Today I received an email from Lance Arm- strong’s Livestrong organi- zation. It begins with this call to action, issued in coordination with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network:“Today, our elected leaders in Washington are gathering to continue their debate on overhauling a health care system that fails far too many Americans. We’re hopeful they do the work we elected them to do: break through the gridlock, work together and leave the partisan posturing at the door.”
“Partisan posturing” is right. Along with a great many other Americans, I’m feeling appalled by Congress’ growing dysfunction, especially on the matter of health care reform.
Poll after poll has indicated that this is the number-one priority for the electorate. What’s wrong with our elected officials, that they can’t make any progress on this issue – which for a great many of the uninsured is literally a matter of life and death?
Not that our Senators and Representatives know much about that. Personally, they’ve got some of the best medical insurance around. No part of their health care system seems broken.Nowhere is this clearer than in an incredibly boneheaded comment House Republican leader John Boehner made to the President at today’s healthcare summit. He gestured towards a copy of the Democrats’ proposal and grumbled, “This right here is a dangerous experiment. A dangerous experiment with the best health care system in the world.”
What planet does that man come from? “The best health care system in the world?” Sure it is, for members of the well-insured elite like Mr. Boehner. Not for most of the people who elected him: whose taxes bankroll his princely medical benefits, that allow him to continue to dwell in such a fantasy world.
Republicans, it’s time to put people ahead of politics and stop your random, mindless obstructionism. Democrats, it’s time to find some nerve, and negotiate from the strength of your majority - filibuster or no.
I invite you to join supporters of Livestrong, the American Cancer Society and myself in signing this bipartisan petition to Congress, urging them to break the deadlock and move forward.
