I was going to name this title with a prayer, “God help us.” But as I was waiting for the “write post” page to load, I realized something. No, as much as we always need God’s help, right now we can’t rely on Him completely. We can’t rely solely on Him when there are still things that we must do to help ourselves. We only rely on him completely when there’s nothing left for us to do. At least, that’s what I believe. Sure, we always have faith, we always believe in what He can do for us, but no, so long as there’s something we can do for ourselves, we must do it, and we must do it now. That’s what free will, independence, and being an adult is all about, right?
Well, right now, we have something big we need to do for ourselves and we need to do it now. That something is opposing the Democrats’ bail out. Why? Because it’s not a bail out. Democrats may be saying it’s a bail out, but if you look closely at the language in the actual bail out bill, they’re also screaming at the top of their lungs, “Hello, my name is Socialism! Nice to meet you!” They’re lying with one side of their mouth and screaming out the truth with the other. We just need to wake up and realize which is which before it’s too late.
One of the bits of language in this bill that makes it obvious which bit is the truth and which is the lie, has to do with universal healthcare, i.e. socialized medicine. In that bail out – that’s supposedly SO important and SO critical and SO time sensitive that we have to do it NOW without thinking – is a short little snippet. Just a few quick sentences, but those quick sentences have one hell of a price tag. What is it?
Six hundred billion dollars “to address shortages and prepare our country for universal healthcare.” And yes, that’s a direct quote. (You can see the original here, the direct quote is from page 10. Pay special attention to the opening statement of the entire document. Note any fearmongering there? Funny, I thought only Republicans were the ones who did that…)
If this bill is SO important, SO time sensitive, SO crucial to save our economy that we have to do it NOW without thinking, why in the hell is that in there? Because it’s not a bail out. It’s yet another foot in the door for socialism. But rather than be clear, honorable, and direct with their intentions, Democrats are being sneaky about it. They’re slowly sneaking socialism in at night, under the cover of darkness, so we won’t know what’s going on until it’s too late.
Remember, please remember, the words of Rahm Emanuel. They may be trying to sneak this in, but their arrogance is getting the better of them. They’re giving themselves away, because they believe they’re unstoppable. That pride is dangerous for them, but a blessing for us. So please, don’t forget his words:
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before. This is an opportunity. What used to be long-term problems — be they in the health care area, energy area, education area, fiscal area, tax area, regulatory reform area — things that we had postponed for too long that were long-term are now immediate and must be dealt with. And this crisis provides the opportunity for us, as I would say, the opportunity to do things that you could not do before.”
His words. “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” He said this shortly after he was announced as Obama’s new Chief of Staff. This is recent. He wasn’t speaking metaphorically, he was outlining the Democrats’ plan to shove socialism in through our front door while we’re looking the other way. With that quote in mind, think back to that $600 billion – $600 BILLION – “to address shortages and prepare our country for universal healthcare.” He told us what they were going to do, and they’re doing it. Now it’s our turn to stand up, stamp our feet, close that door in their faces, and say, “Not on our watch!” We have to say no to socialism now, before our country, our America, isn’t even ours anymore. The government is expanding under the guise of this crisis, they’re using our panic to gain an advantage over us. Please, I’m begging you, don’t let them do it.
Unlike most people who look at universal healthcare as a purely political issue, for me, it’s much more personal. I happen to have a very real, very urgent, very legitimate reason to oppose socialized medicine. That reason is a rare genetic condition known as Dercum’s Disease.
I won’t go into the details, because that would make this post even longer than it is. But suffice it to say, Dercum’s is fatal if it’s left untreated. It was discovered over 100 years ago, yet hasn’t really been to thoroughly studied. Because it’s not very well known and not very well understood, a lot of doctors are hesitant to try to treat it. Unfortunately this can mean that people are left to the mercy of the disease, left to die a very miserable, excruciatingly painful and drawn out death. It can take a few years or it can take a few decades. You die because your body is at war with itself, down to your very cells. The pain is unbelievable, unlike anything you could ever imagine. Every inch of your body screams constantly. Your bones, your flesh, everything. If left untreated, this constant fight will cause your body to enlarge at an exponential rate, until your heart and lungs give out. Or until a tumor forms on one of your internal organs and shuts it down.
