The Day Hitler Reformed American Healthcare

It was a day that I never thought would come during this presidency, or at anytime this decade - and it's only been a little over two days since it happened. The Senate healthcare bill passed the House, bringing it to President Obama's desk and his 22 pens with which to sign it into law. Depending on who you are, this was either a truly historic moment, or will forever be remembered as the day we traded in democracy for communism.

Me? I'm fairly satisfied. I know from firsthand experience that we needed reform of some kind. Was this bill everything that I had hoped for? Certainly not, but it's a damn good start. Having that proverbial "foot in the door" can only mean good things in the future. When the crazies of the teabagger movement come to realize that the world didn't end, that Hitler didn't rise from the grave to march his Nazi zombies across the country to steal America's guns and bibles...well, yeah. I can imagine that everything will get better after that.

I have a bit more research to do. There's a few things in the bill that I'm confused about. Such as this bit that kicks in...in 2014 that requires everyone to have health insurance. Not sure if that means that they'll be forced to buy it, or if the government will be forced to give it. Interesting. But other than that, there's much to like about this bill.

See, even though I have a job, it doesn't provide health insurance, and with me being 21 years old I would have had less than two years to find another job with benefits before I was kicked off my parents plan. Now, starting this August, I'll be covered until I turn 26. I certainly plan on having a better job by then, but that's certainly a load off my mind, especially with the economy in my town being the way it is. It provides a comfortable buffer, in short.

But only time will tell just how effective this will be, and how the American people will behave when the 2010 midterms come along. The Republicans have been throwing around a lot of poll numbers lately (sometimes without showing polls) that seem to communicate that America didn't want this, even though I'm fairly certain at least one did: Me! and Matt Stover, it seems.

I actually would have felt more comfortable if Obama had succeeded in creating a bipartisan bill. He didn't, and couldn't. But certainly not for lack of trying. In the end, we actually got the most partisan result we could possibly get, with not one Republican voting for this thing. If they had actually tried to make concise arguments against this bill instead of going on the attack like a calculated smear campaign, then maybe I would have questioned this end result. But they didn't, so I'm not.