ok let’s talk about the hullabaloo about health care reform — very little of which i understood — but i combed the ol’ internet machine to see what i could find out…

and frankly, i gotta say… it sounds like the obama administration is being way more political/bipartisan than anyone else this time around. obama seems more eager to say “i solved it” than to ensure the solution is in the best interest of all americans (not just those without health care; especially since 83% of us already have some kind of health care). i definitely agree that we need health care reform; i’m even open to the idea of a federalized system (i don’t love that idea, but i’m open to any workable plan at this point). but there seems to be too much politics going on and not enough governing. blue dog democrats and republicans both claim to have been left out (deliberately) of the bill’s drafting process, and now their objections to the bill, and even their demands for more time to consider (obama wants a vote by august) are being touted as political ploys… i dunno. the plan doesn’t look that good so far — lots of criticism going around about it, too — and for what it’s going to cost each taxpayer (not just this year but every year), i don’t think there’s any reason NOT to make sure things are thoroughly considered.

but, in the immortal words of levar burton, “don’t take my word for it.”

here’s the bill itself (its 1018 pages… i understand if you don’t want to read it for yourself… that’s why we pay the people on the Hill.)

but if you want to read about the bill and the controversy surrounding it, here are some articles i came across (from the ny times, yahoo/AP, cnn/time, national review; i tried to balance the biases — or at least present several different biases. if you find other good stuff, please post it in the comments section):

“house health plan…” (this is a decent overview)
“obama’s health care push met with pushback” (an overview of the resistance to the plan)
“obama questions motives of health care critics” (why does this actually sound like a lame excuse? doesn’t he know that more and more americans don’t approve of the plan? shouldn’t he focus on answering some of the criticisms instead of just throwing that old accusation out?)
“cost, not coverage, drive…” (from the article: “Health-care experts say it is possible to cut it significantly without reducing quality. Indeed, they say more efficient medicine would be better medicine.” hm. maybe we need to rethink the whole thing altogether? )
“democrats grow wary…” (ok it’s kinda a bad sign when your own party feels like it’s not a good idea, and when you had to leave half of them out to write the bill)
“congressional democrats messing up healthcare” (an op-ed. but interesting. and seriously, these days its hard to tell the difference between news features and op-eds anyway)
“sources say some democrats frustrated…“
“obama defends his august dealine…” (um. really?!?!)
“an ideologue in a hurry” (this is more about obama’s tactics overall than just healthcare)
“americans want health care bill but not the cost” (isn’t that just like us… well, i can bear the cost, but only if we’re getting quality for it).
“top 10 healthcare reform players” (i’m kinda afraid of rahm emanuel, truth be told);
“medicaid and the governors“
“unhealthy political habits“

if, as it turns out, you want to exercise your democratic right and weigh in on the matter, the House of Representatives has a “write your representative” page — enter your zip code and it’ll tell you who your rep is. the senate doesn’t exactly have the same thing, but you can look up your senators here.