Health Care Reform (Bizzaro World Edition)

[Mythsaje]

In the first salvo going for reforming the broken health care system, the Republican Party opened up with universal single payer health care AND universal college education for all who qualified. Not daunted by the Democratic vow to oppose anything they did, the Republicans simply laughed and said "We work for the American people, not for their corporate owners."

The Democrats howled in protest, but the Republicans refused to back off their position, instead using their notorious single-mindedness to hammer out a bill in a midnight session that guaranteed all Americans not only the right to free healthcare, but to attend college and get a degree without going into debt.

"We expect to see a few things pruned off the final bill, but we're going to see what we can shove through committee and onto the floor. The Democrats would oppose anything we proposed, so we've decided not to bother playing up to them. They'd oppose anything that showed even the possibility of risking their corporate masters' profits."

After the first round of protests from what the Republicans condemned as "paid shills," the Republicans simply closed up ranks and symbolically thumbed their noses at the Democrats. "We've got the majority, we're going to make this happen. They can either become a part of history, or become history. We don't care which."

In the end, the universal college education portion of the bill was excised, but the final version to come out of both the House and Senate was a strong single-payer medical plan--concise and to the point--that ripped away any semblance of cover held by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. "Medical insurance will still exist," said one Republican Senator, "but it'll be for elective stuff like cosmetic surgery and such. And from now on the Pharmaceutical companies will be negotiating drug prices with the GAO. It's a win for us and it's a win for the American People."



Seriously--is it any wonder they so easily paint Democrats as "soft on security?"

Gee. Can't imagine.

We don't have to become the Republicans to learn from them.

Unfortunately it seems that the preferred response is to crawl their direction and play Republican Lite. What they should be doing is stalking leftward and copping an attitude while doing so.

Ah, well.