Unfortunately, the disease also attacks your immune system, leaving you vulnerable to secondary infections. So if you don’t die directly from Dercums itself, you may be left to the mercy of a cold or the flu or something similarly simplistic. But if a doctor doesn’t understand how to handle Dercums, they won’t know how to handle the secondary infections. For instance, it took my doctors over 10 months just to diagnose me with mono when I was a teenager, simply because of the ways in which Dercums manipulates the systems of your body, which then alters the way medical tests are read.
Why am I telling you all this? Because while I’m fortunate enough to get care in the United States, I have friends with this disease who are dying because they had the misfortune to be born in the United Kingdom, in Australia, in Canada; in countries with socialized medicine. My friends have been left for dead by their countries’ socialized medical systems, the same systems the Democrats are trying to shove down our throats right now. If we walk down that same path, if we accept universal healthcare here, it will mean death for me and people like me. Not just people with Dercum’s Disease, but anybody with a chornic complicated condition. For the sake of taking care of people with colds, we will be sacrificing caring for those with cancer.
This is not an exaggeration, as much as I wish it was. I’ve spent a great deal of time in England. I’ve seen what their National Health Service does to people. I’ve even been subjected to it myself. As my friend Alastair in London says, “If the NHS can’t fix you with a sticking plaster (band-aid), you’re screwed.”
He should know. He almost died when his lung was punctured by a random attacker on the street. He went into an NHS hospital bleeding to death and about to die from his lung collapsing. The NHS doctor told him he needed surgery immediately, but that they couldn’t fit him in for another two weeks. If Alastair hadn’t been paying through the nose for private health insurance, he would have been dead thanks to socialized medicine.
That’s the cold hard reality of socialized medicine. Democrats are feeding it to us under the guise of a new name, justifying it as “fairness.” They claim that socialized medicine will mean that everyone will have access to the same quality of care. What they aren’t telling you is that yes, everyone will have access to the same care, but that quality of care consists of – again, as Alastair says – if they can’t fix it with a band-aid, you’re screwed. The reality is, it will make the class gap even wider. Private insurance in England costs four times what it does here. The wealthy are still getting proper medical care, while the poor and the middle class are suffering under conditions four times as dismal as what we have here in the States. The supposed class warfare the Democrats are using as an excuse to feed us socialized medicine is nothing compared to the entrenched class warfare built into the National Health Service in England.
What makes me angriest of all, however, is when the Democrats use such sad stories of poor poster children who supposedly can’t get health coverage. They’re hoping that you aren’t aware that every child in this country is automatically covered by Medicare. They’re hoping you also aren’t aware of the fact that every pregnant woman is also covered, and that the elderly are automatically covered as well. They’re hoping you don’t realize that pretty much anyone can walk into an emergency room when their life is in danger and get care. The same can’t be said in England, France, Australia, Canada, Iceland, or any other country suffering under “universal” healthcare. If they can’t fix you with a band-aid, you’re screwed. If your case is complicated, they’ll stall you by any means necessary until you die. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen far too many times and it breaks my heart.
Please, we need to wake up. My life depends on it, the lives of so many of my friends. We have to stop this now. Rahm Emmanuel is making good on his promise to not waste this crisis. They’re urging you to just accept this while in a panicked state of mind, so that they can take advantage of you. Why should we trust anyone who seeks to take advantage of us?
Please, I’m begging you, don’t let them do it. Call your Congressperson, call your Senator. Please, please, put your foot down now before it’s too late. Tell them to stand up against this “bail out”, tell them you won’t tolerate anymore socialism in this country. Tell them you love what America is, tell them that there are other ways to solve her problems than by adopting socialism. Socialism has failed in absolutely every single country that has ever adopted it. Surely we can’t be so arrogant as to believe our luck will be any different, or that people won’t die in the process.
Please, just tell them no.
