The Affordable Healthcare Bill: DOA or Just Comatose?

MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Buzz Flash,   

No, I'm not talking about the healthcare package that is being tossed around Congress today. I'm talking about what the majority of the American people wanted from our members of Congress: single payer or public option.  

There are two things that should never be in control of politicians or corporate America and they are healthcare and education. Yes, we Americans live in a great country, and we had a great start at the beginning of the last half of the 20th century.

Then came Nixon. Nixon ran on the promise to end the Vietnam war, then after five profitable years for some, and many more dead... it was ended. Since then, whether Democrats want to admit it or not, the Republicans, who favor making money any which way they can, have been making money for some in this nation, as they say, hand over fist, by killing people, and not by saving lives. Saving lives doesn't make a dime for the greedy in this country, and since they don't have to worry about their health or their healthcare, they cry socialism. A word that many American citizens don't understand, they just believe what the Bush GOP, who are still in Congress, tells them.  

Socialism: A political and economical theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

The term "socialism" has been used to describe positions as far apart as anarchism, Soviet state communism, and social democracy, however, it necessarily implies an opposition to the untrammeled workings of the economic market. The socialist parties that have arisen in most European countries from the late 19th century have generally tended toward social democracy.

Social Democracy: A socialist system of government achieved by democratic means. The New Oxford American Dictionary.  

Illness doesn't strike just Democrats, Independents, or Republicans. This country sentences to death thousands of people each year because they "cannot afford" healthcare, employed of unemployed, regardless of their political affiliation. We Americans look around us and have to wonder why such a nation as ours can't be more like our neighbors, the Canadians or the English in Great Britain when it comes to healthcare and the saving of the lives of their people.  

With all of the hullabaloo and fuss, the wrangling, the debating about healthcare that has been going on for months, coming from complaining Republicans (the same people who never once said a loud "NO" to King George Bush as he was invading and occupying Iraq and Afghanistan). For eight years of debt, death, and destruction these members of Congress were just fine with the killings based on lies, and still today, no accountability for hundreds of thousands of deaths. And yet, they feel no shame when they oppose anything that points to saving lives. So, the Democrats have constantly given into these Bush GOP supporters who don't care whether the legislation is killing or saving lives, just as long as they make a profit from it, and they (the Democrats) give us Americans the excuse that they don't have the numbers they need to pass their legislation, as if all of us have a problem of understanding what really goes on in D.C. And what remains, after the Democrats kept trying to please the Bush GOP and Corporate America, is a skeleton of what we Americans really need in healthcare today.  

Even after eight years of watching a Bush GOP regime do whatever they wanted to do -- and to hell with what us Americans thought -- up to the present, when the Democrats were dumped on with all of the debt, those same Republicans have the gall to stomp around D.C. as the Party of "No." They're proud of themselves, and they talk about President Obama's spending, a spending that wasn't enough actually, but it did manage to save this country from a deep depression. It's as if their eight years of a killing spree and its profits never happened.    

And I blame the Democrats for this. We Americans can turn on any station and hear the Bush GOP, even Rove and Cheney, complaining about Obama and what the Democrats have been doing, and there are no bars in front of them. Yet, in reality, the Democrats should have gone into D.C. with a "iron fist," knocking down every single thing the Bush GOP did for eight long treasonous years, and that same iron fist should have put a few in jail. But they didn't; they went in wanting to shake hands with a velvet, bipartisanship glove.  

Republicans thrive on the use of fear; that should have been a clue as to how to get them to back off this administration. Fear of accountability should have been on the agenda. Democrats, no one hears you. So, many Americans think that the Bush GOP has not been criminal in their activity.   What I did see on the Olbermann hour were clips of an interview by Fox News, Wednesday of this week. I have never seen such disrespect shown for an American president in all of my life, even for a treasonous, unelected George Bush, or to the same Supreme Court that broke the law and put him into office; even to Nixon who just had to step down.    

Bush, a man guilty of lying this country into an illegal invasion that displaced and killed millions, should not have been seen in a real functioning democracy. Fox News was the only news group allowed on many of Bush's flights. I've asked this many times: Why do Democrats or anyone of any accountability want to be seen on Fox News? Why feed that phony news machine? They are not going to change, so leave them the hell alone to those who, willfully, want to be ignorant and lied to. Any visit by a reputable person gives those liars accountability, and no responsibility to what they tell the public. I remember when any news station in this country would never be able to get away with such ilk.  

Accountability would have made the Bush GOP back off. Without having to take any responsibility for these past eight years, the Bush GOP, including Cheney and Rove, still feel that they are in control. And, as long as the Democrats don't speak out to the American people about these outlaws, or repeal what they have done for eight years, they are still in control. No U.S. law in U.S. government, and until then, I don't feel sorry for the Democrats who refuse to do the right thing. Many Americans are still walking around thinking that it's okay to invade, occupy and kill people around the world, for no other reason than if our government says so. They are "the good Germans."  

