Below are some thoughts I posted in late November. In light of the bribes that have floated through the Senate over the past couple of days in order to move the health care bill along, I thought I would put it up again. Here is a link to the most recent WSJ article on the payoffs.
I freely admit to being conflicted on the entire subject. From a personal point of view, the design of the legislation would personally benefit me, though those benefits are deferred to the extent that those benefits will be severely diminished. Nevertheless, that such a significant piece of legislation has been enacted or most likely will be without sufficient debate on a purely partisan vote and in the absence support from the citizens of the country, would suggest that we have reached a nadir in the exercise of political power in this nation.
At least, one can hope that it is a nadir for any further abuse of power on this order would suggest that we have evolved a system of government that is fundamentally divorced from representative democracy as we understand and have practiced it.
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Am I being incredibly naive in asking this question?
Why couldn’t the Congress of the United States just once have debated something as momentous as a total overhaul of the U.S. health system without resorting to bribing one and other with money that doesn’t belong to them?
If you haven’t been following this, here’s a link to the WSJ editorial on the subject.
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