Thursday, March 25, 2010

René and Georgette Magritte with their dog after the war

Growing up, our neighbors -- I'll call them René and Georgette Magritte (to protect their anonymity) -- had a dog that was... well... it just wasn't quite right.

Oh, it was a nice enough dog. You could pet it. It would fetch you all kinds of stuff -- even stuff you didn't need or want.

But it had this funny quirk. If you waved your hand in a large circle, like you were drawing a pie on a big chalkboard, the crazy mutt would begin running around in circles chasing its tail. And it would just keep running around and around and around until it got dizzy had to lay down on the ground. It would lay there panting with these crazy bulging eyes like it was high on pot-laced Milkbones.

But then, after a 20 minute recovery period or so, you could make the dumb thing do it all again with the same wave or your hand. This went on for years.

The crazy canine never learned.

I thought of that crazy dog when so many people started celebrating another historic Obama win last weekend. Politicians waved their hands in the air and Americans went crazy running around in joy.

With the stroke of a pen, Obama yet again changed the game -- this time solving the health care problem for every last person in the nation.

Well, yet again, I have to remind you crazy dogs that nothing really is going to change.

Oh sure, there will be people who now will be forced to buy health insurance even if they don't want it.

And some people who do want health insurance will get it -- subsidized by the rest of us of course. I don't really have a problem with that per se -- I mean, no more of problem than I have with any of the other bajillion subsidies taxpayers pay for. Hell, at least in theory the subsidy doesn't go to a rich Goldman Sachs exec (in theory).

But all this really does is extend and strengthen the system we already had in place. A system whereby health insurance companies take monthly premiums protection money in exchange for the promise of taking care of you should you get sick or maimed.

Because the price of health care has been rising faster than Smiling Bob's jockey shorts, insurance company dons executives have raised the price of premiums and deductibles to keep their "profit margins" intact.

Luckily for them, they're about to get 30 million new customers. That should pad their profits nicely, even after all the kickbacks to Obama, Pelosi and their droogs.

So because legislators cautiously avoided taking any action to do anything about the costs of health care, which nine months ago everyone seemed to agree was the problem in the first place, we can expect more and more expensive health care, which in the end will lead to higher debt levels.

Yes, we have been told that there are provisions in the bill to pay for the additional costs through new fees and taxes. We've been told that the bill will decrease budget deficits. We've been told that costs will go down because government regulators will now have a better handle on insurance companies.

But then again, we've been told all these things before. And we chased our tails in excitement. The truth is, that dog just ain't right.

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5 comments:

  1. Not for nuthin', Mr. Optomist, but we could have already paid for health care for EVERYONE with the monies the Cheney administration blew on 2 illegal wars the last 8 years (when a few well placed drone-guided missiles could have achieved the same outcome.) And that Administration guaranteed the continued waste of taxpayers monies on those idiocies for at least the next 3 years.

    that's the mutt you ought to be concerned with - it's more likely to bite you than the tail-chaser.

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  2. Even if we had used the money that was wasted on the B/C wars, we still would have been spending money we didn't have.

    It drives me crazy when people use past wastes of money to justify future wastes of money.

    And that's not to say that helping people be healthy is a waste of money. But paying too much to help people be healthy IS a waste of money.

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  3. Okay, that's all well and good. But has anyone asked themselves what's happening to that dog in the pic at the top of this post? I mean, really.

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  4. Nicely said.

    Of course, when you dress this pooch up in the fishnet chemise of "morality," it looks pretty good after about 9 or 10 stiff bourbons.

    Cheers.

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  5. @R.Sherman,

    Fortunately Sec.4029 Subsection L, Paragraph 9, part III of the Obamacare bill mandates coverage of medical bourbon and marijuana by all insurance policies.

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