Discussion of public health and health care policy, from a public health perspective. The U.S. spends more on medical services than any other country, but we get less for it. Major reasons include lack of universal access, unequal treatment, and underinvestment in public health and social welfare. We will critically examine the economics, politics and sociology of health and illness in the U.S. and the world.
Monday, October 07, 2013
Remember Reality?
Most people seem to have forgotten all about that concept but I haven't, and I happen to know that reality bites. Here's Michael Tomasky discussing the debt limit, including a warning that has already come true: that Republicans will start claiming that hitting the debt limit will be harmless, or even, in the case of the yoyo interviewed at the link, beneficial.
They're already claiming that the government shutdown is harmless, except when they're complaining about the specific government services that have been suspended, for some mysterious reason having nothing to do with their refusing to fund them. But listen up folks: when we hit the debt limit, one of two things will happen. Either the U.S. stops paying interest on debt, in which case financial markets will devolve into chaos; or it stops mailing out Social Security checks and Medicare reimbursements, in which case we will plunge into an economic depression and people will starve and stuff like that.
Third possibility: Obama takes advantage of one of the options he has for ignoring the debt limit (platinum coin, constitution requires payment of government obligations), whereupon the House impeaches him and sues in federal court and the government remains in total chaos until January of 2015; meanwhile the shutdown continues and we go into a second Great Depression anyway.
This will happen. Their denying it in advance won't change anything. Do they really not understand that?
Lately I've been thinking that sci-fi movies that try to depict dystopias have it all wrong. Dystopia looks just like this: our country these republicans gibberish thoughtless words constant hum of lies. Reality defined by money.
ReplyDeleteI saw a list of the cases before the Supreme Court this year: abortion, public prayer, money in politics, affirmative action. I swear I've seen this list before. Dystopia.
Reality??? I almost gave up trying to understand it but then I came across this illuminating news flash:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/10/republicans-shut-down-prefrontal-cortex.html#entry-more