It's About Hillary Stupid by Col. Bob Pappas, USMC, Ret.
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It's About Hillary Stupid
by Col. Bob Pappas, USMC, Ret.
One has to admire Hillary Clinton for her fortitude in gutting it out while
her husband publicly humiliated her. But, when one has a deeply held passion
for an agenda and the power that is essential to carry out that agenda, ones
motivations can overcome much that would otherwise destroy most any
marriage. One also has to admire Clinton for believing she could be
President and for trying, but despite predictions that she will be; I
believe most Americans are not ready to suffer them for another term.
In a recent interview on Fox TV about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, Ms.
Clinton said she never doubted her husband's love for her despite the
impeached and disbarred ex-president's illicit sex affair with still
wet-behind-the-ears White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton said, "I
really had to dig down deep and think hard about what was right for me, what
was right for my family," ".I had to decide what I ought to do, I think it
is so important to be able to hear yourself at a moment when it is hard ...
there are so many times when you really have to listen to yourself."
Anyone with objectivity should have asked, "Looking ahead back then, isn't
it true that your primary concern was about your political future and what
course of action would best support that future?" It would be the ultimate
naiveté to suggest that the thought did not cross Ms. Clinton's mind if one
logically infers her motivation from the totality of her behavior during her
lifetime.
Ms. Clinton has variously attempted to compare herself to Eleanor Roosevelt
and Margaret Thatcher both who are worthy of emulation in some ways. But
Clinton is no Eleanor Roosevelt and she is no Margaret Thatcher. She has
been proclaimed the "smartest woman" in the world, which is a stretch no
matter how smart she is, although one has to "give the devil her due" as
"her due" pertains to activism. She has worked on national issues ranging
from being a minor "staffer" during the Nixon impeachment hearings, to the
overreaching and fortunately abortive national health care proposal she
proffered during her erstwhile husband's tenure in the White House. One must
ask, "Why has she not introduced health care legislation in the years that
she has been a Senator?"
It is not widely known, but much of Clinton's flawed health care proposal
has been foisted onto the military services. As one who has observed the
imposition of TriCare from its inception, military medical care has not
improved; rather it has diminished in availability, albeit not in the
quality of those rendering care or their dedication. But TriCare, or
military "managed health care" is just another phrase for "rationing." For
example, before TriCare was imposed, a patient could see a physician in days
if not immediately. Now, routine (depending on who defines the word) care
takes weeks.
Management means an increase in bureaucratic staffs and their costs erode
patient care. If there was "less management" and "more care" things would be
much better for patients. The same system on a national scale would be
laughable if it was not so serious.
At one meeting of U.S. Representative Joe Scarborough's TriCare Advisory
Committee, questions being fielded by the Humana representative were about
delays in care. The representative responded, ".it is because of the
system's enormous complexity." That singular statement revealed that the
focus is on the system, not the patient. If the system is devised to provide
care to people, then fit the system to people, not people to the system. He
could not provide a satisfactory answer.
The underpinning of the left's national health care schemes, like military
"TriCare" is "managed" care. As noted above, "managed" translates into
"rationed" care. The left's socialist medical care model has proven over the
course of nearly a century that it doesn't come close to providing the
quality and breadth of care available in this country today. In Canada a
country with socialized medicine, for example, a visit to a cardiologist for
an "emergency" heart cauterization takes weeks and once seen, necessary
heart surgery can take months.
With the advent of Medicare (the initial government intrusion into medicine)
and its subordinate social/medical programs, the cost of medical care has
skyrocketed. For example: an overnight visit to a hospital in the late
1950s incident to kidney stone passage cost $10.00 ($72.00 adjusted for
inflation), today a similar visit costs $731.00.
Before the government got involved, medical care could be had by most and
even the so-called, "poor" were afforded care on a pay-as-you-go basis. Now,
the latter is all but impossible. So, the idea of "Medical Savings Accounts"
sprung up and been around for years, but most Democrats in the Congress
oppose the idea despite its economic viability because they would lose their
ability to "buy" votes; thereby "keeping the slaves (and others) on the
plantation."
In the event the government creates a "one-size-fits-all" (That is, no one
would get preferential treatment and it would be illegal to have ones own
doctor.) program for Americans, one can bet that it would include illegal
aliens and would be disastrous for medicine in the United States. The best
health care in the world would rapidly decay into that of a third world
county as doctors bailed out.
But, "Democrats to the rescue." In a socialized "meditocratic" system,
doctors would be forced to render care. You know, "from each according to
his ability, to each according to his need." One cannot help but wonder if
politicians would have the privilege of standing in line with everyone else.
Semper Fidelis
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Copyright © January 25, 2008, by Robert L. Pappas. With proper attribution,
this essay may be quoted and redistributed. It may not be used in any way,
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