Davison Online

“We’re here to show that we mean business,” said Margie Layton of Salem, who arrived wearing military fatigues and a wicker basket on her head festooned with tea bags.

Tags: politics

The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait deconstructs and finds, what do you know, the result that most of us suspected.

Today’s MSNBC story on the recent health insurance reform included this nugget:

When all is said and done, the majority of working-age Americans and their families will still have employer-sponsored coverage, as they do now. But the number of uninsured will drop by more than half. Illegal immigrants would account for more than one-third of the remaining 23 million people without coverage.

That last line, of course, means that when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted out, “You lie!” during the State of the Union he wasn’t just incredibly rude, he was also flat wrong.

President Obama’s long awaited health insurance reform passed the House last night. It will, I think, come to define his presidency, something upon which even the nay-sayers will likely agree. But I think they and the GOP in general are as wrong about Obama as they were about the health insurance reform. Obama ran on healthcare reform, and Obama delivered.

The teabagging idiots—what else can you say about someone who holds up a sign that says “Keep the government out of my Medicare!”—may not be a spent political force, but this process was extraordinarily useful in bringing their views into the sunshine. When members of the Black Caucus can’t walk to the house without being harassed to the point of needing police escort, you get a pretty good flavor for who opposition is. Lest you think I paint with too broad a brush, what was the Sarah Palin and GOP rants about “Death Panels” early in the healthcare insurance reform debate? Today’s GOP is a party bereft of substantial intellectual leadership, infested with extremist refuseniks, and against the majority of public sentiment on the issues (gay rights, immigration, etc.) that the future looks somewhat dim (despite the strong likelihood of picking up some seats, as is historically the case for the “out” party, during the upcoming midterms).

Certainly not all of the GOP exists on this lunatic fringe, but their party is increasingly defined that way. Sen. Scott Brown, the recent victor in Massachusetts, took great pains to not even mention his party affiliation. That, along with facing a dreadful Democratic opponent—a candidate so poor she wouldn’t even go out to shake hands with prospective voters—led to his surprise victory. Teabagger activists might like to claim victory, but the truth is that Brown is not one of them and certainly didn’t campaign as one of them. As I’ve written before, if the Democrats field a competent candidate, they win. Unfortunately, this is the Democrats we’re talking about, and no matter how difficult the task of screwing something up might be, the Demos are up for the challenge.

Nevertheless, they pulled healthcare insurance reform from the brink and made it a reality, an impressive act of political will that deserves a fair amount of credit. And on its merits, I’m not sure what the GOP will complain about. The bill:

• Closes the Medicare “donut hole”
• Allows adult children up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ insurance plans
• Extends coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans
• Reduces deficits to the tune of $138 billion over 10 years (according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office)
• Bans insurance companies from charging more to women
• Bars insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions
• Bars insurance companies from imposing lifetime caps on coverage
• Bars insurance companies from denying coverage when people get sick
• Makes all Medicare preventative services free to beneficiaries

Indeed, this morning the GOP’s complaints seem not to be about the bill, but the process. Mitt Romney called the bill “an historic usurpation of the legislative process,” which may say more about his understanding of Congress than anything else, ut at least we agree about the “historic” part. Sen. John McCain was even more vague in his denunciations: “…outside the Beltway, the American people are very angry. They don’t like it, and we’re going to repeal this.” I don’t think the American people will be nearly so angry—if they are; personally I’m euphoric—once they begin to derive the healthcare benefits from the bill.

In short, this is a great step forward in this country’s attempt to meet its moral obligation to provide healthcare services to all its citizens. That is also how I think history will judge it.

So it turns out that versus the status quo, the just-passed Senate health bill saves $132 billion over the next 10 years according to the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO). (You can read the report here.) It also covers 31 million more Americans than the status quo.

If true, the GOP deficit hawks—amazingly silent while Bush was in power—need a new reason to oppose health care coverage. How many so-call deficit hawks voted for Bush’s tax cuts for the rich or for the hideous Medicare Part D expansion? Luckily, it turns out that the Part D expansion has been significantly less expensive, only about a third the cost of the projected $634 billion price tag, but no one knew that at the time and GOPers voted for it en mass despite the deficits it created.

