I sort of want this health care bill to die.

[graphic design by kilroyart]

UPDATE: more thoughts on Health Care and the Health Care Summit that occurred in February 2010 can be found here.

[You can read more of my recent thoughts on health care over at Reform & Revive Magazine in an article entitled “Explaining Health Care Reform and ‘Christian’ Reflections Thereof“]

I think I really want to see this whole health care thing goes down in flames.

This came as a shock to me today as I greedily consumed as much news as I could concerning the Massachusetts Senate race. Something in me sort of stirred joyfully at the thought of all of this collapsing. This really surprised me at first, but upon further reflection I began to see why I felt this way.

First off, the emotional argument. I have been having frustrations and angst over our lack of control as Americans. I wrote about some of this back in July. At the time, I was focusing more on Capitalism and corporate greed, but the same definitely goes for the government. Politicians are supposed to work for us. We are not called to serve their whims which they decide on our behalves. They are supposed to be our employees and civil servants, not our elected managers. As of yesterday, the latest Rasmussen Report finds that only 38% of Americans are in favor of the health care bill, and 56% oppose it outright. In my mind, I’m forced to ask — why are we still having this discussion then? Democrats made their pitch, the people don’t like it as it is. Either change it or drop it.

I know I’m speaking simplistically. I know that the system is built in such a way as to discourage majority oppression of the minority. I still don’t think that I believe that referendum voting is the best way to go (one need only look to California’s referendum system and the passage of Prop 8 to see how that works out). But I’ve just felt completely powerless by the political system of this country. There is an open system of corruption which allows for practices that in most any other industry would be considered illegal. And that’s the system that makes decisions and oils the cogs. To see the cronies in Congress, on either side of the aisle, be utterly frustrated by something the American people did would make me feel so giddy and excited. To put them in a position where months of backdoor deals, broken promises, and compromised convictions go down in flames would be a victory for the American people. This country would be better in the long-run if this doesn’t work out. As my friend Kaitlyn said on Facebook:

Now for the more rational arguments. Before cries of heartless insensitivity are levied against me, notice that the poll, and this post, are not against health care reform it’s about this particular health care bill. I’m definitely on board with health care reform. It’s obvious we need it; we pay more and get less for health care than most every other industrialized nation in the world. It’s unacceptable. I’d even be on board a public option (as would most Americans, at least as recently as last month), as long as it really does act like a private entity. I would also love an online marketplace where I could clearly compare my options and sign up right there easily and quickly. I love the vision and potentiality of the original dream for health care reform. But that dream is long dead. This is one case where a poor bill would not be better than no bill at all.

And Scott Brown (the potential and probable winner of Massachusetts’s Senate race today) feels the same way. He’s form the land of “RomneyCare” and helped implement it. While it has its problems, for sure, it is still evidence of a man that health-care-reform-minded and does not want to merely keep things as they are. Though his website seems to sound a bit more like the typical Republican rhetoric concerning health care, declaring how Capitalism is the answer to all our problems (I personally trust neither big-Government nor big-Corporate), Brown’s interviews show that even he is in support of public options — just options that are tailored by each state for their own needs. He doesn’t want to kill health care reform, just this particular bill. He has said repeatedly that he wants to bring this bill back to square one and start over; without the corruption, without the special interests, and without the ideologues ruling the conversation. We will still get reform if he’s elected. And it will be better. And we will better for it.

Throughout this debate, this state-by-state idea has continually popped up from various corners of the Capitol to the sound of quiet mumblings of willingness and compromise on both sides of the aisle. I’ve loved this idea from the first time I heard it. But, special interests have prevailed each time. They have been able to further polarize the discussion leading us back to the black-and-white hyperbole and caricature that has dominated the rest of the discussion. To diffuse this issue along state lines would spread too thin the potential wealth to be made. The fewer entities involved, the bigger the pot. Keep it federal, the return for the corporate interests would be huge. Not to mention the biggest issue here: the government does not even have the Constitutional right to enact such a law in the first place. The tenth amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.“

In conclusion, this race could actually round a corner for us Americans. As Bill Shireman pointed out in a really wonderful article today, this could be our chance to move beyond partisanship to what Shireman calls “transpartisanship”. He draws a parallel between this and a similar event in the 90s:

“Bill Clinton’s success as a President began when he lost the House and Senate to the Republicans in 1994. That loss forced the necessary bipartisan collaborations that drove a decade of economic prosperity and social and environmental gains, all while eliminating the federal deficit.”

I would argue it was not Clinton’s success as much as Newt Gingrich, but regardless, things got done with broad support and Clinton still felt free to sign these things into law.

Can we see that again? Can this damning ever-increasing polarity and ripping apart of our country perhaps end and bring about a period of true civil service by our politicians? Maybe. For the first time in a long time, today, it looks like voters may very well be taking control back in their hands and telling our representatives they must start representing them, or else get fired. I’m excited. I hope and pray we’re able to do this well.

What are your thoughts?  Tell me where you think I’m wrong or mis-informed.

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