Right-Wing Health Care Reform versus The Real Thing

This is the presentation given today by President Obama on health care reform.

Read about it here.  Republicans still have no health care reform plan at all, despite Obama reaching out to them and telling them that he would consider their points. Instead, they have simply been commanded to distribute more partisan talking points.  Like the good little servants they are, they have complied.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, (R-MN) sends out updates of the most recent right-wing political points under the guise of “communicating” with her constituents. This week she emailed her constituents a bizarre ultra-patriotic list of right-wing demands for health care reform that she calls a type of health care reform. It’s meaningless drivel inspired by the Tea Baggers.  As one of her constituents, I find this list beyond insulting. I was part of a group that has walked in person to her office more than once to present our health care demands to her, including personal testimonies, and I can personally attest to the fact that she does not listen to her constituents.  Bachmann is more concerned with her future political ambitions than in representing the people in her district. Here is what she sent out on February 1st:

Bachmann Unveils Declaration of Health Care Independence (don’t get excited, this has actually been online for over a week or more).

“Last week along with several of my Republican colleagues in the House, I formally unveiled and signed the Declaration of Health Care Independence at the U.S. Capitol.

The Declaration of Health Care Independence is a commitment to protect the rights of the American people to make their own health care decisions, reduce bureaucratic red-tape, decrease intergenerational debt, and includes 10 common-sense principles that must be included in future health care reforms. It’s not a bill, but rather a roadmap of the rules going forward.

I invited Republicans and Democrats alike to sign the Declaration so we can move forward and implement reforms that are good for the American people. You have spoken, and you have overwhelmingly rejected what’s been put forth so far. It’s time to get back to the drawing board.

A copy of the Declaration of Health Care Independence is below:

Declaration of Health Care Independence

In order to retain the Blessings of Liberty [don't gag; she is apparently serious here] as secured to us by our Founding Fathers and as expressed in our Constitution, We the People reject the imposition upon us of a new, Washington-controlled system of government-run health care.  We demand Constitutional protection of the right to make our own health decisions and our own health care choices free of government denials, bureaucratic red-tape, and greater intergenerational debt.

A Washington takeover of American health care will  ….. (I’m skipping this part of her email because the government has no intention to “take over” American health care. That makes this, like much of what she writes and says, irrelevant.)
. . . . . .  The following paragraph is apparently meant as another humor break.

We have appealed to the decency of the elected majority to respect the rights of all Americans, but their leaders have been deaf to the Voice of the People.  We are appalled by their cavalier disregard of the Constitution and of the demands of the People.  We are repulsed by their blatant political bribes and kickbacks.

We, therefore, the People and Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, do solemnly Publish and Declare that health care reform, as a matter of principle must

1) Protect as inviolate the vital doctor-patient relationship;
2) Reject any addition to the crushing national debt heaped upon all Americans;
3) Improve, rather than diminish, the quality of care that Americans enjoy;
4) Be negotiated publically, transparently, with genuine accountability and oversight, and be free from political favoritism;
5) Treat private citizens at least as well as political officials;
6) Protect taxpayers from funding of abortion and abortion coverage;
7) Reject all new mandates on patients, employers, individuals, or states;
8) Prohibit expansion of taxpayer funded health care to those unlawfully present in the United States;
9) Guarantee Equal Protection under the law and the Constitution;
10) Empower, rather than limit, an open and accessible marketplace of health care choice and opportunity.

What’s humorous about the entire list she sent out is that she is treating these as new ideas.  In fact, they are the ideas driving the Democrat’s health care reform. As it stands, the insurance company agents are who comes between the American people and their health care and doctors.  The rest of it is mainly just patriotic-sounding obvious statements that have nothing to do with health care reform.

What is she thinking? What are the Republicans thinking?  My real concern is what Michele Bachmann has planned for her political future. She seems to be gearing up for a Senate run, or maybe even more.  A Sarah Palin/Bachmann ticket has been rumored for awhile now.  God help us.