Wonderland or Not

Nothing but the best rhe­to­ric will do. I see a Pre­si­dent and Con­gress unwi­lling to risk poli­ti­cal ire (or anger of those with ves­ted inte­rest in the health insu­rance and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­tries), and do what the right thing for this country by get­ting rid of the free mar­ket health insu­rance industry alto­gether. Giving that isn’t about to hap­pen, it con­cerns me that as soon as a term begins, be it exe­cu­tive or legis­la­tive in nature, it is but a short time after that the con­cern for ree­lec­tion takes pre­ce­dent over the actual legis­la­tion. Media as well seems to spend more time dis­cus­sing what voting for or against a given piece of legis­la­tion will mean in terms of ree­lec­tion, rather than con­cen­tra­ting on what any given piece of legis­la­tion will mean in practice.

I’ve always thought this ridi­cu­lous rush was unne­ces­sary. It is not good enough to claim vic­tory, be it in the pas­sing or or the bloc­king of legis­la­tion. Vic­tory either way does not ensure sub­se­quent suc­cess. Vic­tory is a means to an end for poli­ti­cians, but their end is the vic­tory itself, when it is the likely result of that vic­tory that mat­ters to the citizenry.

I caught this on my rea­der today and thought I’d share. If you’re so inc­li­ned, pass it on.

The Mad as Hell Doc­tors have hit the road. They will be tra­ve­ling across the country, having had their first request to meet with the pre­si­dent to pre­sent their plan, they are not giving up. They’re hea­ding to Washing­ton, D.C. to bring the mes­sage of single-payer uni­ver­sal health care to lea­ders in Washing­ton. They hope to put the idea of the single-payer back into the public dis­course. They will arrive on Sep­tem­ber 30, and hold a demons­tra­tion on Octo­ber 1 at the Capi­tal. They hope to get a mee­ting with Pre­si­dent Obama.

What they want?

Slow things down
Don’t cal­cu­late poli­ti­cal wins and los­ses.
Give health care reform the time it needs.
We want to help.

Paul Hoch­field is hea­ding the dele­ga­tion. An emer­gency room phy­si­cian who belie­ves that the insu­rance and big phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have undue influence on the health care discussion.

“What I’m mad about is not health care,” he says. “What I’m mad about is the way our poli­ti­cal pro­cess is being mani­pu­la­ted by the industry.”

Meet the Mad as Hell Doc­tors, see where they come from, and why they are Mad As hell.