OBAMACARE, FEDERAL SHUT DOWN, ASSESSING BLAME: Congress is an easy target, but not the only responsible party.

The Democrats in Congress and the Republicans in Congress and the Democrats in the Administration all, metaphorically speaking, stood eyeball to eyeball for the last week and refused to blink.   Certain parts of the federal government, as a result, closed down for a lack of a budget because a certain minority of Congress members refuse to accept one particular statute now derisively referred to as “ObamaCare.”

A STIPULATION

We hear these days a lot of leaders and citizens talking about the hatred of ObamaCare in terms of  preserving or expanding “liberty.”   This tactic is, at best, disingenuous.   The real issues, it seems to this correspondent, are about funding and structure and health.   These are more tangible than an obscurely defined word. 


THE MAIN CULPRIT IN THE BLAME GAME

There is certainly enough childish blame to go around Congress and the executive. However, the heaping helping of childish behavior this time goes to Republican Congress members who seem convinced health is not part of the "general welfare" or "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and is now just another commodity only people with money deserve.

Today, though, I want to discuss some people who also share blame in this mess.   Those people are us citizens.

1   Many if not most of us have our pet federal projects want funded to the limit so long as someone else’s tax money funds them. 

2.  Many if not most of us do our best to minimize federal tax payments but maximize our use of federal programs.

3 Many people have the moral rectitude and emotional stamina to serve as excellent elected Representatives and Senators.   Many of us refuse to serve.  How many talented, first-class citizens among us make jokes and criticize the people who have been elected to office while refusing to serve?    Someone, however crazy or obstinate, will always appear on a ballet to fill in the power vacuum. 

4.   If our leadership seems to develop mental health issues in office, if crazy people seem attracted to American public office, remember this:  the climate of government these days, the climate of angry public discourse from hypocritical constituents.  

5.   Many citizens, too many of them in fact, appear to have forgotten that health is a part of “general welfare” spoken of in The Constitution of the United States and is part of “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” spoken of in the Declaration of Independence.   There are public obligations to health; it is not merely a private responsibility.   It may be true that our representatives seem to have obsessed over health costs and payments and insurance at the expense of promoting health itself.   However, many citizens seem motivated by resentment that the poor and the colored and the immigrants will get away with something, will get something for nothing.


6.  Too many of us will not even educate ourselves about federal issues or even vote for quality candidates.

We should not be surprised if members of Congress do not particularly pay attention to the citizens any more.  



THE CALL FOR ACTION

The citizens cannot just expect to wait around and get what they want in the way of federal health programs.  We must lobby for

1 Separating the issues of insurance from employment.

2 Creating a one payer system.     It might involve some sort of variety in programs for individual needs, but a healthy system for healthy people should have some major streamlining.

3 Tightening federal regulation of hospital billing so that from one place to another the itemizing of hospital bill items will become more uniform. 

4 Creating a health program.  It might be federal or state sponsored, but new structure we need.   This is not quite to say create a federal medical bureaucracy.