A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Health Care Forum



Democrats and liberals rejoiced. The nation had embraced tolerance on social issues.

Republicans celebrated. They were now free to pursue economic and national security problems without being labeled bigots.

In Charleston, South Carolinians demonstrated what true Christianity is all about – love and forgiveness rather than hate and bigotry.

To further end the charges of Southern bigotry, the politicians of South Carolina vowed to take down the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds and put it a museum. Mississippi and Alabama public officials made similar vows. For the South, this was a healing time.

Jonathon Martin of the New York Times (“As Left Wins, GO.P. Reflects”) wrote, “ A cascade of events suggests that 2015 could be remembered as a Liberal Spring: the moment when deeply divisive and consuming questions or race, sexuality and broadened access to health care were settled in quick succession, and social tolerance was cemented as a cornerstone of American public life.”

Which brings me to the definition of tolerance, “A fair and objective attitude towards those whose opinions differ from one’s own: freedom from bigotry."

These days far too often, resistance to mainstream liberalism is labeled “bigotry,” which politically correct circles is defined as “stubborn and complete intolerance of any freed , belief, or opinion that differs from one’s own.”

While acknowledging that the country had become more tolerant and, in some ways, culturally liberal, many Republicans contend that America is still receptive to a more conservative approach approach on economics and social security.

Obama says it’s here to stay. But it will need fixing. Last week the Republican House overwhelming passed a bill repealing the Medical Innovation Tax and the Independent Patient Payment Board. These repeals await a Senate vote. And the GOP says it will still repeal ObamaCare if it wins in 2016. And it says it will seek to passed a market patient-centered plan in 2017 0r 2018 after it repeals ObamaCare with its individual and employer mandates . In the meantime, it will chip away at ObamaCare by denying funding, prevent he bailout of insurers who lose money on subsidies, and softening the employer mandate on comapies with over 50 employees.

In an editorial today “The Fight for Health Care Isn’t Over,” the Times acidly comments on this and GOP efforts in 21 states resisting Medicaid expansion, “The Republicans, gripped by irrational hostility (italics mine) to helping the poor, would rather hurt the uninsured and damage their state economies by refusing federal money. Federal money always comes with strings attached - loss of control, compliance with federal regulations, and unforeseen expenses.