Bush's Colonoscopy: Proof That Some Government Invasions Can Work

[DeSwiss]

Taxpayers pick up Bush's bill

San Francisco Chronicle
David Lazarus
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Democratic lawmakers in Washington say they're drafting a health care reform bill that would expand coverage for low-income kids. President Bush says he'll veto any such legislation, warning that it would lead the nation "down the path to government-run health care for every American." Like that would be a bad thing.

What's particularly galling about Bush's position is that it's coming from a man who just underwent a colonoscopy performed at the taxpayer-funded, state-of-the-art medical facility at Camp David by an elite team of doctors from the taxpayer-funded National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. If anyone understands the benefits of government-run health care, it's the president.

But let's not get sidetracked. Bush wasn't being entirely accurate when he derided the notion of government-run health care for every American. That might make for a fine little sound bite, especially among those who fear the specter of "socialized medicine," but it's not really what's at stake. Rather, advocates of health care reform are seeking government-run insurance for every American, leaving the health care part to those who know best - doctors and nurses.

This is a crucial distinction at a time when 47 million Americans lack medical coverage and, according to researchers at Harvard University, about a third of the $2 trillion spent annually on health care in this country is squandered on bureaucratic overhead.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/25/BU44R6ES62.DTL

*** - There have been a lot of "butt" jokes since Bush had his nether regions probed for the terminally-cancerous polyps we'd all hoped they'd find there. However, I won't take advantage of such an easy target, because these days no one seems to give a shit anymore (no pun intended).

But I must say that it takes my breath away witnessing the stupendous arrogance of the man, in his vow to veto a bill that helps children live, while at the same time holding a picture in my mind, of an extremely long, government-paid-for scope stuck up his anus, operated by a government-paid-for doctor, at a state-of-the-art government-paid-for medical facility. This is the same man who vetoed the legislation to provide funding to stem cell research, designed to help prevent and/or correct disease, because of his Christian duty to preserve the "snowflake" babies. While he denies real babies the right to a healthy life.

The worst part of this whole nightmare of Bush's colonoscopy was that I was forced to keep a positive frame of mind, hoping for his survival of this procedure -- lest Cheney succeed him and we end up with a president who is not only a "dick" but whose name is "DICK" as well. Now how fucked-up was that?