it doesn't matter...

On Healthcare Reform (Spoiler Alert: The Ayes Have It)

Since theOoze has been pimping McLaren's views, and he's obviously a political animal now, what theOoze writes has some political play.

And since this article of there is obviously political, here we go...

The strongest Republican argument I’ve heard is that health care reform was needed, but should have been done in the private sector rather than by the national government. And you know what? I think they may be right. But it’s too late. Because the time to reform health care privately, either by legislation or by appealing to the consciences of insurance CEO’s was twenty years ago. The bottom line is, if health care reform was going to come from a self-policed private sector, it would have been done by now.

Oh, dear, so, because private sector didn't do things fast enough for her, we're stuck with a health care catastrophe.

The first president to advocate a national health insurance plan was Teddy Roosevelt (a Republican, by the way), almost 100 years ago. There have been 18 presidents since then, 10 of whom were Republicans. From 2000-2006, when insurance premiums skyrocketed 87 per cent, while inflation increased 18 per cent and wages increased 20 per cent, there was a Republican president and a Republican majority in Congress.

It was a bad idea when all those others were president, and it's a bad idea now.

Here’s what I have to say to people who are still decrying the passage of the reform bill: You had your chance to reform it, and you didn’t. Tens of millions of Americans are uninsured, and 47,000 of them die each year for lack of insurance.

So the bill may not be perfect. It may go too far, or not far enough. It may have been voted in with unusual (though not unconstitutional) means. But it is fiscally responsible, reducing the federal deficit by $138 billion over the next 10 years. And even more importantly, it is sure to save lives.

It may even save yours.

Say hello to the voice of despair, folks (Hi, voice of despair).

You see, it's not about making wise decisions and passing laws that are good, it's about making ANY decision and passing laws no matter how bad, how unconstitutional, it is, and no matter how much the citizens don't want the law. It's about trying to spin a government takeover of health into somehow "reducing the federal deficit". It's about telling Granny to take a pill and die into "it is sure to save lives".

It's about feeling good about yourself, because, hey, at least you 'did something'. Even if it made matters much worse.