Everyone knows the saying It takes a village, and it does, but what they don’t realize is that sometimes it takes a catastrophe to get that village up off its ass and functioning. As they always do in this country disasters bring out the best in Americans. We’re seeing it now in south Texas where volunteers are flooding in, bringing supplies, boats and whatever is necessary to supplement the government services that are being brought to bear to help the hundreds of thousands that have been uprooted by Harvey.
Suddenly black, white or yellow doesn’t matter so much. Suddenly there’s a job to do and American’s are responding to it much like the Brits did at Dunkirk. People respond to adversity. People answer the clarion cry and do extraordinary things when those things are necessary. Not everyone, usually not the most important ones, but the everyday man on the street, the man or woman next door because that’s who Americans are. That’s who we always have been. Even in this time of division when coasts fight the interior, when urban values struggle against rural morals, when black and white clash, each battling to appear the most abused. This can all be quickly set aside, even in these divisive times when the cause of the greater good is thrust upon us.
Right Wing conservatives are dragging pleasure boats from as far away as Wisconsin to the drowned streets of Houston, where they join with liberal lobstermen from the northeast in the common cause of preserving life. There are no anti-Jew, anti-Black, anti–Nazi or anti-Klan slogans being chanted here, only cries of anguish being answered by helping hands. This s what America is really about, not the politically motivated divisions that sent the masses into the streets looking for trouble or dissent. We are a nation of strong people motivated by the freedoms that surround is to make our wants known, to fight for what we think will make our lives better. We aren’t always right and therefore we must always be vigilant so that when we are wrong we do not become destructive.
We don’t want to be like Joel Osteen or Ted Cruz. Osteen is the pastor of Evangelist moneymaker, Lakewood, the biggest church in Texas, housed in a former NBA arena, it holds over 16,000. Joel has kept his house of God closed to the victims of this flood even as he Tweets that he and his wife are praying for those made homeless. A little less prayer, Joel and a lot more action is what is needed here. Look to those who aren’t sitting around with their hands clasped and their wallets closed but are out in the rain and the cold rescuing those made homeless by this disaster. They are the ones you can use in your sermons as examples of Christ-like behavior. And yes, because of the media coverage, Osteen did open his church but 3 days late.
Who you can’t use as an example of Christian charity is Ted Cruz who fought federal help for the New Jersey victims of hurricane Sandy and is now begging help for his home state victims of Harvey. All hurricane victims need help. That’s what federal aid is for but Cruz is such a sleaze that he is only interested in victims that can vote for him. The first thing that Texas voters should do when they rebuild the voting booths is vote Cruz out of office.
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Brock Long Trump’s FEMA director and Tom Brossert, Trump’s Homeland advisor look like they are doing a top job so far with Harvey. So in that vein, Trump must get at least some of the praise. He appointed them. Its still early in the process but both Long and Brossert seem to have their hands on the throttle with a much former grip than anyone did with Karina. Even Trump has done the right thing so far, staying out o
f the action until some sense of control has been established and holding off his standard residential disaster visit until it will cause only a minimum of disruption. These visits never help, but we have to realize that they are politically necessary or the other side will start to scream about the president not caring.
All we had to worry about during the visit was that Trump doesn’t go off script and start babbling about Mitch McConnell’s failure to pass a healthcare bill or how the water is deeper in his flood than it was in Bush’s. Unfortunately he was left on his own and managed not to mention the victims or even the first responders and volunteers that went out in the storm to help those needing help. He did, like George Bush, who liked to dress up in pilot’s uniforms, manage to thank all for a job well done even though the job isn’t half done. And, oh yeah! He also ran a sale on asshats, manufactured by foreign labor and selling through his own company at an inflated price. True collectables for all rednecks.
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While our President is busy releasing convicted racists and while the intelligent remainders of the government are calling him on his non-Presidential behavior, another major disaster that must be settled for the good of the American people continues to flounder due to the inability of Trump to function, the GOP to get their act together and the Democrats to come up with some strategy other than Trump stinks.
I’m speaking about our floundering healthcare system and the desperate need for someone to step forward and set it on the right course, the course that will steer it away from collapse and unto a firm footing that will allow it to functionally serve the majority of the American people.
