Yeah, healthcare.
So, deep down, I’m probably a conservative. But my political thoughts and beliefs are so nuanced that to all sane and rational people they appear hypocritical and/or irrational. I’m ok with this for now, because my positions are very much “under construction.” That’s why I’m not really going to write much on this issue, I promise.
But this thought has been boiling in my head lately and I just have to put it out there.
All conservatives who despise the healthcare bill as the worst thing since Hitler need to think about one thing:
No Republican President would have ever touched healthcare reform. It wouldn’t have happened, and it may never happen, for the simple fact that the guiding principles of conservatism (smaller government, fewer entitlements, market-based systems) require such radical reform of the healthcare system as is that healthcare reform is political suicide.
The system that existed before 1:22pm yesterday was not much more conservative than the system that exists now on the balance. Because our health care system was and still is pretty damn messed up.
But to reform the healthcare system to be in line with conservative principles would require removal of entitlements, increasing competition in health care (by increasing transparency? letting insurance companies get bigger?), and giving up short-term political thinking for the long-term good of the country. Bush didn’t do that on the healthcare issue (he increased Medicare, right?) and I would be willing to bet no Republican president would be likely to do that any time soon. It is political suicide for the party, not just for the president.
That said, the healthcare bill passed yesterday was a mixed bag. There was good in it and bad in it and depending on which voters you are pandering to, you are only able to see one part of it. That, sadly, is how politics works today.
But the good that came was needed. Like the ending of rescission, the increased abilities for people with “pre-existing issues” to be covered, and many of the pilot programs that will be started to find ways to reduce Medical costs. And as an American, and as a slightly politically aware realist, I’m really glad for some of those reforms because they help more people get the healthcare coverage they need. It was a start, but there is still so much more reform needed.
Honestly, the realist in me would rather take the bad mixed in with the good from a Democrat president (who, come on, please, didn’t bring us one step closer to socialism. Don’t be an idiot.) because we needed the good reforms that much. The seats that Democrats are now expected to lose this fall in the midterm elections because of this bill are the political backlash that will forever keep the Republican party from attempting reforms like that. This is a political reality.
Obama, whether you hate him or not, seems to be a President who is attempting use the principles he believes in to help guide him in leading long-term reforms rather than ones that are politically expedient in the short term. Most of the health care reforms he passed yesterday do not kick in until after he leaves office assuming he is not re-elected. I only wish that Republicans, rather than acting like the Black Knight from Monty Python, foolishly yelling “NONE SHALL PASS” as their limbs are chopped off, would recognize that there is now an opportunity to set their sights on some long-term goals and work to achieve them.
Until then, I remain a conservative in principle who is willing to look optimistically at the reality of politics, even if that means being happy that liberals are in charge.