Healthcare Reform in the Whole Cloth

Winston Churchill was a man my father admired, and I think, that like any son - I picked up a few things from my father that I never really knew I had until I matured.

He was a deeply flawed man, an alcoholic. He was known for once attending a social event completely drunk - and a woman of extremely high social status went up to him and said disparagingly "Mr. Churchill, you are drunk." To which came the reply "And you my dear lady, are ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be ugly".

I am going through an extremely stressful time in my life. I have enjoyed most, writing here - of the art of the polity - as it is removed from my own life inasmuch as any man is an island. And so we see that the leaders of our country have decided that now is not a time for half measures.

Certainly, when you have bad legislation in place - the correct answer is not to simply add more bad legislation to try to fix it. Unless of course, you are serving your own interests to simply restructure a machine that creates bad legislation.

But just as we were surprised by our Presidents world victory in diplomacy - and many can argue that winning a Nobel prize is not in fact a form of victory - but for my father and I , we will both take it as such - so too many were suprised that Healthcare Reform in the whole cloth, made it to the floor of the Senate. This demonstrates a very positive, and dangerous state of affairs - the mechanisms by which government operate are breaking down and the legislation it is kicking out may in fact no longer be simply kicking out bad legislation - but rather changing its operating protocol to actually be a machine that is operated by the people of the united states and not its previous, quietly appointed masters in the world of lobbyism. 72 percent of all Americans favor a strong public element in healthcare reform. Three out of every four. And well over half, now support the measure in the whole cloth - every line of the current reform package. It is heading to the senate to be blocked by a party that is truly beholden to someone or something else other than the American people. Remember, 60 votes to make legislation move quickly through the senate - means your senators vote really counts. If you want Washington to stand there and waste time, don't email your senator and tell him to support healthcare reform in the whole cloth. There is already a group of senators who are trying to block it.

Cyberspace is truly libertarian. And that is because everything is exposed out here. When the current leadership realized this, they leapfrogged the so called conservative values of the GOP - the party who, in their past and most recent tenure oversaw the greatest expansion in government bureaucracy, expenditure, and intransparency - ever.

They were dismantled by those people who used the net to see such things as how American can pour 17.8 trillion (yes!) dollars of taxpayer money into the banking industry and then have them turn around and spent 34.5 million dollars lobbying congress to block reform (pdf, 7mb). Sometimes it takes reading a PDF or two, but the ability to do your own detective work out here is marked.

So now, we are at a turning point. Will it be lobbyism, or the American people.

Those who have been opposed to Healthcare reform wasted 1.2 million dollars a day - thats right. Per day. Since January of this year, attempting to block it. It can safely be said that they are the lobbyist faction. Who spends 1.2 million dollars per day on the American people?

I spent 45.00 this year on myself. I bought a skateboard. It could be argued that staying a night in a Motel Six, is also a self expenditure. But I wasn't alone, and its actually kind of cool to sleep in a clean place for a night.

Unlike those lobbying to shut down reform, I actually turned my own company around. I still have things left to fix in my company, but if I can make it through this month alive - and specifically this means, Friday. I will - not "will have" but, will take a good paycheck.. I chose not to stop my company's growth by taking care of my own personal expenses. Unlike Sergey Brin, who has a lot of dividends, when my company goes through hell my Salary is in fact, really 1.00.

And I would love to be a drunk like Winston Churchill. To be able to handle it. But perhaps I am like my father, in that I simply can't. We probably both secretly admire his ability to get smashed. But in the end, we face our problems sober.

So Obama's signature issue now comes down to the decisions of the fat cats. They want you to literally pay their salary so they can stand their and read off their wife's cooking recipes. Its a move called 'the filibuster'. Its an attempt to create a Waterloo out of the Battle of Britain.

Healthcare reform landed on the Senate floor for a strong debate, and a vote. And it was because of the blogosphere, not 'certain elements of certain parties'. Now is the time to come to the aid of your country. I only see the lobbyists as the enemy. So if you're connecting to your senator. Then you are the few, to whom so much owes.

Please find your senator and give them a quick mail to let them know you support reform , or, if the case may be - that you do not support it.