After the rank failure of both the House and Senate to pass a plan that would serve the people rather than just the rich and the insurance companies, it’s time for the Republican leadership to join with the Democratic leadership and come up with a plan that serves the public even if it doesn’t serve the greedy industries that feed the lobbyist coffers.
Everyone who can list his or her goal as providing the best healthcare is agreed. There is only one system that will work and it is single (government) payer. Yes, we will get arguments from those in the insurance business and from those who are on the payrolls of the rich but they are only self-serving and must be ignored and defeated.
The system under which we are now operating is seriously flawed. Those who put it in operation under Obama knew it was flawed but the only way they were going to get it passed was to accept the built-in problems and hope that they could be cured down the line. That was naïve. It didn’t take into account the violent, angry reaction of the GOP to the fact that a black President was able for the first time to actually pass a healthcare plan that many among them had previously backed but had been unable to pass. So instead of helping to fix the kinks in the new system the GOP on over 50 occasions tried unsuccessfully to dump it. Of course that would have taken healthcare away from millions as they had no replacement but what did they care? They would have satisfied their masters in the insurance, drug and medical supply industries along with the millionaire class who would have benefited tax wise.
But e system has survived, stumbling along on crippled knees, even as Trump, desperate to pass any bill of any kind, screams in frustration and attacks officials of his own party. Now that the House and Senate bills have gone to that graveyard of all bad legislation it is time to put single payer back on the top of the stove and turn it into a beautiful meal. Up until now the concept of being able to pass single payer drew nothing but howls of mirth from all who were asked about it, but with the crash of the bad systems and knowledge of the emerging fact that single payer is really the best system for the most people, the nay-sayers are falling off the ship.
Right now over 120 members of the House of Representatives support single payer legislation. They represent 31 states and the number is growing every day. These elected officials understand that the healthcare system we have now is profoundly flawed. They understand that in 33 of the top 34 economies in the world single payer healthcare works better than any alternative. We are the only exception and we are losing. Those elected officials realize that without single payer millions will go without coverage and about 45,000 that could have been saved will die each year.
Right now the United States spends 50% more per person than any other nation and receives by far he worst healthcare results. We have the least effective and least affordable system. One in three Americans skipped some healthcare this year because of cost related circumstances. Forty five percent of Americans skipped dental care because of costs. One in six Americans skipped a drug prescription because of cost. Our current system costs at least twice as much as functional systems in other countries do.
But why is this true? Easy, the insurance companies take billions in profit out of the healthcare system. If we put those billions back into the system it almost immediately becomes economically feasible. Add to that the money saved when a single payer uses its clout to tell the drug companies to reduce their delivery costs. Insurance companies don’t want to lower drug costs because their profit is based on a percentage of the drug costs and the same for medical equipment and hospital costs. The reduction of all these costs will put trillions back into the system. At his point it becomes easy to just transfer the functions of all those insurance companies to Medicare.
The only argument the insurance companies have against this is that in closing down the medical insurance business a lot of people would be put out of work. Even that argument fails because all the people let go by the insurance companies would immediately be hired by Medicare, to do the same job for them. We’re talking about $500 billion in administrative costs, waste and profits that would go back into the system lowering or eliminating entirely the average persons costs of healthcare.
One of the biggest complaints against the Obamacare system and in fact single payer, has always been that the government will be making healthcare decisions for you. Remember death panels? Well, who do you think is making those decisions now? Your insurance company! They are making those decisions based on profit for them, not good health for you. There would be no profit motive with single payer and hence, no death panels as they now exist in insurance paid healthcare. When your insurance company tells your doctor that they won’t cover some procedure that decision has been made from a pure profit motivation. There is none of that in single payer because there is no profit to be made by anyone. The procedure costs what it costs and the Medicare system doesn’t care because it is spreading your procedure’s cost over the entire number of enrollees, the whole country’s population, and when you do that, one procedure, no matter how expensive is insignificant.
Look, there’s only one answer to healthcare. The rest of the functioning world has seen the light. Do we have to wander around in the dark just because insurance and drug companies want to make a fortune from it? Do we have to stay in the dark just because a few rich pigs want lower taxes? The answer is obviously no, and now it’s up to each of you to write your congressman or woman and threaten them with losing their job if this most important function of government is not brought to fruition. America needs single payer now! Make the President happy,. Give him a bill to sign. Maybe he won’t Tweet about Hillary for a day.