Who’s Looking Out For You? It’s most assuredly not the Republicans

Okay, the pity party is officially over. The distressing lack of spine displayed by many of the Democrats in both the House and Senate regarding a Public health insurance Option has had us crying in our beer for the last couple of days, and that’s long enough. Now there’s work to be done, so let’s get serious about the task at hand. It’s apparently being left up to us to convince everyone we possibly can, particularly the Blue Dogs, that meaningful Health Care Reform is in the best interests of the country as a whole.

We all need to play a part in this, even if it just means making a phone call or communicating in some other way with your Senators and House Reps…unless, of course, they’re Republicans. In that case, forget it! You’d be wasting your time…time that could be better spent calling friends and neighbors who need more convincing. The GOP has shown repeatedly since this process began that they have absolutely no interest in Health Care Reform, meaningful or otherwise. They are not your friends!

This really shouldn’t surprise anyone because the Republicans have fought and voted against the best interests of 95% of Americans…the best interests of your families and ours…on every significant social issue since the 1940s. They have consistently sided with huge financial institutions, large corporations, and the 5% of our population that’s comprised of the country’s wealthiest individuals, rather than with us.

They have a tradition of being on the wrong side of history whenever it comes to the overall wellbeing and lifestyle security of the working class. If you doubt that, all you have to do is look at the evidence. It’s so stark that one can’t help but wonder why anyone who is counted among the 95% would ever vote Republican… unless you’ve been deluded into believing, like so many have, that they consider you one of them.

The GOP waged a savage campaign against the advent of Social Security back before it became law…and even today they’re continually lobbying behind the scenes to either privatize the program or, preferably in their minds, get rid of it altogether. If you need your memory jogged, just think back to the failed efforts of W’s administration in that regard. Were they trying to derail Social Security with your future in mind?

Republicans fought bitterly against Medicare before the Democrats prevailed and it became law back in the 1960s. For some reason they just never seem to want to give anything back to the people who spend their entire lives working to help make America the country that it is. Why do you suppose that is?

And why do you suppose it is that the GOP always so vehemently opposes any proposed increase in the minimum wage…even knowing full well that as the cost of living continues to rise, many Americans end up in a deeper and deeper financial hole. Do you think they’re campaigning and voting against these paltry increases because they have your best interests at heart? Not bloody likely. It’s because they know that if the minimum wage goes up, so will everyone else’s wages…and that’s what they're really trying to prevent!

The same goes for unemployment benefits. Even though we all faithfully pay into this pool…for insurance purposes…Republicans consistently vote to limit the payouts as much as possible, and they never, ever vote to extend benefits no matter what’s happening with the economy or the job market. In fact it’s because of the GOP that today’s job market is as bad as it is. It was under their watch, and with their blessing, that so many companies were allowed to close down plants in the United States and open up off-shore operations so they could access all that inhumanely cheap, third-world labor. The resulting loss of good-paying American jobs will be felt for at least a generation.

Now, once again, the debate on Health Care Reform resumes. This is something the Democrats have been working unsuccessfully to accomplish for almost 70 years…and the Grand Old Party has been working successfully to prevent for just as long. The rules of the game changed dramatically in the 1970s when Richard Nixon opened the door for Health Care to become a for-profit industry…Hippocratic Oath be damned! Ever since then, the need for meaningful reform has been even greater.

The biggest problem is a health insurance sector run amok. The insurance companies are essentially operating without any real oversight or competition. They collude to charge premiums at rates that would embarrass loan sharks. They cancel policies and deny further coverage to even long-time customers who happen to get sick or injured and have to make a claim. When confronted with claims, especially large claims, they routinely deny coverage…either on technicalities as mundane as typos, or for some trumped-up issue that they’ve suddenly discovered in the client’s health history or policy application.

They pay employees huge performance bonuses based solely upon the dollar value of the claims they manage to deny. And they pay their highest-ranking executives ridiculous amounts of money to ensure that their companies continue making obscene profits.

This is who the Republicans are fighting to protect. They couldn’t care less about you or me…or the tens of millions of Americans who are either underinsured or have no insurance at all. You want to talk obscene, just listen to what Virginia GOP Congressman Eric Cantor told one of his constituents at a recent Town Hall Meeting in Richmond:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-yyiJpeA4w

So the Republican answer seems to be, if you don't have insurance, maybe you can get charity. And good luck with that. Get well soon!

We’ll leave you with a prescient piece about the plight of the deservedly maligned American health insurance industry done by comedian Will Ferrell and several other notable performers, published on ‘funnyordie.com’. Keep up the good fight!

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/041b5acaf5/protect-insurance-companies-psa

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