As I was taking a shower the other day, I started thinking about this whole health care debate. I haven’t really weighed in on it, and honestly, I have felt rather apathetic about the whole thing. I started wondering why I wasn’t all hot and bothered like everyone else. And then it struck me…I’m part of U.S. government funded SOCIALISM!!!
More than one-third of my husband’s pay is a non-taxable housing subsidy! I shop at the base’s commissary and exchange, which are government subsidized! We also receive a monthly allowance (read SUBSIDY) for food and bills! My husband also gets extra money each month because he is married to me (I’m a “dependent” according to the government). I can get subsidized financial advice. And with the new GI BIll, I can further my education with yet another government subsidy! You can’t swing a dumb neo-con without hitting a subsidy in the military.
MY VERY EXISTENCE IS GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED…which is SOCIALISM!!!
And just when I thought it couldn’t get worse…I realized that I had forgotten one more thing. My husband and I have FREE FULL COVERAGE HEALTH CARE.
(pause for deep breathing) 😉
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Jon Stewart recently slapped neo-con Bill Kristol about the head using our military’s universal health care program as a rebut to Kristol’s and the other neo-cons’ neo-nonsense.
STEWART: So you believe no public option, so even though that’s good enough for the military, not good enough for the people of America.
KRISTOL: Well, the military has a different health system than the rest of Americans.
STEWART: It’s a public system, no?
KRISTOL: Yeah, they don’t have an option, they’re all in military health care.
STEWART: Why don’t we go with that?
KRISTOL: I don’t know. Is military health care really what you — first of all, it’s expensive. I think they deserve it, the military–
STEWART: But the American public do not.
KRISTOL: No. The American public do not deserve the same quality health care as our soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve, and they need all kinds of things that the rest of us don’t need.
STEWART: Well, no, they can have that level of care, but are you saying that the American public shouldn’t have access to the same quality health care that we give to our better citizens?
KRISTOL: Yes. To our soldiers? Absolutely. The American public–
STEWART: Really?
KRISTOL: I think that if you become a soldier, you deserve–
[crosstalk]
KRISTOL: One of the ways we make it up to the soldiers, since they’re risking their lives, we give them first-class health care. The rest of us can go out and buy insurance–
STEWART: So you said that the public–
[crosstalk]
STEWART: Get this on the record. Bill Kristol said that the government can run a “first class health care system.” And a government-run health care system is better than the private health care system.
KRISTOL: I don’t know if it’s better.
STEWART: You just said that.
KRISTOL: I don’t know if it’s better.
STEWART: You said it was better! You said it’s the best. It’s a little more expensive…
KRISTOL: The military needs different kinds of health care…
STEWART: I just want to get this down: “The government runs the best health care.”
Pure poetry. In addition to the overall smackdown of the chickenshit neo-con argument against universal health care, what REALLY works here is that the argument cannot be refuted without disparaging the military. Either military health care is HORRIBLE, or government run health care is AWESOME because it is good enough for our men and women in uniform.
So give me your best shot, you “patriotic” yellow ribbon car magnet sporting neo-cons. Tell me I’m wrong about universal health care! I TRIPLE DOG DARE YA!
You wanna talk about the VA and places like Walter Reed? You can’t tell me that the VA can’t provide good health care without admitting what YOU have done wrong. After all, the problem has NEVER been with the military medical corps. The problem is with the neo-cons’ FAKE hero-worshiping while refusing to fund the VA fully.
Our military doctors go to the same medical schools as those in private practice. They have the same rigorous requirements to become licensed. And they even begin practicing medicine BEFORE those in the private sector, so military doctors are more experienced.
Because our military doctors are not constrained by health insurance bullshit, they can spend as much time with patients as necessary, and they can make accurate diagnoses and prescribe treatments without jumping through flaming hoops. I was recently talking to a Navy doctor who was telling me about how he had to diagnose people as bi-polar in private practice so that they could get unlimited therapy sessions under insurance coverage. These patients were really suffering from depression, but the insurance plan didn’t provide comprehensive health care coverage for that diagnosis.
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But NBW, the military is DIFFERENT from the civilian world!!!(insert neo-con WHINE)
True, true. But consider this…
Our military medical corps goes on humanitarian missions providing FREE health care to people around the world. First Lady Michelle Obama was just in Norfolk, VA welcoming back the USNS Comfort from a humanitarian mission and said about the Comfort:
But this ship has done more than just provide help to people here at home. It has also offered its services to those who suffer beyond our shores. For its most recent mission, Continuing Promise 2009, the Comfort brought medical and dental care along with engineering assistance and training programs to countries throughout the Caribbean, Latin America and South America. Doctors treated patients, Seabees built schools, veterinarians cared for animals, and the Air Force band delighted local audiences. The crew formed friendships with each other and with the local residents. More than 100,000 patients were treated on this mission, 1,600 surgeries were conducted, 135,000 prescriptions were filled, and more than 300 pallets of aid were delivered.
Our military medical corps is out in the world demonstrating what is best about America. We provide comfort to those in need, providing health care in third world countries. Shouldn’t we do the same for our own???
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Why does the shear awesomeness of our military medical matter to the health care debate? It proves definitively that our government can run a fir
st class health care program.
So let’s call a spade a spade, neo-cons and Blue Dog Dems. Your bullshit is about GREED and POWER.
But it’s time to ante up and provide universal health care to the civilian world.
What’s good for our military is good for all Americans!
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crossposted at Navy Blue Wife
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