New Song: The Tea Party AN(a)THEM(a)

I wouldn't want to post this song without writing some commentary to back it up.  It's a satirical protest song, written in response to the House of Representatives' vote to repeal Obama's Health Care Bill on January 19.  The vote was politically safe because, while Obama's healthcare bill is unpopular with many Americans, the repeal will never get through the Senate or Obama's desk, so none of the voters really risk the chance of stopping a program that actually addresses the 40 million Americans who do not have medical insurance.  While the health care bill is unpopular, no real alternative has been proposed by the right, aside from going right back to where we were before: a system that's created millions of uninsured, just one accident away from going bankrupt.  With no real alternative, the right, if it were to successfully repeal the bill, would make no adjustment to a for-profit health care system that denies people coverage based on having pre-existing conditions or being poor and having an employer who offers no plan.  I know why this plan is unpopular: it's being promoted at a time that our deficit is unfathomably huge and our country is in a recession.  But it's also unpopular because it hasn't settled in.  I believe that once its benefits are felt, this will be a benefit nobody will want to give up (just like Republicans find the idea of getting rid of social security unpopular, itself a product of big government).  Imagine, your coverage can't be cancelled except in the case of fraud, you can insure your kids until they are 26, you can get a subsidized insurance policy if you're poor, you can't be denied insurance based on a preexisting condition, you can still choose between different insurance companies and doctors, and your bills will become less expensive.  Who is going to repeal that once it's in effect?  I don't understand the backlash against this bill.  Where is the backlash against the insurance companies who have been, for years, running an unethical practice?  It's amazing to me that a bill as conservative as the Obama Health Care Reform can stir up such anger, especially when medical bankruptcy is so common among the people, even as insurance companies boast mind-bending revenues each year.  


I'm actually critical of the Health Care Reform because I don't think single-payer health care was given a real chance, and that's what, in part, makes me crazy about the backlash I've witnessed in the States.  This isn't a socialist or communist plot.  It actually retains the for-profit system already established.  It just provides consumer protection rights.  The protests against it are akin to a protest against lemon laws because they prevent people from buying crappy cars for a lot of money.  For the record, I stand in line with Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who, on Democracy Now! said, 


"Repeal means Americans will continue to pay more for insurance but get less, that is, if they can afford health insurance in the first place. The very idea of healthcare reform solely within the context of a for-profit system has been more than problematic. Today, 50 million Americans have no health insurance. What are we going to do for them? Rather than waste time on debating how much reform insurance companies will permit, if any, it’s time to change the debate. It’s time to end the for-profit healthcare model. It’s time for a not-for-profit healthcare, single-payer, universal, Medicare for all."


Regardless, this satirical song I wrote comes from the perspective of a die-hard critic of the Health Care Reform, taken to its extreme. 

In verse 1, I consider a disgust of taxes, hoping to repeal not just a reform to health care, but the funding of libraries, student loans, public education, police officers, and fire fighters. To me, this is not so far fetched. A true critic of health reform due to its public burden, would find all these things reprehensible as well. Just as a guarantee of health care for all citizens provides safety and security, so do these services.  I don't see them as fundamentally different. 

In verse 2, I consider the magnitude of the health care problems in this country: the vast numbers of uninsured, the burden it puts on society when medical bankruptcy causes defaults on mortgages, and the burden on those with preexisting conditions to attain coverage from companies that assess them as being risky to their bottom line (profit). 

And in verse 3, I consider the myth that our doctors will have their hands tied in a way that they don't currently. As of right now, it's the insurance companies, not the doctors, that have the final word on what kinds of treatments can be administered because doctors must administer to their patience in a way that's affordable. 

All this analysis is carried out by the naive perspective offered by the extreme right, a perspective that puts more importance on the rights of a free market than on the well being of one's neighbors, one's community, and one's country.  I'm not saying the Obama Health Care Reform doesn't need work.  It does.  We need to make sure that small businesses can provide their employees insurance without causing an excessive burden that would put them out of business.  We need to make sure that people maintain a choice among doctors and hospitals.  And we do need to curb out of control government spending and balance the budget.  But it's a step in the right direction, and if we're to curb government spending, I would start by reexamining the failed war on drugs and the failed war on terrorism.