Gov’t Healthcare Advocates: No Bi-Partisanship Required

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is no mistaking that I stand against a single payer, government controlled healthcare system. The last thing I want is a person with the same attitude as a DMV worker in charge of my health! By now, everyone here has noticed what direction I lean, I’m sure. Nonetheless, I do like to check out what the other side says about what they want, too. This is a report on one of those voices, that of the folks at OpenLeft.com.

Suffice to say, they want socialized healthcare with no private aspect to the system at all. They want all hospitals run by government, all doctors working for government, all research facilities funded and controlled by government. And, if Mike Lux of OpenLeft can be believed, they also want the Republicans to butt out of the whole debate.

This disinterest in the American system of debate, compromise and governance is a typical aspect of the goals of the authoritarian left that is coming on like gangbusters in this healthcare debate. They want socialist healthcare and that is that. They are not interested in capitalism, not interested in freedom, not interested in debate or compromise, not interested in any sort of bi-partisanship… in essence they want a tyranny of the minority. They want the whole cake and they want to eat it, too.

In a recent posting made after he’d done a CNN interview, Lux let his inner tyrant fly by telling the world just exactly what he thought of the current healthcare debate. But first he offered the Obamaist’s canard that there already is a bi-partisan, across-the-aisle hand reaching out from the administration.

Lux says…

Obama is doing a great job of including the insurance companies and their stalwart Republican defenders in the discussions, welcoming their ideas, etc…

The problem with this claim is that there is no effort by Obama to do any such “good job of including” any interest that he does not like. In fact, even conservative Democrats are finding themselves being ignored and shunted aside by Obama and the powerful Democratic Chairmen chiefly responsible for guiding the public debate on this bill. RollCall recently reported that the conservative Democratic Blue Dogs are finding the administration and the chairmen of the committees involved unreceptive to their ideas and have in return warned the administration that conservative Democrats might turn against the government policy. So, far from reaching across the aisle, Obama is even slapping hands in his own caucus if they oppose his ideas.

But, that being said, it is instructive to see where Lux went after the above Obamaist canard:

… But this bill does not need to be bipartisan, and if the Republicans want to insist that the insurance industry gets what they want, we can do this without them. We will need 83% of the Democrats in the Senate, and 85% in the House, and an effective popular President can get that done.

And to those who worship at the alter of bipartisanship, who say we need a bipartisan bill for something to be “sustainable,” I would suggest you check your history books: many of the greatest reforms in our nation’s history – including ending slavery and most of the great New Deal reforms – came without much or any bipartisanship. So, look, if you Republicans want to stop carrying water for an insurance industry desperate to avoid legitimate competition from a public plan, you are welcome to the table, come on aboard. But if not – as I said to CNN – we will just roll you and muscle this one home.

In other words, these guys don’t care about the American system of debate and compromise. They want to “muscle this one home” quite despite want many millions of Americans want.

These guys are hardcore, folks. They aren’t interested in the American way. They want to impose, not legislate. It’s good to know the opposition, isn’t it?

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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