Un-healthy Political Discourse

I haven't written or really cared much about the current health care debate, for some pretty simple reasons.......the back and forth, the diatribes and the talking points are uniformly garbage.

There are a few irrefutable facts that get lost anytime a politician opens their mouth:

- NONE of the options that have been discussed by either side comes anywhere near the definition of Socialism. We do have Socialized health care in the US....it's called the Veterans Administration. Socialized health care is the Government ownership of of hospitals and the direct employment of Doctors. Republican paranoid chants of Socialism are a lie.

- There are over 100 amendments to the current proposed health care bill that came from the Republican members of Committees. Claims of being 'shut out' of the process are a lie.

- As such, Democratic caving by adding even more incentives to Republican lawmakers only show a lack of resolve and backbone....because....

- This is an election cycle, and the Republican Party has staked their entire domestic platform on obstruction of any health care reform. The GOP will never vote for or allow any of it's members to vote for HCR, no matter what gets added to sweeten the deal.

- Health Savings Accounts [a staple of the opposition plan] are only beneficial to those who already have money. It is an irrelevant distraction to those who have next to nothing.

That being said....I'm not comfortable with such a large involvement of Governmental control in the private sector. There is enough precedence to warrant such a move; look at all the other functions that are handled by the Federal Government, but such things always come at a price. I equivocate between an across the board public option and complete privatization. To me there seems little difference between the Fed between you and your Doctor...and an HMO between you and your Doctor.