US politics and health care
The latest political spin in the U.S. is that the Democrats lost the seat that was held by the late Senator Edward Kennedy in Massachusetts because the people “just don’t understand the health care legislation.” It is not, so they say, that the legislation is bad or that it will raise taxes or result in rationing. No, it is not the legislation at all. It is that the White House has failed to communicate the key elements of the health care legislation clearly.
I beg to disagree. I think that we, the electorate, understand the legislation, but we do not like it, and do not want it. We do not want it shoved down our throats; we do not want our tax dollars used to blatantly buy off votes for the legislation; we do not want our voices to be ignored.
And the White House knows that the public has turned against this legislation because it now knows more about the bill, not less. Why else would they endorse the secretive, closed-door sessions to draft the language of the bill? Why else would they want to hide the legislation from the light of day, from the scrutiny of the press and the public? Because the less we know, the more likely it is that this shameful legislation will slither through and become law.
So, spare us, White House. The reason people do not like the health care legislation is not because you haven’t communicated it clearly enough. It’s because we understand it all too well.
By Sherry Jarrell
Learning from Dogs 