Sick and tired of the lies: As a young person engaged in the health care debate, I am fed up with the lies and distractions that have spiraled out of control over this past month. Congressional recess was supposed to be a chance for people to have real discussions with their legislators about reforming the health care system. Instead, the town hall discussions have turned into an insurance industry-funded, right-wing lobby-orchestrated debacle of crazy mobs. Many other unhinged health care reform opponents say that reform is inspired by Nazism, and call out “Heil Hitler” while constituents try to express their struggles with health insurance and medical bill debt. As Sen. Barney Frank put it, they must be spending their time on another planet. This behavior is absurd and clearly demonstrates that these crazies have nothing helpful to say. We would be happy if they would give us some alternate solutions! We would be happy to argue over what age young people should continue to be covered on their parents plan for, or whether preventive care should be covered. Instead, they bombard us with lies and fear-mongering to win the debate.
Sick and tired of seeing brain power go down the drain: America voted for an incredibly intelligent president last November. I work for a think-tank full of incredibly intelligent people. There are plenty of journalists out there who are very intelligent (like Ezra Klein, Rachel Maddow, etc), although some “journalists” on certain “news” networks are part of the problem. Yet, all of these intelligent people are forced to spend their days responding to vitriolic rants from reform opponents and combating dystopian fantasies that a 6 year old could debunk in ten minutes.
Exhibit number one: Obama’s health care reform logo looks like a Nazi symbol, according to many in this “movement.”
Instead of discussing the actual components of the health care bills or having an intellectual debate with the right about actual solutions to the health care crisis, our President is forced to spend his town hall meetings assuring people that he does not have some secret plot to kill everybody’s grandma by passing health care reform, or explain to them that his intent is not to raffle off taxpayers’ money and give free health care to the first 100,000 illegal immigrants to cross the border. (Although I think everyone residing in the US should have access to health care, even if the bill doesn’t cover that; just my 2 cents.)
Do we really want to make the President spend all of his time devising ways to explain that the public “option”(key word: option) does not mean public “take over”. Why was no one on the right banging on town hall doors and threatening President Bush when he decided to take over our privacy rights with his illegal warrant-less wiretapping and the Patriot Act? Sure, wiretap a conversation with my friend about a film that I think is “the bomb,” but don’t offer to make my medical bills cheaper or ensure coverage for me when I’m sick. That would be horrendous.
What about journalists, members of Congress, and policy experts from organizations and think-tanks around the country that are spending their days writing articles, drafting talking points, and creating reports on how end-of-life care doesn’t mean “death panel,” and “universal coverage” doesn’t translate to “run for your lives the Nazis are coming.” They could instead be creating reports about new ways to end health disparities between ethnic and socio-economic groups, or have thoughtful discussions about abortion being a component of health care. These kinds of conversations would enhance our solutions by challenging experts and lawmakers to focus on the things that actually matter.
Sick and tired of the distractions working. The mainstream media, as usual, is not doing its job. They are not reporting on the thoughtful discussions happening at these town halls. Most outlets have not spent very much time breaking down the health reform bill in an objective manner, acting as a resource for the (deliberately) confused public. Instead, they are shoving cameras in the faces of wild-eyed, middle-aged protestors that were bussed across the state or even country to hold up signs about freedom while shouting obscenities at law makers. While this kind of coverage makes for all of the entertainment of a good Jerry Springer episode, it also plays right into the hands of the industry lobbyists and health insurance CEOs fighting to keep their profits by denying coverage to the ill.
Through the circus of media coverage, right wing tea-bagger mobs are close to achieving their goal: scaring members of Congress into thinking that the public is against reform, and putting some wind under the wings of those members of Congress that have been trying to kill reform from day one. However, there are plenty of progressive members that are just not going to let that happen. Don’t believe the hype, the public option is not dead.
Rachel Maddow and good ol’ Barney Frank are some of the few that have the grit to call a basketcase a basketcase without, in one way or another, buckling. Even President Obama was spooked by all of the outcry over the so-called “death panel provision” (which was actually just optional counseling about end-of-life issues for seniors) and the provision was quickly dropped from the bill thereafter.
Why are we letting the crazies wreak such havoc with their weapons of mass distraction? Congress is being distracted by hopeless attempts to appease a few conservative votes, while Obama is being distracted by big Pharma compromises, and the American public is being distracted by lies from Rush Limbaugh/So You Think You Can Dance/the word “Abortion.”
Enough is enough; I’m sick and tired of this.
I’m sick and tired of not being heard as a young person that cares about health care. Young people are definitely being left out of the discussion, yet we have one of the largest stakes in the debate. Young people get sick. Young people get tired. Young people have to choose between coverage and paying their rent. Young people make up a huge chunk of the uninsured (about 34%). Young people need health care reform and health care reform needs young people. Let’s not stand for this any longer. I don’t want to spend the rest of my years being sick and tired of all the same old political and industry tricks, but mostly I don’t want to wake up in ten years being sick, uninsured, and tired of being robbed by our current health care system.
If you are sick and tired, take action now.
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