(An additional problem was that it barred Medicare from negotiating prices with the drug companies. The Veterans Administration, who has a formulary and can negotiate, pays an average of 58% less for the same drugs. Factoid helpful in understanding why: Bush Administration advocates joined the pharmaceutical lobby shortly after the bill passed.)

If you want a terrible healthcare bill that was one, the GOP loved it.

So the Bush years were very instructive politically about who really stands for what and today’s GOP is even worse in that respect, not better.

Remember the “death panels” back in August? Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and Fox news wouldn’t shut up about them. So effectively hospice care came under attack and if I’m not mistaken had to ultimately be stripped from the House bill. That is today’s GOP, and they’re getting worse not better as the moderates continue to be purged from their ranks.

(I’m not the first one to make this point, but present day “death panels” are in the insurance industry who deny coverage for preexisting conditions, who disallow treatment on whatever grounds, and who cap coverage to save themselves money. If nothing else, the Democratic healthcare reforms are an attack on these practices but don’t expect GOP support.)

Even crappy legislation is palatable once you realize that the status quo is worse and will be much worse still. Similarly, even the Democrats are palatable once you realize that the GOP had no problem with any type of power—be it deficit spending, spying on Americans or literally torturing people—as long as they’re the ones at the levers. That alone makes reflexively opposed to whatever the GOP favors and favor whatever they oppose.

[You can review the current legislation, including criticisms of the legislation, at the Wikipedia page for the Affordable Healthcare for America Act.]

While I’m generally in favor of people exercising their First Amendment rights—it typically yields good comedy when it comes from the political arena—it’s hard to take seriously the folks (aka “Tea baggers”) showing up today in Washington D.C.

Yes, it stinks to lose a presidential election. Welcome to the Democrats version of Hell, 2000-2008. It’s fine to protest policy choices, though a little civility is always nice. Even Rep. Wilson, who had the bad form to shout, “You lie!” at the president, had the good sense to apologize. There should be a clue in that.

Two points are truly vexing, though. First, where were you people during the Bush years? It’s one thing to complain about deficit spending, the burgeoning size of the federal government, and massive increase in the debt, but this was all brought on by the last president. One can argue (and I do) that the financial and auto industry bailouts were a gigantic mistake, but both were programs started under the previous administration. This economic mess is the Bush’s, not Obama’s, and pretty damn late in the game to be mad about it now.

Second, protesters seem to have no positive agenda of their own. It’s one thing to tear down another’s ideas. It’s different matter altogether to offer an alternative. So far, protesters are against Obama, Obama’s healthcare proposals, and, oh, just generally anything else associated with Obama. That’s fine. Give me an alternative to embrace and I’ll happily consider it. Right now we’ve got 46.3 million uninsured people, so the status quo is untenable.

And in the meantime, don’t be surprised if the rest of America—which by the way is not only most of America, it’s also the future of America—thinks that the goose-stepping lunatic fringe on display in D.C. today looked like uncivil, hypocritical know-nothings.

I’m just saying. You know, First Amendment and all.

This was a heckuva a way to acquire a cool nickname:

I passed out during a bout with the flu last Sunday. I’ve passed out–that sounds a lot more macho than “fainted,” or God forbid, “got the vapors”–twice in my life. Both times I awoke slowly, enveloped in a warm, cozy, sleepy happiness. Assuming you don’t clock yourself on a table or something on the way down, it seems to be a rather pleasant experience. Not that I’m recommending you try it at home.

Erin was with me and called 9-1-1 immediately after my eyes rolled back in my head. As I emerged from my fugue I started telling her that it was “OK” and that I didn’t really need help. It was about then that I noticed I was laying on the hardwood floor and started pondering how I got there. Then I shut up.

Our home is happily situated near both a fire station and an ambulance dispatch center. I had EMTs on me within 3 minutes. They turned me over to the ambulance paramedics when it became clear that I was pretty woozy and wasn’t about to pop back up to my feet and shout, “April fools!” With help, a stumbled out to a gurney in our front walkway. They strapped me in, loaded me in the ambulance, and drove me to Salem Hospital.

