility for their health care on to others, when our laws require each person to take responsibility for obtaining health care, when our government enables the poor to obtain subsidies for their health care, then the American people will be ready to deal realistically with cutting the amounts we are all wasting on the investors and executives of for profit health insurance companies.

Why should we pay investors a share of our health care dollars? Why do we need them when we pay such high health care insurance premiums anyway? What do they add to health care that we need to have? What risk are they taking under this new system? My answer is that we don't need them at all.

And why should we pay health care insurance company executives so much money? What do they do for it? How will they earn it now that they have to cover pre-existing conditions and may not discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions? How valuable are their services? Not nearly as valuable as the monstrous paychecks they receive would lead you to believe.

Eventually, we will have a rational health care insurance system -- either all government or all non-profit regulated by the government.