Healthcare Agonistes

The Democrats are trying to do something about a faltering healthcare system. The Republicans have committed themselves to opposing anything the Democrats propose, the country be damned.

The healthcare issue deals with our most basic concerns, matters of life and death, ethics, and fairness. We need to have an honest discussion and debate. We are not getting it. All content and reason seemed to be irrelevant to the poisoned politics of the moment.

In the mainstream media, it all seems very clear. Citizens are portrayed as frightened over a feared intrusion of the government into their lives and they are showing up and shouting about it at town hall meetings. All that might be accepted as accurate were it not for the Republicans who are stonewalling everything in Congress and the conservative pundits who are stoking that fear with deliberate misrepresentation.

In normal times, those townhall disruptions would be democracy in action. But virtually all of the complaints are based on factually wrong information as the protesters are goaded to complain about things that are not true.

Manufactured idiocy is pervasive, from Sarah Palin’s “deaths panels” to accusations of socialism and comparisons to Hitler and fascism. Republican constituents seem primed to believe a dozen impossible things before breakfast. The fact that Republican politicians not only refuse to condemn but in fact repeat these absurdities exposes the politics behind the campaign.

Some of the errors and fabrications are tragically obvious. Thus, the “public option” that is so widely feared is nothing but a self-pay Medicare system. All of us over 65 are on Medicare. We love it and will fight to keep it. Until a month ago, polls showed 60 to 70 percent of the people want a public option like Medicare for all. But suddenly to extend it to others, even when they would have to pay for it, is dangerous, socialistic, fascist, and is going to take away their country.

The disinformation campaign is frighteningly effective. It used to be considered an urban legend but now it is on tape. The constituent demanded of his congressman, Bob Inglis (R.-SC), “Keep the government out of my Medicare!” Medicare Part A, the heart of the program, is a government-run, single-payer system. It is combined with Part B which is provided by private insurance companies. To Inglis’ credit, he tried to explain the facts but the indoctrination was too deep and the shouter would hear nothing of it.

Other mistakes are more subtle but also more tragic because the perpetrators know the damage they are doing. The accusation that the healthcare reforms would harm small business is a classic example because exactly the opposite is true.

We all know that most jobs are created by the small businesses that are the backbone of any modern economy. What most people don’t know is that we are falling behind internationally because our small businesses not only have to pay directly for healthcare but they have to pay twice as much as their foreign competitors pay in taxes.

In the U.S., startups, notoriously short on cash, can’t afford to pay healthcare premiums for their workers or even themselves. The bright, innovative and adventuresome entrepreneurs can’t afford to join, much less start, a small firm.

The U.S. is thus not getting the start-up small firms that it needs to compete in the modern world. As a result, the U.S. share of self-employed workers is second lowest among the wealthy countries. The US stands third from last in the share of manufacturing employment in small firms and in the share of workers in computer related services or research and development in small firms.

These kinds of distortions pervade our politics and our economy. Yet there is something more going on here. It isn’t just the misinformed “know-nothings.” It is also the conservative pundits and the Republican politicians who know better but are goading on the misinformed.

Nor should we let off the hook those blue-dog Democrats who are afraid to stand up and say it like it is. They also sin who only stand and wait.

Our politics have gone bitter. The Republicans are willing to kill healthcare reform or pay any price to undo the last election. And they are willing to abuse the disaffected to push their agenda.

The now famous Mr. Craig Miller who stood up demanding to be heard at Senator Specter’s Lebanon Pennsylvania town hall meeting, is a good example. He is probably an average working guy beset by the troubles and costs of our Great Recession. Because of the distortion machine, he blames the government and the Democrats for all the ills of the world. It got to be too much and he wanted to tell someone, to exercise his constitutional right to petition the government.

The Republican purpose is not legislation, prosperity or bipartisanship, it is to break Obama and make him a one-term president, whatever the costs to the country. The technique is to abuse people like Mr. Miller and anyone they can confuse or bamboozle.

Healthcare reform, an economic, social and medical necessity is long overdue. The delay until now just shows how rotten our political discourse has become.