Columnists | Opinion

Columnist: Listen, Congress, we need to have some words

Posted on Oct. 01, 2009, at 1:20 a.m.

All right, Congress, enough is enough! Your mother and I have had it up to here with your constant bickering about health care reform. We gave you chance after chance to get along and work it out on your own, but you just couldn’t do it, could you? Well, guess what’s happening now: Nobody gets health care.

Oh, you don’t seem too happy about that. Maybe you should have thought more before you spent the past eight months fighting with each other. We’ll see if you can manage to be more civil when none of you can get a doctor to check out your influenza-like illnesses or high blood pressure.

Complaining isn’t going to do any good, so don’t waste your breath. Your mother and I are disappointed in you. We buy your food, clean up your messes and listen patiently to every one of your far-fetched stories. All we asked you to do was come up with a fiscally responsible universal health care plan that would help the most people possible. But no, you kids can’t even go a single congressional meeting without fighting with each other! We thought you legislators could act like big boys and girls, but we were wrong.

Don’t you roll your eyes at me, Nancy Pelosi; that’s exactly the kind of attitude problem I’m talking about!

Look, we know this is a complex problem. According to the World Health Organization, U.S. citizens spend more income on health care annually than almost every other nation. Despite this, the United States is below the global median for amount of health care usage, and the health care that does get used consistently ranks lowest in measures of quality, access, efficiency and equity, according to a 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund. Over 47 million Americans are uninsured and the Obama administration is saying to reform the system would probably cost more than $1 trillion.

But we Americans have never been ones to give up on a problem because the solution is hard to figure out. And the more difficult the quandary, the more you should be working together to fix it.

Instead, you’ve allowed your passions to displace your minds in an embarrassing display of partisanship, combativeness and demagoguery. Even kids your age should know better than to be making up all that malarkey about “death panels” or yelling rude things when others are speaking — I’m looking at you, Joey!

Not to mention that you outspoken extremists are not being good role models for your impressionable constituents, many of whom have been further devolving and obfuscating the debate with highly visible rallies and “Tea Party protests” mostly opposing reform.

Wipe that smug look off your faces, you moderates, because you haven’t been helpful either. By allowing the circus acts to take center stage, you’ve let the legitimate debate of this serious issue be obscured and wasted valuable time discussing the spectacles.

The bottom line is billions of dollars are being dumped into a system that delivers spectacularly inadequate results, where only the insurance companies seem to really benefit. The millions of Americans with inadequate or no coverage are stressing, suffering and dying, while you all seem more interested in your side winning than helping those in need. Now that you don’t have health — care either, maybe you’ll be able to sympathize more.

You are our representatives in Congress. We depend on you to craft the laws that will make our nation stronger. It is a big responsibility, we know, but we also know you are more than capable. However, if you continue to act like children, I will continue to treat you as such.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Now, go to your rooms and think about what you’ve done.

Tyler Francke is going to make a great dad someday.

Campus Currents: Health Care