While The Wackos Distract, It's the Politicians Who Benefit

This August of our National Discontent has enabled the right to derail the health care debate, but it also has given our Democratic legislators a windfall - Not having to answer uncomfortable questions about real health care reform.  Questions like, why isn't Medicare for All being considered despite huge public support? Why won't you talk with representatives from countries such as Taiwan and Switzerland who made the switch to national health care in the past 15 years to find out how they did it? If reduced cost, better outcomes, and universal coverage are the goals, why won't you allow your proposals to be examined against the countless  studies done around the world that have examined the benefits (and short-comings) of national health care?

These are the kind of questions I would have liked to put to my elected representatives when they came back to Oregon. Instead, I find myself in the position of being a political lineman, defending the quarterback from being sacked, and all the while not at all in agreement with the play he called. It angers and frustrates me. It also makes me wonder if the Democrats aren't quietly chortling over this "opportunity" the crazy right has given them - the opportunity not to have to defend their choices.

 It's evident in following the mainstream media that a backlash to the boorish town hall behavior is taking hold. Editorials are lashing out at the perpetrators, letters to the editor and columnists (Rich Lowry excepted) universally condemn the disruptions. Meanwhile, the conversation has moved away from specifics and devolved to: Health care reform - Are you for it or against it? Yes, or no? It's like a segment from the McLaughlin Report.

Now, thanks to all the lies and distortions, the news people talk about how "confused" the public has become. So confused, in fact, that Earl Blumenauer's ammendment to reimburse doctors for taking the time to talk to their patients - Talk! - about end of life care decisions, is in danger of being dropped. Issues of major concern to many of us are dying in the shadows: Senator Lindsey Graham, Ron Wyden's buddy, says, with absolute certainty, that the Public Option is dead and the White House is silent. Come to think of it, the White House has also been pretty silent lately about reducing the high cost of prescription drugs as part of the reform effort. Could it be the back room deal President Obama is rumored to have struck with the pharmaceutical industry in return for their support? I guess that multi-million dollar ad campaign supporting health care reform by Big Pharma is just evidence of the industry coming to Jesus.

My point is this: The critical time in the debate over health care reform, when we should have been helping to shape the future of health care through honest and tough discussions with our legislators has been largely lost. Our legislators will return to Washington and pick up where they left off before the recess. They will congratulate themselves for having survived "the crazies" and will be smugly content that a lot of us were there to support them. And they will remain willfully ignorant of the genuine dissatisfaction many of us have - Not with health care reform per se, but their versions of it.

A political operative bent on killing real health care reform couldn't have scripted it better.

Wayne Baum