Rick Fischer
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

Disclosure: I am FAR from a Lefty. But I can recognize an honest injection of reality and common sense when I see it, so I applaud articles like this one. I have a few comments to make.

Medicare for all is one way of doing single payer; other countries have single payer, it’s true, but they each have their own way of doing it. The only one that is not up to their eyeballs in problems is Germany. Anne seems to be warning us that it’s quite possible to latch onto a simplistic new health care reform and end up with something worse than we have now. It’s complicated, and no place for amateurs.

As I’ve written before, every health care system keeps its costs under control, or fails to, by limiting its health care, by rationing it in many ways. Because it’s just impossible to provide top quality care on demand to everyone at no cost to the patient; without national bankruptcy, that is. That fact has to be recognized, and we need national agreement about how care is to be rationed. We have to dispense with the fiction that we need not and are not rationing care; we are, but we don’t want to admit we are doing it.

As to money corrupting politics, the problem comes from those with huge amounts of money with which they can secretly buy politicians, and politicians willing to be bought. Citizens United made that process safer to be open and aboveboard, but prior to CU it was still there, only kept in the back room. Nothing really changed. If Democrats want to actually solve this problem, they have to be willing to clean their house as well. It’s as corrupt for big unions to buy politicians as big pharma to buy politicians. Soros is as corrupt as Koch, more so because the Koch brothers at least give to Democrats as well. Big corporations buy politicians, but from both parties equally; the corruption is politicians will to be bought. If you try to fix theirs but keep yours, you will lose and deserve to.

In my opinion, the real problem is PACs and anonymous donations. Make it a felony to donate anonymously, and the rest falls into place in the glare of sunlight.

I’ll end with this thought. Democrats resorted to force in 2009–2010 on the strength of their massive majorities, and the rest of Obama’s term was stymied by Republicans delivering pay-back. Now, Republicans are trying force, but with small majorities, and Democrats are delivering pay-back. This is just perpetual tit-for-tat gridlock. If Democrats ever hope to get any movement leftward on any of their issues, this whole pissing contest has to come to an end. If you people succeed in deposing our current President, you can kiss it all goodbye until a generation not yet born is all that’s left alive, because anyone alive today will never forget or forgive.

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