The program will work, providing better care and nearly
universal coverage at a cheaper price.
Whacking yourself on
the head with a ball-peen hammer would be stupid. Doing it again and again?
That’s insane.
Welcome to your House
of Representatives, presently led by a pack of tea-partying Republicans. They
loathe the Affordable Care Act so much that they repeatedly hammer themselves
over the head. They’ve voted 46 times (so far) to dismantle, defund, delay,
deny, and otherwise destroy this landmark health care bill — all to no avail.
They would be
hilarious, were they not so pathetic.
The craziest part of
their stunt is the duplicitous claim that finally providing health care for
millions of uninsured Americans will have, as one leader of the mad-dog pack
put it, “horrific effects.”
Yet, even as they
publicly insist that they’re heroes for trying to save the people from the
horror of receiving fairly decent health coverage, the GOP hierarchy is quietly
warning its members that defeating President Barack Obama’s signature health
care reform now is essential to their own political health.
Why? Because they know
the program will work, providing better care and nearly universal coverage at a
cheaper price. It will become widely popular, and any politico who tries to
kill it later will become wildly unpopular.
Even the Senator from
Oz, Ted Cruz, understood that the program had to be aborted before it was born.
It will be so loved, Cruz candidly conceded (as he desperately tried to
suffocate the law that brought it about with a painfully long filibuster), that
the public will be “hooked” for the long haul.
Yes, Sen. Cruz, the
American people tend to support policies that are beneficial to them. How crazy
is that?
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also editor of the
populist newsletter, The
Hightower Lowdown. OtherWords.org