READ THE BILL!

It has been said that this week will be a make or break week on healthcare. There are rousing town hall meetings with "Rabble-Raisers" all over the south & the country for that matter. In many of these there has been a frequent and (almost) glorious chant, "READ THE BILL, READ THE BILL, READ THE BILL." Unfortunate for the hecklers who attempted to disrupt Congressman Barney Frank's meeting with his constituency because he actually did read the bill. They posited outrageous claims that any healthcare bill would allow illegal immigrants to receive free healthcare on the tax payers dime. Barney refuted this claim and received the rousing response, "Read the Bill, Read the Bill, Read the Bill" and so the Congressman (always willing to steal the show) flipped to the portion of the bill that banned illegal immigrants from receiving healthcare and the pertinent section.

Unfortunately for our republic is the fact that the debate over healthcare has become little more than buzzwords and political theater. Lost in rhetoric and not intelligent enough to actually read the bill themselves the citizenry are relying on others to decide what will be their truths. This can be good and bad, that is, relying on others to interpret, write, and execute the law. In our representative democracy we have shifted the need for the individual to be well versed in logic, rhetoric, and other important traits by giving this duty over to politicians. This is different than say the traditional Greek democracy where the average citizen was expected to be well versed in the said areas. Like I said the transfer of law making to an elected body is a good idea but it comes with consequences (the [= bad] part of the equation). When we become detached from the process of writing the laws we are ignorant of them and democracy has failed. In the same measure, if we become involved and are still too ignorant to interpret the political reality through which the laws are written democracy has failed. An uninformed voter isn't so dangerous as a misinformed voter. Relying on politicians can be dangerous but they still have to answer to their constituency. More dangerous and increasingly problematic is a politic relying on special interest groups and other lobbying efforts for their (mis)information.

Let me make a distinction on the last point. I don't mean all special interest groups are bad but that the ones attempting to misinform voters and (simply put) lie to them are not democratic. If it is true that we simply cannot say just what ever we want to or about people (as the status quo under the law would hold to be the case--if you need precedence think cyberbullying). Then many lobbying efforts and grass-roots misinformation campaigns that are successfully misinforming voters should be liable for gross negligence and prosecution.

The general rule for those questioning the intellect of the congresspeople now should be: "Do I really think my congressperson is doing X, Y, & Z unthinkable things? Wouldn't this make it hard for him/her to be re-elected and easy for an opponent to point out making for an easy election victory?" The answers to the previous questions are obvious. No politician is going to do something that is bad for his/her constituency (or so we would hope) because it would prevent their re-election and be bad for the country.

The outrageous claims are easy to come by these days. (Imagine this being said in a really deep scary voice that rattles you to the bone) "Barrack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid along with the Democratic Congress are trying to force a healthcare bill through the legislature that would 1) allow 'Illegal Immigrants' to have free healthcare on the tax payers' dime, 2) Lets bureaucrats get between you and your doctors, 3) that leads to 'Rationed Care', 4) will lead to long lines and 6 month plus waiting times for doctors, 5) Bankrupt the treasury, 6) force the 'democrats' to raise takes stifling the American Economy, 7) Won't allow you to get the care you need or the care needed by your loved ones.

I'll go through these pretty quick. 1-3 are just flat out lies and are not true. (Number two depends on how you view bureaucrats....Insurance Company Bureaucrats aren't held accountable by an electorate but instead stockholders that care about nothing but PROFIT....Government Bureaucrats are held accountable....Either Way there are still bureaucrats....so this is what we call the "lesser of two evils argument"... I choose the people I can vote for and against...the people not driven by profit (arguably.) Numbers 4 - 6 are usually presented by showing a geo-political map of the UK & CANADA and making the claim that they have waiting lines and had to raise taxes. I'll just mention the glaring problem with the previous rhetorical presentation by mentioning that the current methods for raising funds for healthcare are simply becoming more fiscally responsible and revising aspects of the already established government run healthcare programs. Also that the UK & CANADA are just two of many nations with government run healthcare systems. Ending as we began 7 is just a flat-out lie.

Young people must become active in speaking out against these lies and misconceptions about healthcare. We are the fastest growing cohort of the uninsured. These healthcare issues will profoundly impact our lives and guide us as we will shortly become the "Next Generation's Republic."


[I've tried to read the bill and have read a substantial portion of it and will admit that it is hard to digest even for someone who has (though limited) experience reading such bills. I focused on more of the contentious sections so that I myself was not relying on the truth as fabricated by others.] The point in mentioning this is that I know it is hard to stay engaged with all of the other things we are worrying about in our lives. We can't make this healthcare discussion a side-note to our daily lives because it will soon become a political reality we will have to grapple with. We're all busy but we must keep our work going and we must make our voices heard. We are citizens and We must demand that our voices are heard.Take a survey of the town hall meetings you're seeing on the NEWS and see if you can spot a young person. If you can then you might notice that there are a lot more older Americans present than younger ones. This is in part because they likely have more free time but most importantly that they CARE what is going to be done with Medicare/ Medicaid. We should CARE and (it is my belief that) WE DO CARE. So we need to be proactive and start getting our voices and opinions out in the open public. We voted in great numbers in 2009 and we cannot let this be the end of our civic engagement. IT IS OUR DUTY AS CITIZENS TO STAND AND LET OUR VOICES BE HEARD. THAT DUTY IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT NOW AS THERE ARE PEOPLE LYING, DECEIVING, AND EVADING THE TRUTH ABOUT HEALTHCARE.