Those among the depressingly large number of liberals who write things like "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" and "we don't want to encourage the Republicans by giving them a victory" about the current health care bills need to read Ian Welsh's thoughts on the subject:
30 million more people will be FORCED to buy insurance, which many of them can’t afford. If they could afford insurance, many of them would already have it. What part of FORCED don’t these idiots understand? Let me repeat: Forced, Forced, Forced.
Yes, Jonny [Cohn of The New Republic], it is worse than nothing, because it will push many of these people over the edge financially in order to give them insurance which is capped, and which, therefore when they get really sick, will not save their life anyway. Not just a moron, but a moral imbecile.
Enough
There's more of course. Sadly, there's not that much more for every other moron or imbecile, but you get the idea. Yes, he's being more offensive than is probably wise if one wants to persuade, but deservedly so. Anyone who thinks that buying shit insurance so that the government doesn't fine us constitutes "coverage" really is a moron.
There comes a time when the losses outweigh the benefits. When that time comes, it's time to walk away. The only way the bill is moving is in a way that will ultimately leave us both bankrupt and without health care. As a nation, we're better off without it.
If that's our choice, it's time we got a new Congress.
UPDATE: Sort of related...
I just found another of those e-mails from the Obama "campaign" asking me to call my Senators to ask them to vote for this ridiculous bill. My response:
It's too late in the day, but tomorrow I'll gladly call my Senators and ask them to vote against this atrocious bill. Do you think that being forced to pay for crap insurance just so the government won't fine us constitutes being "covered"? I really wonder at the mental discipline it must take to compartmentalize that fact and then write something like this to millions of people.
The Obama Administration has bargained away nearly every feature of this bill that could have made it worth the cost. The public option, expanded Medicare, reimportation of drugs, the possibility of competition or anti-trust action, all gone. As it is, it's just turning the people and the people's treasury into a couple more ATMs for the health insurance and drug industries.
I'd just like to say that your guy really, really sucks at his job.
I'm sure that will get all the attention my other replies have gotten, but somehow I feel better.
UPDATE 2: Definitely related ...
Jon Walker at FireDogLake schools Nate Silver about why this is a lousy bill, and why killing the Senate bill doesn't mean there's no bill. I won't even try to quote it, because Nate's original article goes on at some length, as does Jon's response.
UPDATE 3 (Dec. 17): Ian takes a crack at Nate's twenty questions. Also worth a read, as is some of the discussion in the comments.
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