Medicare Bill

My head hurts, and my throat is full of bile. Our Congressmen make me sick.

You all may have heard that there's a new $400 billion dollar Medicare increase up for vote in the Senate this week.

"Wow," I thought, "that's a fucking huge increase. How did the Democrats possibly get that past the house?"

Turns out, it wasn't the Democrats. It was the Republicans, cementing their position in my mind as being just as despicable as the Democrats in terms of irresponsibly bloating our goverment beyond all reason.

But I had read that there was a pitched battle over this. Why would that be? There's one obvious reason, but it can't be that. I searched around for both the details of the bill, and the Democratic reasons for objecting.

The Democrats say they don't want the bill because about six years from now, it opens the playing field to private companies. They say this is going to "kill Medicare". But all the private companies are optional, and open to promote competition. Seniors will be able to choose traditional Medicare, or go to another group that offers more modern practices or better prices. So that's not the real reason. Well, it is, because the Democrats can't stand the thought of ANYTHING being private and not employing lots of government workers, or being out of their control, but it's not a good objection.

Second, they say that all the rich people will bail to private companies, and leave the poor people with rising costs in traditional Medicare. Strangely enough, in the bill, which Democrats were supporting when it was first proposed, there is a measure saying that Medicare has a capped cost rate after privitization. So it CAN'T skyrocket after the privitization. Apparently this objection is just a flat out lie.

What I'm left with is this conclusion: Republicans are backing a massive governmental bloat, via Medicare, to get the votes of all the retiring baby boomers. AARP already has 35 million voting members, and this will cement them to the Republican party. They're fucking the youth in order to pay for everyone's prescription pills, because that will get them votes.

Democrats are opposed because this plan will probably work, giving the Republicans a massive senior voting sway. It actually DOES what Democrats want, but they can't stomach the Republicans providing it.

So I hate everyone. The Democrats are bastards because a) they want this bill but can't admit it, b) they're lying to everyone, and c) because they basically want to remove the one tiny element of sanity from the bill, which is allowing medical competition. And I hate the Republicans because a) they're promoting this bill which bloats the crap out of the government, and b) because they don't stand for a god damn thing anymore.

God damn it. The only voice of reason in this entire thing is, you guessed it, John McCain. Why the HELL ISN'T THIS MAN OUR PRESIDENT?

"McCain said the new program would fail and "add another $8 trillion in unfunded mandates that we're laying on our kids."

With that in mind -- added to the country's overall budget deficit -- the Arizonan questioned "what's ever happened to my party's fiscal discipline?

"Somehow we've lost our way," he said. "And we are laying a terrible burden on the next generation of Americans.""

That's right, John. It's too bad that you're the only person that can see it. Everyone else is a freaking idiot. McCain should send fliers around, and make t-shirts that say "Republican = smaller government". I wish he could run for President in 2004. The man is amazing.

But fuck everyone else. I can't even listen to politics anymore, they make me so mad.