Bottom Left Politics

There’s been a lot of hoopla in recent days over GOP Congressman Joe Wilson’s out-of-line (and probably – historians, correct me if I’m wrong – unprecedented) conduct and tone toward the President of the United States.  Just as many predicted, the substance of the speech was lost while the mainstream media and the average Americans who suck down that garbage focused on two words:  “You lie.”  There’s been a lot of outrage, mainly from the Left, over Wilson’s disrespectful tone.  I get it.  I’ll go a step further than “disrespectful,” though, and make the allegation that the comment was driven primarily by racism (South Carolina Republican, member of Sons of Confederate Veterans…need I say more?).  Wilson would not have abandoned Congressional protocol had a white male been standing at that podium, and you can be goddamn sure about that.  I totally get it.  But liberals and progressives are missing the point.

Let’s forget about Joe Wilson and his little outburst for a minute.  Does anyone even know why Joey pooped his drawers?  If you remember correctly, it was after President Obama made the following statement:

There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.

At that point, Wilson shouted, “You lie!”  And all the Democrats booed and hissed.  Rather than giving Wilson and his neo-Nazi Republican colleagues the satisfaction of getting booed by a herd of pissed-off progressives, what the Democrats should have been booing was President Obama’s declaration that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the proposed health care plan.  Yet this isn’t being talked about.  Instead, the Left is focusing its collective attention on this piece of human waste, Joe Wilson, and his disrespectful treatment of the President.  Can I ask something here?  Who gives a fuck about Joe Wilson?  Let’s talk about what matters – the reality that President Obama and Democrats don’t really believe in universal health care because they’re unwilling to entertain the idea that all humans – “illegal” or not – have an inherent right to health care.

Insuring illegal immigrants makes sense in every way imaginable.  Of course, most importantly, there’s a moral imperative to the issue.  By blatantly and shamelessly leaving millions of undocumented workers out in the proverbial cold, giving them the finger when it comes to health care, we are sending the message that not all human beings are equal.  This is something that the stick-up-the-ass liberals in Congress don’t seem to understand.  While they’re booing Joe Wilson, they’re indirectly applauding President Obama’s anti-immigrant (and, indeed, anti-human) stance on this very important point in health care reform.

Then, there’s the economic side.  After all, this is all about doing what’s affordable, right?  Not adding another dime to the deficit – it’s one of the pillars of Obama’s plan.  The only sensible thing to do, if we’re looking at this from a purely fiscal perspective, is to cover everybody, including illegal immigrants.  We already pay for them.  Since our doctors aren’t complete savages and live by an oath (not to mention federal law), they treat illegal immigrants in emergencies, and society pays for that through higher premiums.  How much of that expense could be avoided if the illegal immigrants received a grain of respect from our health care system and were able to get preventive care?  The Employee Benefit Research Institute has drawn the conclusion that covering illegal immigrants under the umbrella of some type of universal health care system has the potential to save up to $11 billion every year.  Insuring illegal immigrants would cost a great deal of money, of course, but the savings resulting from preventive medical care would be well worth it.

But none of these facts are being discussed – by President Obama, by Democrats in Congress, by the average American citizen.  And that’s a shame.  We’re a country that has been built upon the oppression and mistreatment of others, and the “liberals” in charge are only continuing that tradition.  Beacon of freedom?  Not quite.

The blogger, Kristofer Paul, can be reached at bottomleftpolitics@yahoo.com.