The Downside

So healthcare reform has passed, eh?

Let's not start dancing in the streets just yet.

The declaration that this "sweeping reform" is, well, sweeping is not incorrect. It is a major step. But not in the right direction (my apologies to the songwriters of Bedknobs and Broomsticks.)

The idea of every single American insured sounds great, doesn't it? Everyone will be covered in the case of emergencies and everyone would have a safety net for the inevitable. But there is one thing about this reform that sticks in my ear like a pterodactyl talon.

A minimum $700 fine if you're uninsured.

Wait, what?

That's right. If you can't afford health insurance (say, if you're unemployed), and you're no longer old enough to be on your parents' policy, what happens? You get a gigantic penalty. Because when you're out of work and can barely afford to put food on the table and a roof over your head, a giant penalty is exactly what you need!

I'm sorry. I have defended political liberalism for a long time. On many of its facets, I am still defending it. But ever since I found out about that little teeny tiny point that they're trying to gloss over, I could not in good conscience support it. Washington State's Attorney General, Rob McKenna, is starting a lawsuit to get that provision dealt with. And rightfully so. I haven't been particularly impressed with McKenna up until now, but I fully support him in this.

Punishing people for being poor is doing exactly what I've been telling conservatives the Obama Administration hasn't been doing. And yet that's exactly what it is. As much as I hate to use this term in regards to a guy I initially rooted for (although he's still better than McCain would've been), he is being exceptionally elitist. It doesn't matter whether or not he realizes it, but that's what's happening. There will be some people who choose not to get health insurance, of course. I don't understand why you wouldn't want to be insured, but it's your choice. Or at least it was. And those people won't be the hardest hit by this policy-- that'd be the people who can't find work. The single parents who still aren't receiving child support. The graduate students who have no money save for tuition and no longer qualify for protection from their parents' insurers.

I'm still a liberal. But for the first time in my life, I'm more ashamed of my ideological "brethren" in Congress than the conservatives.

And, of course, what's making more news than that this week? Sandra Bullock's divorce. Jiminy fez, I hate the world.