Open your wallets, America-Health care reform

As published in The Commuter, Oct. 1, 2009

The American people have long been known to be some of the most generous in the world. Every year we give billions to charity, to the homeless, and to foreign countries in need after floods, earthquakes and other disasters. In fact, Americans are so generous that, according to the Giving USA Foundation, Americans gave $300 billion last year alone, enough to count as 2.2 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. In fact, drowning in medical costs of my own, I gave $5 to a man on the street in Portland whose sign simply read, “need money for space ship repairs.” I knew he didn’t have a car, let alone a space ship, but I said the money was for making me smile. And considering his hat full of spare change and dollar bills, I wasn’t the only one.

In a country so generous, I am having a hard time understanding what the fuss is over health care reform. Americans give, and give, and give. According to the U.S. Census Bureau records, we gave $700 billion to bailout the banks, more than $500 million to Israel, millions more to other foreign allies, billions bailing out the failing auto industry, and finally, last year alone we spent $1.2 trillion dollars fighting the war in Iraq. That’s enough money to make my head spin. So why are we handing over our tax dollars to be spent on war, bailouts and so-called foreign allies, and not our own friends and neighbors?

The cost of Obama’s health care reform does not include numbers we’ve never seen before, or spent on less important things. In fact, unlike our other expenses, Obama’s plan seeks to finance itself, relying very little on tax payer funding. According to the White House, the money comes from where it already exists in our system, among the top 3 percent of wage earners, existing profits from Medicare and Medicaid (two public plans already proven to be essential and beneficial to the American people), and from the decreased cost of all those previously uninsured people finally receiving early care instead of becoming so ill they must visit an overcrowded emergency room just for some antibiotics or blood pressure medication.

So where is all the hostility coming from? Who are these people that have suddenly emerged, so afraid that someone might come in the night and give health care to Americans in need? Where were these people when we gave billions to the banks, or spent trillions on war and countries they will most likely never visit? No, these outrageous expenses don’t seem to bother these people one bit. As one self-professed Republican friend put it, he “didn’t want to spend his money on people who weren’t his problem.” In other words, he doesn’t give a s**t about you, your sick grandma, or anyone else outside his selfish little circle. And that is who the opponents of health care reform are: the selfish minority who don’t want to spend money they will never have on people like you and me, and themselves, if they would stop waiving their “Obama=Hitler” signs long enough to think about it.

Obviously some complain about the top 3 percent having to shoulder the burden for the rest of us, but I don’t think they would miss that one new Louis Vuitton purse amongst all their others just because they had to give a little extra. And I hate to break it to you fellow students, but work as hard as you can, and you will still most likely never come near to being in the top 3 percent. No, you will be down with the rest of us who need this plan. So please, don’t worry about spending money you will never have. Instead, give what you have, and be thankful we have a country so great we (mostly) want to take care of all our people.

Americans, you are generous, good people. Every day we prove that we care about others, and that we know what is right. Don’t let the selfish minority waving their signs and spouting their nightmarish lies tell you that health care for all is not right, and not what this country needs. Americans should keep being the generous, giving people we are, and take this opportunity to keep a little of that good-will and generous spirit here in our own back yards.