Shifting The Blame

The Huffington Post reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has identified the real culprits in the health care reform fiasco that is slowly, but surely, unfolding in Washington: the insurance companies. Says Pelosi: "They are the villains in this. They have been part of the problem in a major way... It's almost immoral, what they are doing" and, she adds, "Of course, they've been immoral all along. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening, and the public has to know about it."

It's almost like blaming Halliburton, KBR, and Blackwater for the war in Iraq. If Democrats believe that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are responsible for the foreign policy fiascoes of the Bush years, then Pelosi all Pelosi, Reid, the blue dog democrats and all the players bought and paid for by the health insurance need only look in the mirror to see where the real blame lies.

God only knows that health insurance companies and health care providers have done much evil, what with their denial of health care benefits or their insistence on bankrupting "the lucky ones" who received them, but right now they are only protecting their interests. It's the people we elected, those who should be protecting our interest, who will carry most of the blame for failure to achieve meaningful, fair, and just health care reform in the coming weeks. (And it is bound to be failure, to a greater or lesser degree, trust me.) The rest of the blame will fall squarely on the shoulders of those of us who will see a tv ad financed by the status quo, opposing reform that includes a robust public option portrayed as government meddling with the rights of doctors and patients, and will buy the ad hook, line, and sinker. They will be the ones who are happy that things have stayed the same, or gotten worse, only to bemoan their condition when the health care/congressional complex comes after them when they or their children get gravely ill and have nowhere to turn for help.

And the charade will go on...