Numbers
45% of the world’s entire defense budget is spent by the U.S. The top five health insurers profits are up 56% over last year. About 18,000 people a year die for lack of health insurance. Some 1,500 Americans lose their health insurance everyday. Unemployment hovers around 10%. 60% percent of bankruptcies are prompted by medical bills, an increase of near 50% in the last six years. Over 75% of those people actually had health insurance. 10 of the largest health insurance companies enjoyed a profit increase of 428% from 2000 to 2007.
We spend billions a month on two elective wars and hundreds of thousands have died. Most of them had nothing to do with it. There are more contractors than soldiers, but the former makes six times as much as the latter and we sign all the checks. These contractors aren’t subject to the rule of law. You think our military tortures? Cake and ice cream anyone?
Keep war in context as we talk about the rest of it.
I just puked in my mouth a little.
Wanna know why? Not only because of the avarice, not only because the health insurance industry spends in excess of a million dollars a day to maintain this most disgusting of status quos. Not only because we are the only industrialized nation, as well as the richest, without health care for it’s citizens. No, it’s not just that. It’s that too many of our own citizens have succumbed to a fear of mere words they can’t be bothered to look up in the goddamn dictionary. Words like socialism. A word that many Americans believe to be synonymous with words like communism or even fascism. I have little patience for stupidity. I fucking loathe intellectual laziness and especially willful ignorance. It’s not just that. It’s that our own elected representatives foment such fear and vote against the best interests of the very people they are paid to protect from the onslaught of such wealth and evil.
It’s that a super majority of 60 democratic senators is unable to deliver a fair and equitable health care reform bill because of obstinance, obstruction and overwhelming plutocratic prerogative. It’s that an actual movement, a titular “party”, has emerged to buttress any and all nonsense propagated by these assholes of industry, these pillars of piety who would take our money along with the filthy lucre of every corporation, interest group, grassroots or astroturf organization et. al. and behave as though they are beholding to no one save those that can buy or steal the next election.
The absurdity of the Tea Party makes my eyes water and my head ache like I’ve snorted wasabi. Lowest common denominator. “The 1/4 Paradigm”. You can’t fix stupid. Your best bet with these folks is to smile and wave.
The Republicans piss and moan about transparency in the health care process but as soon as they are afforded a public forum, they holler foul. It must be a trap. Jon Stewart so eloquently pointed out that a paper bag is only a trap if you can’t punch your way out of it. It is to be a public discussion/debate on one of the most important policy issues of the day, not Little Bighorn. What he’s saying is they’re afraid and the only reason is because they’ve got nothing. They have precisely dick. Fuck all.
Not only that, but we are pissing blood and crapping treasure. Money and lives. We should at least be on a gurney headed toward an emergency room. We should probably be wondering, just what the big dicked hooker happened?
We’re out of money and that doesn’t seem to be fazing anyone. What happens when we run out of lives?
John Boehner’s office called this actual house yesterday. House Republican Leader. I answered. The man on the other end asked for my father by name and said where he was from. I asked him to repeat himself. I heard right. I told him politely that nobody in this house would want to talk to him. He asked if I was a Democrat. I said you fuckin’ A. I told him that Boehner was an idiot and had a ridiculous spray on tan. He thanked me and hung up.
Mother was disturbed they had our number. I was thinking I coulda really milked that shit.
Drinks for my friends.
Great post Michael!
Well, thanks.