Okay, that's not quite the way the religious Lefties put it when
they rallied recently on behalf of socialized health care.
But that might as well be their message.
Inspired by a meeting with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA)'s office
in early April, liberal religious leaders banded together into
the "Believe Together: Health Care for All" advocacy network
comprised of more than 40 faith groups who are "encouraging our
nation's leaders to pass comprehensive and compassionate health
care reform legislation this year." The central component of
their advocacy was the June 24th "Interfaith Service
of Witness and Prayer for Health Care for All."
The healthcare coalition wants the federal government to
socialize America's health care system. President Obama
and many congressional Democrats are advocating a new federal
health insurance program that would compete with private
insurance. Critics allege this program ultimately would
drive private insurance out of business. Liberal church
groups largely prefer a "single payer" plan that would
eliminate private health insurance in favor of federal control.
Leaders at the June 24 rally/service emphasized that this was a
critical time for people of faith to coordinate their efforts
with Congress. Neera Tandan, a Senior Adviser in the Department
of Health and Human Services, told the religious activists:
"Your united voice is critical... We are, in the next two
months, at the most critical time of trying to get [healthcare]
legislation passed." Tandan encouraged, "Hopefully, we are
months, not years away from the day we cover all
Americans."
An estimated 850 to 1100 Religious Left activists sat in the
afternoon heat for two hours in Freedom Plaza in the nation's
capital as leaders of their churches, mosques, synagogues, and
temples prayed and spoke in favor of a socialized medical
system that they insisted must be "inclusive, accessible,
affordable, and accountable."
You'd think those purporting to represent the poor would
advocate a system which expanded individual choice and people's
access to medical care. But while the religious
Left says it wants "inclusive, accessible, affordable,
and accountable" health care," that is the opposite of what would
occur in a government-run system.
Look at nationalized systems around the world. Accountable
they most certainly are not. Inclusive and accessible they
are only in the sense that you are promised a long wait in a long
line for services most Americans take for granted. And the
systems are affordable only by rationing care and denying the
best life-saving treatments to most people, especially the
elderly.
I'll admit that God hasn't yet told me what kind of health care
system he wants America to have. But I'm skeptical that he
views socialized medicine as a means of inaugurating his kingdom
on earth. A better approach to affirm human life and
dignity would seem to be to increase the choices available to
patients, allowing them to make more decisions about their own
treatment.
I wonder how rank-and-file liberals will feel ten years after
this abomination is passed.
Pick your average pie-eyed liberal with an Obama/Biden bumper
sticker still proudly displayed on her Prius who today pants
breathlessly for the brave new world Obama and his fellow thugs
are teeing up.
Will it ever dawn on our faithful NPR listener that she's a serf?
That, as far as the government is concerned, she's a pack animal,
a beast of burden to be exploited and then kicked to the curb
when she can no longer carry her "fair share" of the load?
And when our generic useful idiot gets sick, as even generic
useful idiots eventually do, how will she "feel" when she is told
that her wait for an MRI will be 20 months for that metastisizing
ovarian cancer?
Will our loyal Newsweek subscriber/soccer mom experience the
epiphany that, huh, maybe some disinterested, union-marinated,
slave-to-statitistics government bureaucrat in Washington D.C.
isn't the best-qualified professional to decide her fate, or
that, just possibly, class-warfare resentment and esoteric
concepts of social justice may not have been the best organizing
principles of a one-size-fits-all health policy?
Will there be an "aha" moment where any of these pod people wake
up one day and think, "so this is why national health care hasn't
worked anywhere on the planet!"
Or will our hypothetical fool luxuriate in her bedridden and
painful existence, blissful in the knowlege that, sure, she will
likely die before an oncologist even looks at her chart, but,
hey, her carbon footprint is about to get a lot smaller and, darn
it, at least we're all treated equally in this country.
Besides, what is one person's life compared to the health of the
glorious state?
The State is All. Obama is the State. Long Live Obama!
Grzmlyk| 7.3.09 @ 3:12PM
I wonder how rank-and-file liberals will feel ten years after this abomination is passed.
Pick your average pie-eyed liberal with an Obama/Biden bumper sticker still proudly displayed on her Prius who today pants breathlessly for the brave new world Obama and his fellow thugs are teeing up.
Will it ever dawn on our faithful NPR listener that she's a serf? That, as far as the government is concerned, she's a pack animal, a beast of burden to be exploited and then kicked to the curb when she can no longer carry her "fair share" of the load?
And when our generic useful idiot gets sick, as even generic useful idiots eventually do, how will she "feel" when she is told that her wait for an MRI will be 20 months for that metastisizing ovarian cancer?
Will our loyal Newsweek subscriber/soccer mom experience the epiphany that, huh, maybe some disinterested, union-marinated, slave-to-statitistics government bureaucrat in Washington D.C. isn't the best-qualified professional to decide her fate, or that, just possibly, class-warfare resentment and esoteric concepts of social justice may not have been the best organizing principles of a one-size-fits-all health policy?
Will there be an "aha" moment where any of these pod people wake up one day and think, "so this is why national health care hasn't worked anywhere on the planet!"
Or will our hypothetical fool luxuriate in her bedridden and painful existence, blissful in the knowlege that, sure, she will likely die before an oncologist even looks at her chart, but, hey, her carbon footprint is about to get a lot smaller and, darn it, at least we're all treated equally in this country.
Besides, what is one person's life compared to the health of the glorious state?
The State is All. Obama is the State. Long Live Obama!