"Change" is Business as Usual
Is Obama's compromised healthcare package reform or a threat to civil liberties?
by Declan Desmond

On September 9, 2009, America received an invaluable lesson in the art of compromise when President Obama unveiled his healthcare “reform” plan in a special speech to a joint session of Congress. The trouble is, no American was paying attention.

In American politics, compromise is called an “art,” but such a lofty description of the play the President made last month would be grossly exaggerated and just plain dishonest. Instead, Barack Obama sold out his supporters, party, and ideals – not to mention the promises of his campaign.

What should have been the throwing-down of a political gauntlet was instead a bunt, a cop-out met with adulation and thunderous applause. In his speech, the president assured us that his plan will “make the insurance you have work better for you.” He went on to add that those of us who lose their jobs or are otherwise without medical insurance will “be able to get coverage,” in “a new insurance exchange – a marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices.”

Please, somebody pinch me.

If this sounds like a lousy excuse for “reform,” that’s because it plainly is. What we were promised – the so-called single payer system – would have effectively done away with the death-grip the national insurance crime syndicate has on our health care. Don’t believe me? Let the president continue:

“Under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance – just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.”

So, not only have we strayed impossibly far from achieving what we in America call “universal healthcare,” – a term used by Obama himself in his campaign last year and defined by the National Library of Medicine, among others, as a government entity that reimburses all medical services for participating citizens – but we have also heard our own president advocate a frightening encroachment of our individual liberties.

Perhaps someone should inform Obama that health maintenance and hospital visits are arbitrary experiences compared to owning and operating automobiles on shared roads, which is a pastime few Americans don’t participate in. As much of a scam as the concept of insurance might be in general, we can reluctantly concede its usefulness as motorists. But it’s hard to imagine an America where the government uses this same model to force us into buying healthcare – out of our own pockets, by the way – we may not need and probably can’t afford if we don’t work for a company able to provide it.

Maybe someone should tell the president some people have personal – or religious – objections to health care. Some Christian Scientists, for instance, refuse traditional healthcare and simply don’t believe in its use. If health insurance is mandated by law, fans of the First Amendment (and other crackpots) might want to stay tuned.

What this means for all of us is a loss of liberty. Having the freedom to buy useless crap, a cornerstone of that “American Way” we’re always hearing about, is accompanied by the equally important right to put your wallet back in your pocket and decline purchasing a brand new Snuggie ™. Why we’re not rioting in the streets (or writing editorials) over losing that choice is beyond me.

On top of this travesty, we’re getting a watered-down version of watered-down version of the “socialized medicine” everyone was so petrified of, and the insurance industry – a national scourge akin to the moustache-rolling, top-hatted villainy of the silent film era – lives to fight another day … and continue raking in millions, of course.

Like a dud hand grenade failing to detonate in Hitler’s Führerbunker, our chance at witnessing real change now or in the near future was dashed before our eyes by the very man who seemed to be its harbinger – a president whose own party controls both houses of the congress required to bring about such a change and yet still couldn’t deliver on the simple promise of shaking Washington’s foundations.

It’s hard to know where to begin to hate this speech and the ideas behind it. Do we shake our fists at the president for conceding what should have been the cornerstone of his legacy to the greedy hands of American corporate interests? Do we write him off as a play-it-safe political coward? Or do we blame someone else?

The real crime is that the one man of our era destined for greatness has mortgaged it in the name of money, political expediency and a lack of conviction to boot. Leading from the center, he has chosen the path of least resistance, giving everyone a little of what they want – with the exception of his supporters and those left in his party who still have the backbone to stand behind their moral convictions.

Though Obama has gone to great lengths to insure that his political boat remains safely unshaken, the Republicans still manage to bitch at what he wants to do, which is essentially nothing. Considering the fact that their big-money buddies in the insurance industry – who have bribed many senators (of both parties) into their pockets – will be able to continue to operate unscathed in a future healthcare system that strangely resembles the broken-down beast we have now, their furor is actually quite puzzling. But then again, Washington, D.C. is a weird, weird place.

Sure, universal healthcare, at least the idealized version, is liberal, maybe about as liberal as one can practically get. And yes, it borrows heavily from socialist models. Some have called the mere suggestion of such a change “un-American.” But what’s truly un-American is that the elected President of these United States can’t stand up for what he believes in because the political system simply won’t allow it.

What’s worse is when that president lacks the courage of his convictions, especially at a time when his leadership is most needed and the decisions he makes may be the most important of our era.