How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Tonight, Americans can escape the fantasyland of reality TV and enter a new Twilight Zone. President Obama will host a summit on health care with both Democrats and Republicans on live TV — hopefully with live name calling and wardrobe malfunctions!
The main focus of the event will be the health care plan unveiled by Obama on Monday. Its outline is similar to the Senate plan, guaranteeing health care to 31 million Americans. Those left out will be able to shop in a health care market that offers the same health care our congressmen receive.
Pre-existing conditions would be a thing of the past, and according to the White House website, there will be "commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care." These rules will hopefully prevent HMOs from being disgustingly ruthless in their medical profiteering, from the ambulance to the hospital bill.
I was surprised by Obama's assertive tone when he laid out his proposal. Even with House and Senate majorities in his pocket, the President has generally acted like a nervous adolescent whose voice just cracked in junior high. The conceding nature he has adopted during the health care debate is summarized by this upcoming summit meeting.
It is his lovechild with bipartisanship. Obama, listen: You do not have to please the Republicans on this matter. They'll get over it when half of their constituents can visit the doctor without sacrificing their children's college savings account.
The founding fathers wanted our democratic process to be slow in order to prevent any sort of tyrannical legislation from passing through the Capitol. There should be exceptions, though, and health care should top that list. It is absolutely ridiculous that 50 million people have to wait patiently for legislation that should have been signed decades ago, simply because House Minority Leader John Boehner and others are upset that they do not have their own health care plan to present. Democrats, you do not have to be scared anymore: Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are in their post-electoral cages.
And Obama, this is what you must say to the Republicans tonight in order to end this half-year-long debacle once and for all:
"I have invited the GOP here today to tell them their fear mongering in this debate has met its demise. The medical-industrial complex has controlled and hurt this country's citizens for too long. I am not a Marxist, and I do not want to send your grandmas to death panels. Providing health care to your fellow Americans, rather than starting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is one of the most patriotic acts a person can do for his country. So please, Republicans, let me do my job and help the American people."
