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On My High Horse—
We Can't Afford It, That's Why by James Glaser June 26, 2009 Every once in a while something comes up, and I just have to say something. Heck, if you read my introduction to web site, I say that is why I started it. I know people I respect like Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell are against the government having anything to do with our health care, but I think it is about time it did. I don't know how much money either of those two men make, and I don't care, but somehow both of these learned men and so many others on the conservative side of the aisle, have lost touch with millions of Americans. I lived for over thirty years of my life in an area in Northern Minnesota that is populated with a lot of lower income people. I am not talking about people on welfare, rather, people who have worked hard, real hard their entire life for not much money. Some spent their whole working life at close to minimum wage, and others did better but never made much more than $10 dollars an hour. There are millions of Americans who live that way. Do you know any of those people—poor people who work hard and have to live with the constant stress of knowing they have no health care for themselves nor for their family. Yes, I know they can go to the emergency room, but by that time people are real sick. It isn't just medical care, but dental and eye care that they are missing. Mental health care? That is unheard of for poor people. Conservatives will always tout about how we are a Christian country, but somehow helping the least of their brethren seems wrong to them. They talk about the cost that would be incurred if the government provided health care, but are more than willing to keep the largest standing military on the globe and use that military at the drop of a hat. Now I know both Lew Rockwell and Ron Paul are anti-war, but I can't believe both men are willing to live with the fact that more than 40,000,000 American citizens have no health care. And you know what? I bet they don't really believe that number is true. Like so many insured Americans they believe that those people really get all the help they need... they just don't pay for it. We do with higher premiums on our insurance bill. Every state and every major city has its pockets of poverty, and if the people against universal health care spent a year living and working in one of those poverty pockets, they would soon see that poor people don't have medical care of any kind. I am sure they associate "poor" with welfare, but they are totally different segments of our population. Yes, there are welfare people who know how to work the system and can get just about anything for free. But the hard-working poor have this hurdle they just can't get over, and it is pride. If they can't pay for it, they don't get it. That is why they have to be at death's door before they will go to the hospital, and they will leave just as soon as they can. I'll tell you what. I want universal health care for every American. People will tell you all sorts of stories about how bad that kind of health care is, but I worked on the Canadian border for a lot of years, and worked with and knew many Canadians. I never heard one complain about their health care. Health care corporations have been brain washing us for decades, telling us we have the best health care in the world. Check it out and you will find that is a lie. In the United Sates many people are getting rich in the health care field off the suffering of their fellow citizens. I don't think that is right. Think about it. Do you? Really? But hey, I'm not asking for much. I just want the same care our politicians vote in for themselves. Yes, as much as I admire the man, Ron Paul and his family have the finest medical care that money can buy—paid for with the same tax dollars that buy sub-standard care for everyone on welfare and our veterans. Ouch! Harsh? Yes, but true. Somehow, every industrialized nation in the world has universal health care for their citizens, but we don't. We claim we can't afford it. Every other developed nation can afford it, but they can not afford the military we have. Ahh, there's the trade off. We must like wars or we need wars. Other nations might want to start a war too, but they can't, because they decided at some point to provide health care for their citizens. We decided we were not going to do that—maybe so we could continue to have wars. Now we have President Barack Obama talking about health care. No, he is not talking about universal health care for every citizen. He is willing to let the poorest of the poor, working Americans continue on fending for themselves. Oh, by the way, President Obama just this week signed a bill to spend another $106,000,000,000.00 on his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is on top of the $600,000,000,000.00 and more we spend on our military year in and year out. Nope, we can't afford universal health care. We can't afford universal health care and still be able to kill people any where on the globe we want to. |
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