DO THE MATH

    The medical industrial complex and GOP attack teams are trying to scare the American public in the debate on health care reform.  Their first line of attack is to yell this is another "big government" program.  When the right wing nuts  get going they say what they really think - any talk about reform espeically the idea of a public plan alternative is "socialistic" as if such ideas are un-American.  This is a very familiar theme from the attack dogs of dumbness.  Sadly, this rhetoric has doomed reform in the past in the FDR era, in the Truman years, the Clinton plan but not LBJ's creation of Medicaid and Medicare in the '60s.  What will be the fate of Obama's plan?
    The argument is that spending $1 trillion dollars over 10 years is simply too expensive.  But that is only $100 billion per year.  The Congress just authorized $80 billion in one year for the war machine adding $20 billion more than the administration asked for - so what's the problem with $100 billion per year?  It's the old guns vs. butter issue.  Keep in mind the current health care system consumes 16% of GDP or $2.4 trillion dollars per year.  So spending $100 billion per year to phase in a more efficient and transparent health care system which promises universal coverage to all Americans seems to me like a good long term investment.

    PS: "...The AMA is like a company union that pretends to represent employees while always protecting the interest of the boss... [and]... at the mercy of corporate insurance bureaucrats...   If the AMA truly supports reform... then it must abandon its historic subservience to corporate medicine. These physicians are long overdue to heal themselves..."  RAD:  For more see:  http://www.creators.com/opinion/joe-conason.html