Townhalls and Catcalls: Storm over Reform

What does it all mean, what does it all portend, these raucous town halls, these loud catcalls of August?

Who knows, but it’s worth trying to capture what’s happening and the mood of the nation.
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Congress Representatives and Senators in August recess are pondering,
Why are our well-intentioned Obamacare health reform efforts floundering?

They're asking: what kind of people are these.
these people we’re striving but failing to please?

Are they mean-spirited community organizers on the right,
seeking to put the righteous left in flight or fright?

Why aren’t they civil?
Are their motives evil?

Are they sincere, do they have their deep-seated beliefs?
Or have cynics briefed them on how to express their beefs?

Don’t they know health reform is for the individua good?
Most certainly, our reform is a power for the common good.

Don’t they realize having 46 million uninsured is immoral?
About that simple fact there should be no partisan quarrel?

Aren't they aware we're soaking corporations and the rich,
To give them free care and remove them from every tax niche?

Don’t they know that we-have-to do-it-all-at-once-now?
That we must save the nation from crisis now is our vow.

Why don’t they listen to our voices of reason,
during this once in a political lifetime season?

Why do they ask of we’ve read the 1018 page HR-3200 bill?
Why should we read it? Our political destiny we must fulfill.

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Meanwhile, on the other side of the political divide,
Constituents are asking, are we being taken for a ride?

What’s the big rush, why don’t we get it right?
Why do we have to do it in one big bite?

In the end, how are we going to pay for it all?
Why not slow it down, even bring it to a stall?

If to pay for all care, Congress must cut $500 billion from Medicare,
What does that mean to seniors, will there be a rationing nightmare?

If Congress removes tax credits from employer health benefits and HSAs,
isn't that the equivalent and in essence the same a middl3 class tax raise?


Is this a government take-over?
Or simply a cosmetic make-over?

Does it all have to be done by September or even December?
Or is it about elections a year or even 2 years from November?

You ask why we ask bold questions, even shout.
It’s because we have no other political clout.

The mainstream media and political elite don’t voice our basic concerns.
From them it’s mostly condescending criticism with diminishing returns.

Townhalls are one of the few places we can be heard.
We’re not nerds, we’re the voices of the common herd.

Besides, we happen to think our present system is pretty good and elements of it need to be preserved.

A CDC report today, August 20, says, “ U.S. life expectancy has risen to a new high, now standing at 78 years. The increase is due to falling death rates in all major causes of disease.”

That’s good, isn’t it?