Both
Republicans and Democrats are in trouble over medical issues in the upcoming
Presidential circus. It's amusing
because if they just used a bit of common sense both parties could avoid the
problem. Let's take a look at the Republican
problem first.
At some
point between the twinkle in the eye of a teenager and the following twenty or
so years an impulse becomes a person.
The issue is when does that happen?
I favor when they turn 21, but I suppose that isn't a popular
position. Realistically, no one knows at
what point a person becomes a person.
Could it be when the sperm first fertilizes the egg? There are some people who take that
position. Could it be even earlier? I don't see why you can't make that argument. To some people it happens when the baby
departs the mother into the world. If
this was a logic problem, or even a legal problem I would be happy to debate
it. Unfortunately I don't believe it is
either of those. It is a medical or
moral problem. The government has proven
amazingly inept at making decisions in either of those arenas. In spite of that, the Republican party
insists on deciding for us at what point a fetus becomes a person. So long as they hold to that position it will
cost them many votes - especially among women.
The
Democrats on the other hand have a different kind of medical issue. A few years ago they went the time honored
political route of creating a problem so they could get credit for solving it. The problem they decided on was that there
were people who didn't have medical insurance.
Come to think of it, there are people who don't have life insurance
either, maybe they will tackle that one next - but I digress. Their approach to making everyone buy
insurance was to create a government program where the government would
actually pay about 95% of the insurance premiums. Then they came up with this nonsense that
rates couldn't be based on risks, everyone had to be charged the same thing
whether they were in perfect health or on the waiting list for a heart
transplant. They made their program -
laughingly called "Affordable Health Care act" - so expensive to the
businesses that had previously provided health care for their employees that
the businesses dropped the coverage in wholesale lots. Then the states expanded their free medical
care programs and the Democrats considered these new poor people as newly
insured thus allowing them to claim that more people actually had insurance
than before. The problem with the whole
program is that the public is slow to react, but they do react eventually and
they are no longer buying this silliness.
So, when it
all sorts out, I suspect that whichever party manages to deal best with their
medical issue will wind up the big winner in 2016. What do you think?
