The Greatest Country On Earth?

When I was in junior high (Philippa Schuyler Middle School for the Gifted and Talented holla) I refused to stand for the pledge of allegiance at graduation rehearsal. The faculty advisor gave me and my fellow nationalists a stern lecture. He called us ungrateful for not respecting the flag of the greatest country on earth. Really?

The "greatest country on Earth” has a higher infant mortality rate than South Korea. Health care costs in this country are higher than in any other industrialized nation. That doesn't sound great to me.

What is even more unfathomable is Americans allowing the GOP, Glenn Beck and Fox to con them into believing that this country shouldn't have a public health care option. I grant that the details are confusing but to reject it out of hand is madness.

Much of the cost to implement a national public option could certainly be offset by ending the war in Iraq and repealing the Bush tax cuts. Estimates from various sources put the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at $1 trillion. If we end the war in Iraq those funds could be reallocated to cover healthcare.

The GOP fought against Social Security in 1937 and Medicare in 1964. So let us not be fooled by the same Chicken Littles who would have denied us two of the greatest benefits afforded American people. Furthermore, the argument that Medicare doesn't work and is a nightmare of paperwork is bunk. Medicare isn't perfect but a lot of the problems with Medicare are due to the GOP meddling with it since the Reagan era.

Senator Tom Coburn (R) Oklahoma said this morning on Morning Joe that moms wouldn't have to sit in emergency rooms if they would enroll in the SCHIP program. Is he kidding? Suddenly the GOP is for SCHIP. Bush vetoed the expansion of SCHIP. The Republicans fought tooth and nail against it.

Finally, the most heinous of arguments (IMHO) against healthcare is not wanting to pay for others’ health issues. Besides being the absolute antithesis to what a s0-called Christian nation should stand for it’s not a well thought out argument. Taxpayers foot the healthcare bills of our elected officials. Therefore, we paid for John McCain’s cancer treatments. John McCain owns seven homes and his wife is an heiress worth millions of dollars—why are you okay paying for his healthcare?

I don’t like arguing with my conservative friends. However it would benefit all of us if they thought beyond what they hear on Fox and talk radio.

Republicans have consistently said that you cannot trust Democrats on national security. I would counter that Republicans cannot be trusted with national well-being.

The greatest country on earth would and should care equally for the weakest among us.