Again, U.S. citizens take a back seat to government and to corporations. This should not be a Democratic or Republican issue. It should be an American issue and all citizens should be asking themselves, why is it so hard for this country, that is rich in many ways? Why is it so easy for our government to kill in illegal wars and yet, so hard to save lives? We Americans never see the months of debate when it comes to the killing of people, even our own, or invading countries, or sending our military to kill or to be killed. No, but healthcare, the kind that serves all people's ills, regardless of their financial capabilities, to watch the ranting and raving by these elitists, these multi-millionaires... it's so anti-American, anti-democracy, and damn appalling. Imagine, these same people who brought this country the debt by deaths of innocent people, are worried about the debt of saving lives. They might as well put a rope around every ill person and just hang them, because that is exactly what they are giving them: a continued death sentence.  

Healthcare and education, in a country that loves to brag about our achievements, should be free for all citizens. Yes, free. The Bush GOP, the same Republicans in Congress today, fear doing anything for the American people, or they fear doing anything that they can't make money off of.  

We Americans are told all the time in many different ways that we are not deserving, and if we stand up against U.S. government, we are told that we are not patriotic. The people of this nation are the ones who suffer for the misjudgments of U.S. government, not the government. Americans must come to understand that these people in Congress "work for us." They are paid employees, not entrepreneurs. And, if they just show up for work, but do not do the work, then we must "fire" them. That should be seen as an obligation.    

And, the Bush GOP multi-millionaires can scoff and complain about socialism all they want to. The only socialism in this country since Nixon has been for the wealthy of this nation, the top 5 to 10 percent. And, they want to protect it. The corporations and the politicians go hand in hand.   

Why do American citizens get stuck with the bills and have to fight for every little benefit? Why is it so hard for us Americans to get decent healthcare from those members of Congress who are supposed to work for the American people? Why is it that the U.S. can so easily kill people, and yet, is so unwilling to fight something that would save thousands of lives? Why are the Democrats walking softly around these people, who don't give a damn about the lives of the citizens of this country or the lives of the citizens of any other country? The answer is simple: greed, and the silence of the American people.  

This country was once so great. It used to be, before Republicans that is, before Nixon (it was the Democrats who brought this nation Medicare and Medicaid in 1964 and 1965). Texans should be proud of their role in this, instead of supporting such anti-anything politicians today. This nation can be great again, if we just get rid of those who constantly want to support debt, death, and destruction for profit, by using this nation's resources, then sticking the bill to the people. These same people who constantly, when in power, give themselves giant tax cuts and screw the rest of this nation and the world. The same people who constantly send our troops to kill and be killed. They don't give a damn about the people of this country or of any other country and they have proved it over and over and over again.  

Why must we in the U.S. behave as if we are a third world country? Why do we Americans have to always look at, and envy other countries? Why do the governments of other countries such as Canada and Great Britain take care of their citizens, and why do we allow the Bush GOP to constantly yell and scream "socialism" every single time something comes up that has to do with the betterment of the American people? Hell yes, we need some socialism in this country.    

Why should we Americans have to listen to multi-millionaires complain about giving the poor of this country decent jobs or decent healthcare? Personally, I don't give a damn what they think and neither should any other American, until it's time to vote. The answers to healthcare, education, and a real democracy should be in the ballot box. Get rid of these bastards. They do not work for the people of this nation and we do not need them. A "no" to government of the people, should be a "no" to re-election.  

Obama has been quoted as saying that the passing of this bill has to do with the success of his presidency. I disagree. Obama came in with a very large majority and if he doesn't understand why, then he should ask somebody. People expected the iron fist: accountability for the crimes committed during the Bush regime (in other words, justice for the dead), doing away with anti-American legislation and governing this country like it was a real working democracy again. That means that any member of the Bush GOP regime who refused to work for the people should be treated as a non-person, because if they aren't there for the people, they should not be seen as being there for the Obama administration. Everything that the Democrats have done to please the Bush GOP in Congress will come back to haunt them during the election years. The Party of No will suddenly become the Party of Yes and they will blame the Democrats for everything the Bush GOP caused the Democrats to fail passing in government.    

President Obama, if your administration fails, it is because you have constantly bent over for those same Republicans who brought about the mess this country is in today. Iron fist, velvet glove. You were the people's choice by a very large margin. Now how your presidency is seen in governing this nation after eight long years of treasonous Bush GOP debt, death, and destruction... it's really your choice.  

Thanks Buzz Flash,  
Shirley Smith

MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON