A Recent Email Correspondence

The following is a recent correspondence with a fellow MoveOn member.


Joe,

Yes, I missed you at the council meeting.

I am fed up with the lack of will of our government. They can't say no to spending
and they can't simply tell the people that we need to make huge cutbacks, including
drastic cuts to Medicare and National defense.

Bill


Bill, I'm glad to see that you're fed up. But don't doubt the will of the Republican side. They have been unswerving and relentless in their determination to dismantle any and every "socialistic" government-run program that helps the non-rich but might take money away from the wealthy. Except for the military, of course. That, they want to increase.
But don't worry, when they get their way and eliminate capital gains taxes, the super wealthy won't have to pay anything for that either.
And don't doubt that the Democrats will eventually cave in to every Republican demand, just like they have done in every instance in the past. We can already see the signs.

And Bill, don't buy the bullshit that we need to make drastic cuts in Medicare. The Republicans are making fools out of all of us with that load of crap, just like they did during the healthcare reform debate.
Do you realize that they defeated the "public option" despite the fact that the Democrats had the Presidency plus majorities in both Houses, and every poll had the majority of Americans in favor of it?

And they did that by arguing against universal health coverage even though that wasn't ever on the table.
They said that it would cost too much, lead to rationing and death panels and that the Dems were going to use their government hands to cut our Medicare.
What we have NOW costs too much and leaves millions of Americans with zero coverage and THOUSANDS of preventable deaths every year.

Then, after the Dems caved in and settled for Bob Dole's Republican reform proposal from the nineties, which is a wasteful subsidy to private insurance companies, they're branded as socialist tyrants who want to destroy capitalism and take away our liberty.
Then as soon as the election was over, without a shred of fear or embarrassment over their blatant, hypocritical double talk, the Republicons immediately called for severe rationing cuts in Medicare, using the huge deficits (which THEY created with their "Starve the Beast" strategy) as the excuse.

And this is the part that really kills me. A universal-government-run health insurance system is the only way to cut medical costs WITHOUT more rationing. If we switched to this system we could cut costs, save Medicare AND COVER EVEYONE, just like they do in every single country that has it.
But what about the terrible rationing that they have over there?
Their rationing isn't worse than ours, it's just distributed differently.
What's really terrible is the way conservatives distort and exaggerate the truth.

The Republicans bamboozle all of us with their arguments against universal coverage.
This is how they do it;
First they use the word "socialism" as often as possible.
Then they tell some "horror story" about "socialized" medicine in those "socialist" countries.
Then they tell us that's what's in store for us if we become "socialists" and adopt "socialized" medicine like the "socialists" in those "socialist" countries.
Then they convince us that we can't afford "socialized" medicine by making believe that all of this "socialized" rationing will cost us more than we are already spending.

The deception that the conservatives perpetrate occurs mostly from what they omit.
First of all they don't tell us that we have as many, if not more, horror stories that are as bad, if not worse (millions with no coverage, thousands of preventable deaths) than the other countries'.
The difference is that their problems get solved because their governments can move resources to where they are more needed and cut them where they are not. This is one of the reasons why their "socialized" medicine is more efficient and able to cover all of their citizens at half the cost.
Our problems don't get fixed because Republicans do everything they possibly can to prevent government from interfering with the insurance company's God given right to make a killing over our healthcare. But that's OK with Republicans because at least you can't call it "socialism".

Now about the cost. Republicans take advantage of the fact that most Americans don't realize how much they pay for health insurance because the costs are hidden. They think that the insurance they get from their employer is free. It's not, it's part of their total compensation, in other words, it comes out of their salary.
When I had family coverage, my and my employer's contributions came to over $12,000.

So instead of SUBTRACTING this cost from a government run system, they ADD it to it. This is how they get us to think that we can't afford it. Pretty slick, huh?

Still not happy with the level of rationing they have in the other countries even though it would cut your costs in half? After all, they do have to wait longer for appointments and procedures.
Well think about this; if we switched, we could set our budget to 75% of what we are already spending. This would give us 50% more coverage than the other countries and STILL save us 25%!

Now they are pulling the same trick with Medicare.
This is how the Republicons are making fools out of us again; they want to cut spending on Medicare by turning it into a voucher system. Then we're supposed to use this money to buy private insurance. How much money do you think a private company would charge in order to cover a senior citizen?
Let me make an educated guess; a hell of a lot more than you would get from a voucher system. So we are just going to have to make up the difference by paying more out of our pockets.
What, then, is the fucking point of cutting Medicare if it's going to cost us EVEN MORE MONEY?
The answer, according to Repblicons, is that we will then be able to say "at least you can't call it socialism".

Are you as disgusted as I am?
But like I said, we don't have to cut Medicare.

Joe