democracy in the balance

I believe that the health care bill will pass. Maybe I'll be eating my words in few days, but that's OK, I'm wrong a lot and am happy in the role of simpleton.

But, assuming I'm accidentally guessing correctly, how will this new expensive program be paid for?

There is plenty of money in this country to pay for social programs which are fair, democratic, and christian. But, many of those in government in the past couple of decades have assumed that because Reagan with his charming personality won two presidencies, therefore, his policies were popular. In hindsight, we should know better than this, but most people in the country are not versed in politics and policy anymore and are willing to settle for societal programs that are simple and designed to the specifications of money interests.

Thus, following Reagan, we find all the money we need to keep afloat large businesses who avoid taking the risks that capitalism requires, and instead dip into the public treasury whenever they've screwed up. (They dip in during good times as well.) We have any amount of money to encourage our businesses to right-size by moving their production facilities to other countries. Society provides all the money needed to pay CEO's, and their staffs and boards of directors, hellaciously exorbitant incomes.

But, when it comes to things like Medicare, we like to wring our hands and cry: "It's gonna go broke!" Blah-bah-blah. There is no need for these programs to go broke, it's a question of allocating society's resources to help care for "the least among us."

Such a large step in the adjustment of our thought processes would require a greater degree of christianity than most "Christians" can tolerate, and a greater level of democratic consciousness than most people with any money are willing to abide.

So, health care reform may pass the Congress and then fail for lack of funding just as Medicare is apparently going to be allowed to die, and Social Security as well. The future of social benefits will require a level of tolerance and sharing that "high society" has not lately been willing to face. As the middle class shrinks and the poorer class grows, and the upper class rakes it in, maybe we will reach a point where voters will decide to make a revolution.

Maybe.