| Random Thoughts on the SCOTUS Ruling | for everyone |
The Supreme Court's ruling on the health care reform package (if you insist on using "Obamacare, know that I've already stopped listening, because you're probably not going to make any effort at being rational) is neither the end, the beginning, nor the beginning of the end... ...of anything. It's just one more event (a significant one, I agree) in the continuing history of the United States of America.
I will confess that I was pleasantly surprised that Chief Justice Roberts apparently kept the promise he made during his confirmation hearings, to not let partisanship dictate his decisions. I say pleasantly surprised because, until this week, I had not seen (from my admittedly biased viewpoint) much evidence of that promise. Maybe he'll become the next Earl Warren, the Republican Chief Justice who also inspired cries of traitor and calls for impeachment when he stood up for principle over partisanship, for the rights of all citizens, in orchestrating the overturn of Plessy v. Ferguson (Separate but Equal) in 1954 (Brown v. Board).
The ignorance surrounding the process worries me, but I'm not an alarmist; we've been overcoming ignorance in our species for a long time and I expect that progress to continue (if not, everyone on the planet is doomed and all this is irrelevant). Still, all the people shouting and carrying signs outside the Supreme Court begs a few questions. Did those people take vacation or personal days for this? Did they not understand that this decision has been being negotiated and written for weeks, that their shouting, "Strike It Down!" or "Save our Healthcare" is kind of like telling the train to stop when it's two feet away from your face. If they want to protest (or celebrate) now, okay, I get that. But the morning before the decision was announced?!?
And what about the people who claim that they are going to "move to Canada" in protest -- Canada with single payer socialized medicine (of which the vast majority of Canadians are very fond), Canada with universally recognized gay marriage, Canada with virtually no restriction on abortions.... Okay. http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/people-moving-to-canada-because-of-obamacare
Republicans say they plan to use the upcoming decision to energize the people who already hate President Obama and were going to vote against him anyway. They might be successful. After all, they've convinced those same people that an idea they touted (individual mandate was a Republican (not just Romney's) proposal) is now a terrible idea because it was adapted and adopted by a Democrat.
But it doesn't matter. Governor Romney is promising to repeal "Obamacare" if elected. Good luck with that. Do you really think he's going to propose no longer covering pre-existing conditions? Kicking off students still living with their parents? Eliminating guaranteed health insurance? Increasing prescription costs for seniors? At the same time he is trying to balance the budget and cut the deficit, is he really going to tell people they don't have to take responsibility for paying their share for health care, to go ahead and run up the costs and freeload off the rest of us who pay premiums, that they don't have to pay this "tax"?
If elected, President Romney may very well change some parts of the bill; that may not even be all bad. Surely there are numerous ways it can be improved. But I doubt that we will ever go back to health care as a privilege of the haves instead of a right for all. So, even if you're an ardent supporter of President Obama and the health care reform bill as it was written, you need not worry about going back to Square One if Romney wins the election. And if "Obamacare" makes you cringe and fear the end of our society as we know it, you're going to be disappointed.The country has taken two steps (I think) forward (you may think backward, it doesn't matter); we may next take one or even one and half steps in the opposite direction, but it won't be, can't be, two steps. That's not the way it works.
Study our history (a novel concept, I know). That is the way we've been going, pretty successfully, for a couple centuries plus now. Steps forward, steps backward, steps to the side. Getting to where we are today as a country hasn't been a smooth journey; it won't be a smooth journey in the years ahead. There are problems remaining to be solved and new problems on the horizon. Some of our solutions to those problems will, undoubtedly, create new problems. That is our history; it will be our future.
I will confess that I was pleasantly surprised that Chief Justice Roberts apparently kept the promise he made during his confirmation hearings, to not let partisanship dictate his decisions. I say pleasantly surprised because, until this week, I had not seen (from my admittedly biased viewpoint) much evidence of that promise. Maybe he'll become the next Earl Warren, the Republican Chief Justice who also inspired cries of traitor and calls for impeachment when he stood up for principle over partisanship, for the rights of all citizens, in orchestrating the overturn of Plessy v. Ferguson (Separate but Equal) in 1954 (Brown v. Board).
The ignorance surrounding the process worries me, but I'm not an alarmist; we've been overcoming ignorance in our species for a long time and I expect that progress to continue (if not, everyone on the planet is doomed and all this is irrelevant). Still, all the people shouting and carrying signs outside the Supreme Court begs a few questions. Did those people take vacation or personal days for this? Did they not understand that this decision has been being negotiated and written for weeks, that their shouting, "Strike It Down!" or "Save our Healthcare" is kind of like telling the train to stop when it's two feet away from your face. If they want to protest (or celebrate) now, okay, I get that. But the morning before the decision was announced?!?
And what about the people who claim that they are going to "move to Canada" in protest -- Canada with single payer socialized medicine (of which the vast majority of Canadians are very fond), Canada with universally recognized gay marriage, Canada with virtually no restriction on abortions.... Okay. http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/people-moving-to-canada-because-of-obamacare
Republicans say they plan to use the upcoming decision to energize the people who already hate President Obama and were going to vote against him anyway. They might be successful. After all, they've convinced those same people that an idea they touted (individual mandate was a Republican (not just Romney's) proposal) is now a terrible idea because it was adapted and adopted by a Democrat.
But it doesn't matter. Governor Romney is promising to repeal "Obamacare" if elected. Good luck with that. Do you really think he's going to propose no longer covering pre-existing conditions? Kicking off students still living with their parents? Eliminating guaranteed health insurance? Increasing prescription costs for seniors? At the same time he is trying to balance the budget and cut the deficit, is he really going to tell people they don't have to take responsibility for paying their share for health care, to go ahead and run up the costs and freeload off the rest of us who pay premiums, that they don't have to pay this "tax"?
If elected, President Romney may very well change some parts of the bill; that may not even be all bad. Surely there are numerous ways it can be improved. But I doubt that we will ever go back to health care as a privilege of the haves instead of a right for all. So, even if you're an ardent supporter of President Obama and the health care reform bill as it was written, you need not worry about going back to Square One if Romney wins the election. And if "Obamacare" makes you cringe and fear the end of our society as we know it, you're going to be disappointed.The country has taken two steps (I think) forward (you may think backward, it doesn't matter); we may next take one or even one and half steps in the opposite direction, but it won't be, can't be, two steps. That's not the way it works.
Study our history (a novel concept, I know). That is the way we've been going, pretty successfully, for a couple centuries plus now. Steps forward, steps backward, steps to the side. Getting to where we are today as a country hasn't been a smooth journey; it won't be a smooth journey in the years ahead. There are problems remaining to be solved and new problems on the horizon. Some of our solutions to those problems will, undoubtedly, create new problems. That is our history; it will be our future.
But I believe Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) had it right: "Don't panic."
Drmist1 wrote on Jun 30
ReplyDelete... and know where your towel is.