On Wednesday Night, Obama Parked It. Did He Really Park It? I Hope Not and So Should You.

David Zephyr

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Fri Sep-11-09 05:04 PM
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On Wednesday Night, Obama Parked It. Did He Really Park It? I Hope Not and So Should You.

Edited on Fri Sep-11-09 05:07 PM by David Zephyr

AMERICANS ARE IN LAST PLACE: Somewhere in the middle of the last century, the industrialized nations on the planet made universal not-for-profit health-care a natural right that extended to all of their citizens, rich or poor. In fact, every industrialized nation made that commitment, except the richest nation on earth: the United States of America. Over 50 years later, we, shamefully, can not say that we ever got there, too.

THE BIG SPEECH ON HEALTH-CARE: On Wednesday night, President Obama, a Democrat spoke to a Democratic controlled congress and to the nation that elected him by a substantial margin. It was to be a major speech from the President on the pathetic status of health-care in America and on his intentions to make it right. Americans tuned in.

PRAISE BE TO ALL OF US: Obama gave us a brief history lesson on the many starts and stops on our national journey to universal health-care. He congratulated Republicans and Democrats alike for all the progress they'd made all these many, many decades. The applause rose in the chamber as Republicans and Democrats were lauded for all they'd done. And a real sense of pride of accomplishment seemed to ooze right through my television screen. I was feeling pretty good until I thought about all of our peers around the world and how silly our 21st Century health-care debate must look to them.

GOODNESS, GRACIOUS, A WHOLE LOT OF PARKING GOING ON: Obama painted the picture of our journey as a struggle on that road to a nebulous final victory as one where some progress would be made and then we'd park for a while and then start up again, make a little progress and then, yes, park once more. The tale he told wasn't one of a dogged marathon to a finish line, but one of spurts forward, parking and more spurts and parking. So much parking, we should perhaps consider a national department just for all of the parking attendants needed on our road to national health-care.

IF YOU BELIEVE THAT SINGLE-PAYER, NOT-FOR-PROFIT, UNIVERSAL HEALTH-CARE IS THE BEST OPTION, then President Obama's speech was only an incremental sputter down the road again toward that goal. If you don't believe that, then you, my fellow Democrat, are almost at the end of the road in your journey as you settle for private insurance companies controlling your health-care. It's that simple. It's either an incremental move toward what every industrialized nation did for its people in the last century...or we've reached what you consider the final destination.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S BOLD DECLARATION ON HEALTH-CARE FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: “I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.” Wow! That sounded terrific until I got to thinking: does this mean that a patch-work, private system will be the final health-care system for Americans? I thought that we were trying to get further up the road to full, universal, not-for-profit health-care like the rest of the civilized world. I thought that the road stretched further out than this. My map says it does go further. Maybe the President's map doesn't. He is determined "to be the last" to take up this cause. What does that mean? He said it so forcefully.

ARE WE MOVING FORWARD OR JUST PARKING AGAIN: If Obama delivers real not-for-profit universal health-care to our people, even if it takes him two terms to get there, then yes, Obama will be "the last one" to struggle with it. If not, then he just parked it. I hope not, and so should every progressive.