This wasn’t a lights flashing, sirens roaring trip. Other than being a bit light-headed and a touch nauseous–the latter mostly solved by the upchuck that knocked me unconscious–I felt pretty good. Then they ran an EKG and found I was having a heart attack. That’s not what they told me in the ambulance thankfully. They described it as more of a minor cardiac anomaly, but I think the paramedic was being circumspect. Her job was just to get me to the ER alive.

When I got to the ER, the did another EKG. When the doctor came in, he looked at me, looked at my chart and went back and forth several times before telling me that I really didn’t look like I was having the heart attack that my chart said I was. No shortness of breath, tightening of the chest, pain anywhere–in sum, no presentation of any kind. Just a stubbornly abnormal t-wave on an EKG.

But they could hardly just let me walk out the door. I’d come to them having passed out and with an abnormal t-wave. Try explaining to a judge in a malpractice suit why you signed a release form on a guy like that. (For better or for worse, this hypothetical is what drives the standards of medical care in America.) They waited for a room to clear in the cardiac ward and some 4-5 hours later I had a room for the night.

Erin, my dad and Dave all paid a visit. Dave even brought me a Subway sandwich, which turned into my only meal for more than 24 hours since I’d tossed up the morning’s waffles and I went on dietary restriction at midnight.

The night was not restful. The lab did blood draws every 6 hours. The nurse checked my vitals every 4. I had talked them into removing the oxygen tube up my nose, but all the heart monitoring equipment beeped throughout the night and given all the electrical patches covering my body–a joy to pull off once I got home; next time I go in I’m insisting they shave all my body hair before they attach a single adhesive–every twist or turn seemed to pop loose electrodes that set off an alarm. The blood pressure cuff launching every 15 minutes (or whatever it was) didn’t help either.

I was pretty groggy when I met with the cardiologist the next morning. He ordered up a echocardiogram, which is essentially an ultrasound on the heart. It’s a painless procedure, but it also shed no additional light on why my t-waves were messed up. This may have bummed the technicians since they didn’t laugh at my joke about not wanting to know the sex of the baby. Or maybe it was funnier in my head. Anyway, the cardiologist next went to the angiogram, effectively the gold standard of heart diagnostics.

When I first heard I was getting an “angio” I jumped to the conclusion that it was angioplasty–a procedure whereby they insert a ballon in your arteries, blow really hard, and pop your arteries open. If you’re in really bad shape, they might even put a little metal bridge called a stent in there to keep your arterial highways open.

Being a connoisseur of trivia I knew a bit about the effectiveness of these procedures which is to say that I was starting to ponder my own mortality. It’s not that angioplasty and stents don’t work; it’s that your arteries are in pretty sad shape if that’s the course of treatment. I was beginning to regret making Wednesdays “pizza night.”

Fortunately, the “angio” was “angiogram,” and I was immeasurably relieved to learn this. Or I was until they made me see the DVD on the operation. I’m sure there’s some legal liability that requires patients see a video on the surgery, but really, I would have rather not known about how they were going to snake a wire up inside my leg, go into my heart, spray a bunch of dye around, then take pictures like a Japanese tourist with a Nikon and 32 gigabyte SD card. Fortunately, they stuck a Valium-equivalent in my IV, so I was happy as a clam.

The cardiologist said the angiogram should my heart to be in fine shape. There was a little age-related plaque, but nothing that required any diet modification or other behavioral change. The bottom line is that I just have a crazy t-wave on my EKG. This is important only in that other doctors will need to know this or the next time I’m in ER, they will again assume I’m having a heart attack. Which frankly I’d prefer never to have, thank you very much.

The biggest post-surgical downside to the angiogram is that for the next five days I can’t lift more than 15 lbs., I’m not supposed to walk up stairs, and I shouldn’t immerse the incision site in water. That’s a fair trade for finding out that my ticker should keep on ticking for some time to come.

In conclusion, huge props to all my family and friends who were thinking of me, asking after me via email or on Facebook, and issuing intercessory prayers on my behalf. I’m grateful. Big time thanks to Dave who once again came through for me in the clutch. You da man.

Perhaps the best foreign policy speech I’ve ever read.

Worth your time:

He’s also got a book, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life.