Do-or-Die -Health Reform: Confused, Conflicted, Clueless, and Cranky

Preface: This is in response to blog by Humphrey Taylor. Taylor is Chairman of The Harris Poll. Prior to joining Harris, Taylor worked in Britain where he conducted all of the private political polling for the Conservative Party and was a close adviser to Prime Minister Edward Heath in the 1970 campaign and subsequently to Margaret Thatcher.

Humphrey Taylor’s lead-in is priceless,

“Most people, our data would suggest, are confused, conflicted, clueless and cranky: confused because of the complexity of the many issues that are on the table; conflicted because they often favor policies that are mutually contradictory; clueless because they don’t know, let alone understand, most of what is being proposed; and cranky because Washington has failed, yet again, to provide a health reform bill they like.”

To this I would add Senator Lamar Alexander’s explanation: “Our country is too big, too complicated, too decentralized for Washington, a few of us here, just to write a few rules about remaking 17 percent of the economy all at once. We don’t do comprehensive well.“

Which leads to this verse,
Admittedly a bit perverse.

People are confused,
Because care is sometimes refused,

People are conflicted,
Because care is sometimes restricted.

People are clueless,
Because care is an incomprehensible mess.

People are cranky.
Because of fraud, abuse, and hanky panky.

It would be great if we could “ Keep it simple stupid!”
With complexity government is not the perfect cupid.