My letter to John Boehner
Politico just recently had an article where John Boehner states he has not met a “regular American” who supports the public option. Pick which is worse, that he is so out of touch with what America wants that he hasn’t met a single normal person in favor of the public option and thus shouldn’t be trying to represent those people, or he is just lying. I would bet it is a mixture of both.
Luckily, in this fantastic age of the internet, sending a letter is as easy as going to his site here and writing to him. So, that is just what I did. The letter is below:
Hi Mr. Boehner,
I’d just like to say that I’m a real American who supports the public option. I’m an independent in Texas, originally from the North, who previously leaned right on economic issues, and left on social issues. It seems like the real fight for both parties is winning over the independents, and I can tell you that what you all are doing isn’t working.
I’m a contractor with asthma, and I have no health care insurance. To get the same coverage most people get at regular jobs for my wife and I would cost over $800 per month before I even tell them I have asthma and she has thyroid issues. That also comes with a deductible of $3000. Without insurance, the 3 medicines I need to manage my asthma cost over $400 per month. My wife’s medication currently is about $150 per month.
Quite honestly, I don’t believe the Republicans are making any real effort to give any kind of reform whatsoever. I think the GOP is accepting that “healthcare reform is needed” only because so many Americans are complaining, but that you all would happily sweep it under the rug if it wasn’t such a big issue so that giant corporations could continue to run us bankrupt.
It must be nice for you to have healthcare paid for by the “regular Americans” like me with my tax money for you and all your family. It must be so easy to not have to actually be part of a struggling family, or for that matter even see a struggling family who can’t live a normal, healthy life because they can barely afford medicine they need. Often I have to resort to over-the-counter medication which is actually detrimental to my health in the long run just for short-term relief when I have an asthma attack because of the costs. I have considered going out of the country for both medicine and treatment, so money that could be spent in our economy would also be gone because it simply costs too much. I don’t mind paying more for better service, but what is the worst part of it all is that we don’t even have the best health care system out of developed countries.
Republicans love to instill McCarthyist fears and throw around “socialism” as if that suddenly must end all debate. It is like socialism is just so evil that anything that could remotely be considered “socialist” is off the table, and that is just sad because it does a disservice to the American people who have been brainwashed to believe that. Socialism as a whole is bad in my opinion, but there are many capitalist countries who understand that capitalism is not the answer for all aspects of a country. This is why our government runs the military and handles our infrastructure, and also why it should run (or have a big hand in running) health care. Simply put, you cannot argue the statistics from other countries such as Canada and the UK as far as cost, effectiveness, and how much their public enjoys the government-run system.
I’m pro-capitalism as much as the most die-hard conservative and I believe in making your own way. However, I also believe having good health should be a human right in a country as advanced as we are. It is despicable that companies make money off letting people die so that they don’t have to pay for the medical procedures necessary. This is what 3rd world countries with corrupt leaders would do. We’re better than that. I’m sure you don’t really care, again, because you never have to see any of these individual cases, and it is hard to see it when the medical industry spends millions of those dollars that they saved letting people die to lobby to you.
I also believe the government has a role in moderating capitalism and the companies within it’s country. We have seen time and again over the course of history that companies, and more specifically the people who run them, will get away with anything they can to make money. How can I trust the Republicans to do anything when all they do is empower companies to run the American public broke? To save dollars on manufacturing, our country was completely de-industrialized (wrongly), and all the jobs were shipped to China. Now you have eroded potential jobs for the blue collar worker upon which this country is built. We are sending more and more money to China (who then bailed us out with the money we paid them with, ironically enough) to build products that break quicker and quicker, and we have to replace these items more and more because the quality of product is not there. Of course, most people are blinded by the cheap prices at Wal-mart to care, but now the company and China are getting paid more and more while money is not being reinvested back into the country, which is the entire point of Reaganomics and trickle down theory. So for all the GOP members touting the greatness of Ronald Reagan, you all sure as hell are betraying his ideas and destroying middle America in the process.
I think the biggest issue I have though is the lying. I can accept that both sides need to be extreme to balance each other out, this is why we have a two party system. Yet, if your ideas aren’t good enough to match the other side’s, then lying about what the other side is actually saying just makes you even worse than what you believe they are. Those of us with brains knew that there were not going to be any “death panels” yet that is all you heard, not just from conservative media heads, but it all started with Sarah Palin herself, the GOP’s VP nomination. Is that how you want to better serve Americans, by lying to them? To stoop so low as to say that you can’t find a single “real American” who wants the public option, when the majority of the country wants one? That is being dishonest, sir, and where does your treachery end if you will flat out lie to the public? If I were in Ohio, why would I vote for someone who not only lies to me, but does so knowing that their agenda hurts me in the long run?
If that is how you represent “regular Americans,” then I hope you are voted out soon enough. Though, perhaps soon the Republicans will recognize that their job is to protect the interest of the people, and that means all the people, not just the wealthy ones, and I can start voting for them again. Until then, not only will I vote against Republicans who share your values every chance I get, I will continue to use my voice to support the Democrats.
Thank you,
<name withheld to protect the innocent… namely, me>