Grown Ups Talking

The republicans are good at doing nothing. After a year’s worth of bickering and bargaining and meeting in smoke-filled rooms, the republicans in the Senate can proudly stand back and say, hand on heart, We got nothing done this year! Woo hoo!

It’s easy to say no. Could you vote for a modified health care bill? No. Could you vote for an even more modifed health care bill? No. Would you like a doughnut? Well…

The filibuster power in the Senate is making the most successful politicians the ones that prevent anything getting done.

But even republicans acknowledge there is a problem. Health care costs are out of control, the number one cause of bankruptcies is catastrophic health bills, businesses are getting skewered by insurance costs. Turning around the Health Care Oil Tanker is difficult for anyone.

Their answer is that if we scupper enough democratic legislation, we will get in next time. Then we’ll do wonderful things.

Problem is that next time it’ll be the dems turn to Just Say No.

Think of all those poor Norwegians shivering away in the icy fjords and midnight sun. All year round they live in a peculiar alcoholic daze first waiting for the sun to rise for six months, then waiting for it to set for the next six.

Then the Nobel Prizes roll around. Suddenly they are the people on everyone’s lips. Attention resounds and they get to have their own version of an Oscar moment, handing out prizes, ecstatic achievers on the other side of the dinner table, generally being patrician benificence dolers.

But its all a little passive. People who have already done something magnificent, for instance Paul Krugman who “for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity", are celebrated and clapped on the back and given modest lottery-sized checks. They are the ones who have achieved something, the Norwegians are just clapping.

I think this time round they wanted to be more of part of what’s going on. Catch them young, point them in the right direction. Obama is just an innocent young president, set him on the right path and the Nobellers can give an encouraging shove along the way to salvation.

I mean face it, the U.S. President still has more power to affect more peoples’ lives than anyone else on the planet, why wait to see if he screws it up before giving him a prize?

Why not, gulp, help him out? I mean that’s what it’s about isn’t it? This human existence we have? This human existence that could very well come to a watery end if we can’t move as a species to change our habits and preserve our planet?

I think it’s great they gave his the prize. And I think we should all help him too.—Pomerol

I did my bit last night. I went along to a “Health Care Vigil” in Central Park. This was MoveOn.org’s answer to the manic townhallers who bellow that health care reform is the devil’s work.

Frankly it was a bit tedious. Speakers got up and read aloud reports that had been sent in about individuals who have been denied hospital care, or charged exhorbitantly. And though dreary to listen to, it’s all too true.

Being denied care is a horror. One 26-year-old had a heart condition and couldn’t quite make the insurance payments, but he made too much money and didn’t qualify for Medicaid. A lot of people are stuck in this worrying limbo.

This kind of common situation creates a whole class of uneasy worriers — middle class types who have decent jobs but still can’t afford to pay for health insurance. These people will never be free of nagging worries that when sickness strikes, your whole life will go up in flames.

Unhappily, the slipper and I are fast approaching this situation. We are — knock on wood — healthy at the moment, but keeping up with insurance premiums is becoming unaffordable.

So we may soon need to rely on the Knock On Wood health plan. Hope for the best and pretend everything is OK. Many thousands of Americans are already on the KOW plan. You could call this psychosis, denial, unhealthy psychological displacement activity, and you’d be right. The next move, in the truly American way, would be to go to a shrink. But I think KOW only covers a stiff drink and a sympathetic bartender.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. We need universal health care.—Pomerol

Sadly, our summer is winding down and New York beckons. Next week I will be wending my way westwards, with a day in London to see pals. Despite generally gray weather, it has been a relaxing fun time, lots of painting, enough freelance to pay for the ticket home, slipper in a good mood because of local English-style pub, what more could you want?

Living in different cultures is something everyone should do at one time or another. Even if you all speak the same language there’s no guarantee that you will be understood. For a Wine in the communication business (graphic design that is) it’s a useful exercise to need to try hard to get your point across.

In The Great Health Care Debate, the forces of evil seem to have grabbed the national spotlight. Using scare tactics, political meetings have become shouting matches where hysterical middle Americans say things like,"Tell the government to keep it’s hands off my Medicare!” as if Medicare was not a government program.

Where are the Democrats? Are they going to make this work, or what? Does anyone honestly want health care to go on the way it is right now? Apparently yes. This is not good enough.

They need to grab the spotlight, make the argument, try really hard to make it understood. I would suggest they all come to France for a training course, but they are probably here already, sunning themselves in Provence.

With my lousy healthcare package, and the $10,000 a year bill, I think we need more out of our elected representatives.—Pomerol

As I write, I am hearing about Al Franken winning the Minnesota senatorship. This is great news for President Obama. He can theoretically do an end-run around a filibuster as long as Arlen Spector plays ball and the blue dogs stay with the pack.

So good news, but no guarantees. This means the democrats will still have to make their case. Not a bad thing in a democracy.

Also nice to have a sense of humor in politics.

Congrats Senator Al.—Pomerol