Oxdown Gazette - Of Lines in the Sand, Pufferfish, and Health Financing Extremism

By: ralphbon

"Let’s be clear: the status quo is extremism. Republicans and a few Democrats who advocate no change in the degree to which health care financing is controlled by people with a fiduciary responsibility to deny claims are extremists. I’ll say it again. Extremists.

So if these people can advocate an extremist position without evident embarrassment, why on earth do moderate, liberal, and progressive politicians avert their eyes and shuffle their feet uncomfortably at the mention of the eminently fiscally conservative option of single payer? Why do they insist on drawing a line in the sand for crap?? Why can’t they be just as unembarrassed about a rational system as Republicans are about a completely insane one?

That’s where the fight lines need to be drawn if we want the inevitable compromise to serve as a stepping stone to true single payer rather than a convoluted impasse we’ll be cursing for another generation."