“Health insurance at the price of freedom? No.” - Governor Sean Parnell (April 21, Anchorage Daily News).
Such a champion of liberty is our governor, that he’s willing to pursue an expensive lawsuit of no judicial merit against the federal government, in order to deny 100,000 Alaskans access to decent, affordable health care. All this so he can offer those 100,000 Alaskans his peculiar and crass concept of “freedom.” And that would be the freedom to die an early death for lack of health care.
Dang, but it makes one proud to be an Alaskan – doesn’t it?
Former lite-gov. and legislator Loren Leman (“Thanks but no thanks,” Anchorage Daily News, 4/19/10) has a “Cadillac” health insurance plan, by virtue of his years of service as a government official. So why does he chide President Obama, for helping to give thousands of other Alaskans the opportunity to have the same sort of health care that Mr. Leman takes for granted?
Why does Leman insist that Obama has loaded debt on our children, when Bush’s war-of-choice in Iraq will end up costing us $3 Trillion. Why does he complain about the president’s international policies, when those policies, and Obama’s thoughtful, internationalist style has put America in higher regard by other countries than any president in recent memory. Why does Leman think allowing openly gay Americans to serve in the military is so awful, when the nation’s top generals think that it’s about time they did? Why does he say that Obama is anti-resource development after the president endorsed off-shore drilling? Why accuse Obama of a “radical agenda?”
Honestly. Why do people like Lori Bond (Anchorage Daily News) insist on calling the all-too timid attempt at health reform moving through Congress “Obamacare? ” Bring in Sen. Begich if you want to, but this half-a-loaf legislation is clearly a creature of Congress, and only Congress. Progressives like me just wish President Obama had taken more ownership of health care reform – perhaps then we’d get at least a public option, if not a single payer system.
Decriers of “Obamacare” such as Bond and others sound so much like the Birthers and Tea-baggers who scream, “Keep your government hands off my Medicare,” and insist on the debunked notion that ACORN stole 7 ½ million votes for Obama in 2008. They will say anything in the attempt to harm this presidency. It is further proof that far too many conservatives are more interested in seeing the president fail, than seeing the country succeed in offering what every other advanced nation already has: health care for all.
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