Sausage Fest

"Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made." - John Godfrey Saxe

While the beginning of the end of the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act " came on Sunday night with the votes in the House, it seems as though the "sausage making" will continue. Now, I'm not a lawyer and I'm not a Representative so trying to go through this thing is highly confusing at best and down right "stupid" at worst. Since this is the case I, like most, if not all Americans, rely on our elected officials to act on my behalf. While my elected official was one of the 212 representatives to vote against the bill I was happy that other representatives across these great states did record my “aye” vote to get the bill passed. In any case, more interesting I believe, than the content of the bill itself was the political posturing that came with the process.

As stated in an earlier post; “I'm lucky, I was born, raised, and currently reside in a "comfortable" health climate. I have lived in a health climate that has for the most part, always known some form of health insurance. This has afforded me quality medical health care. This coupled with the fact that I try to heed the warning signs for preventative medicine allows me to remain in a fairly healthy sphere. I choose to have yearly checkups, I choose to limit fast food, I choose to exercise, etc. My belief is that the government should provide individuals these choices to make.”

What this basically means is that no, I probably won’t really care about the changes in the system as a whole until it (to use a political term) “trickles down” to affect me. The affects will most probably be felt when I either can’t afford care in some way or, God forbid, something should happen to me or my family. However, with that being said I do feel that Government at its core should provide for its citizens and should overall be a force for good in the world. I believe this health care legislation does just that. While not perfect, name me any legislation that is, the motives of the bill, I believe, are benefitting the American people as a whole.

As with the passing of any legislation, there are plenty of anecdotal cries of “doomsday” and “euphoria,” however the truth, I feel, lies somewhere in the middle. The Republicans are right in stating that this will mandate certain things on the individual and on small business owners and the Democrats are right that this will help insure 34 million Americans (which alone would levy my vote) and those are very valid philosophical differences so let’s argue those merits based on those ideas. The purpose of this legislation as with all legislation should be for the betterment of their constituencies’ not political gain or strengthening partisan divides. I think that the purpose of the law and our regulations have taken a back seat to the political show of the debate surrounding the legislation instead of the legislation itself.

The most disturbing aspect of this shift in focus, to me, is that the tone of the debate is extremely visceral and divisive. The negativity and venom on both sides is not what should be the end game but a discussion of ideas, based on established truths. These ideas should govern the discussion this discussion should be paramount in our legislative bodies.

As an American citizen I respect our diversity not only in culture, but in ideas. As an American I know that we as a people have, at times, been bitterly divided in our ideas and our practices. Yet as an American I also know that throughout our existence we have taken the best of our ideas, the best of our values, the best of our charity, and the best of our responsibility and have done what was essential to the world and what was imperative to the “freedom of man.” Let’s try to respect each other and our ideas to think past the next election, and remember the unity of our Constitution and the accord of our alliance with one other.

I hope that this “sausage fest” will lead to better ideas and that our Government can truly get back to being “for the people” instead of for the individual, politician or party. Let’s move on from this and learn from the experience of the past year, keep your difference in ideas, keep your philosophical difference in the role of government, keep your diverse solutions to complex problems but jettison the venom, the anger, the divisiveness. Move this country forward, make it the “beacon on a hill” and keep it standing for the values of each individual.