Some Americans say, at these town hall meetings, that they don't want government running health care because they can't do it right.
Then they demand that the government don't touch Medicare.
Some Americans say, at these town hall meetings, that they don't want government running health care because they can't do it right.
Then they demand that the government don't touch Medicare.
September 12, 2009
It appears that most of the opposition to proposals for national health care reform in the U.S. stem from the belief that government can not do anything right. (Let's let corporations decide, instead, when I should see a doctor.)
As a Canadian, let me extend my sympathy. You poor Americans. You are so proud of your flag and your nation and your constitution-- but so embarrassed by the idiots you elect to office every two years that you can't trust them to run an insurance program. You call yourself the greatest country in the world but the citizens of this country appear to be the dumbest voters on the planet.
You see, we Canadians are very lucky. We actually elect reasonably good governments and then give them the power to execute their policies and then we enjoy the benefits--- like universal health care coverage. Oh, of course it's not perfect. You can always find a few Canadians out there who envy you Americans your vastly over-priced system that treats you quickly and then bankrupts you.
But how good is the Canadian system? Not a single politician in Canada will run on a platform of dismantling it. How simple is that? If there were any number of Canadians who were dissatisfied and wanted to move to the U.S. model, surely we'd have a member of parliament or two who would dare to campaign on privatizing health care. But even our conservative parties pledge to leave health care alone, or even to improve it.
That's not the only thing our government does that strikes most Canadians as reasonably good. Your Social Security is a mess because Republicans won't cooperate with reforming it and Democrats are terrified of being accused of raising taxes. Our Canadian government simply adjusted the rates of contributions a few years ago. Most Canadians probably barely noticed. But the result is that the Canadian Pension Plan is actuarially sound and all Canadians can count on receiving full benefits when they retire.
Oh and our banks. Did you know that our banks were the only banks in the developed world that did not need a single penny of bail-out funds? Not one cent. Once again, we happened to choose a government (the Liberals) who decided that the credit default swaps, sub-prime mortgages, and derivatives, were too risky. Our banks pleaded to be allowed to make the big money, like their U.S. competitors. The Liberals, under Jean Chretien, said "no". Our government also wouldn't let the banks merge so they could take on the big U.S. banks. Crazy, eh?
Do you Americans ever get sick of your two year election cycles? It seemed to take Obama forever to finally get to the inauguration. Well, we might have an election this fall. If it is called soon, the campaigns will start almost immediately and end six weeks later. Yes, six weeks! Isn't that a gas! Done. Over. And much cheaper too.
No doubt our government could do better. We haven't done very well in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. We didn't get sucked into Iraq, but we are stuck in Afghanistan. Our top executives, like yours, get paid too much. The taxpayers bought the Skydome for the Blue Jays but the perception is that no major league sports team will get a tax-payer funded stadium ever again. (That's why the Expos are gone, probably, and why the NHL doesn't want to see any U.S. teams moving to Canada. Probably.)
But it's a nice country. You should come visit sometimes. Our Conservative party would be roughly comparable to your Democrats. Obama probably would have gotten about 75% of the votes up here. Our liberals would probably find Obama a tad too "moderate" for our tastes.
I personally thank God regularly that we don't have anything like the Republican Party up here.
Bring your can-do spirit, your generosity, and your exuberance. But don't bring your guns.
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© Bill Van Dyk
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