Right now, the two words makes people alternately scream or shudder.
And according to CQ Politics, 79% of average Americans (that would be a percentage of the 1001 people who were questioned in a poll) want to have Democrats and Republicans agree on a health care reform bill.1 HR 3200 (alternatively known as America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009) doesn't seem to have any Republicans in the same room.
I have problems with both sides right now. The far left of center folks like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are talking about the public option like if HR 3200 (or another bill) doesn't have it, they won't back down and won't vote for it.2 I don't want to push the blame entirely on the Democrats. The Republicans have been either quiet or agreeing with the likes of Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh. And Limbaugh and Palin have been drinking the same Kool-AidTM.3 It's a sad world they're living in, breathing in lies and breathing out hate.
As a side note: I have read the section that Limbaugh refers to in this article.3 Sec. 1233 of the Bill is what refers to the so-called end of life care.4 Read it yourself and see if you can find anything that makes you see Death Panels. If you want, you can go read Sarah Palin's facebook and see it for yourself.5 If there were people who could come to the middle it would be better.
Better? We could look back to the years of Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan... Sometimes you can be pragmatic and not get 'exactly' what you want, but get nearly what you want. So many things have happened in this country through compromise. As we sit back tonight and listen (or not) to Barack Obama's speech on health care (sorry, I'll not be watching but I'll read the text after), I can only hope (and we know how dismal that hope is...) that he will introduce Dr. Bill Frist and Dr. Howard Dean as his two advisors on health care and that he will delay the bill until the two doctors agree that the bill is a good thing for America.
Like I said, that won't happen. But one could hope...
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