I've pretty much stayed out of the health care debate other than rec'ing a few comments here and there. But there's a diary on the rec list that's creating another occasion for many of us to repeat our arguments back and forth. So I'd like to see whether there's any chance that we can come to a consensus about a few things.
I realize that some of these points may be controversial.
1) It's not our fault that we've been arguing with each other. It's the fault of the Democratic leadership.
I'm all for heated arguments, but when you've got a fight to fight and the troops are arguing with each other over whether or not the gear is shitty, on some level it doesn't matter what the answer is. You look to the leadership and you say "What the fuck is wrong with you?" And by leadership, I mean President Obama and the people who speak for him. This is what happens when the leader doesn't lead. Instead of working together, we end up arguing over whether or not the leader is leading. It's the way it works.
2) Noobies make mistakes.
We all knew that Obama was going to have a learning curve. Every President does. We can't agree that every President makes mistakes in office and then cover for every mistake he makes in office. We also can't elect a President who's never held executive office and then be shocked to watch him make mistakes in executive office. We voted for him, didn't we? What, were we stupid?
3) Giving up the opportunity to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies sucks.
Wait, we didn't give up the opportunity to negotiate with them. We did negotiate with them. They agreed to give Obama industry support and Obama agreed to cap their costs at $80 billion over the next 10 years (preventing any direct government negotiation of drug prices).
Correction: giving up the right to negotiate in a negotiation sucks.
4) Giving public money to private, for-profit health insurance companies sucks.
While we've been hurling screaming monkeys in each other's direction, Illinois' private insurance market just announced a 60% increase in premiums.
Private insurance companies suck.
5) 2014 is a long way away unless you're talking about saving for college or retirement.
But we'll get Medicare when we retire, so 2014 is a long way away unless you're talking about saving for college.
6) We want to be less disappointed than we feel.
There really is nothing to add to this.
Now, can we have a discussion?