Monday, August 31, 2009

This week the Young Democrats of the University of Georgia and Athens-Clarke County area will be promoting President Obama’s health care reform bill. Americans across our great land and within our community here in Athens are facing hard times and difficult choices, and some of these choices are concerning their health.
For almost a month now, the United States Congress has been on their traditional August recess, in which the members of the House and Senate go home and spend time with their constituents. The last day the House was in session, July 31, the House’s version of the health care reform bill passed out of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The Senate has its own version of the bill that is constantly undergoing changes and revision.  Due to this back-and-forth action, it is irresponsible to debate the merits of the health care bill when each side of the equation has different puzzle pieces. The fact of the matter is that once Congress reconvenes next week and once again goes to work on the reform bill, it will be difficult to fully understand what is in either version of the bill, and the resulting changes within each bill will be hard to monitor because the leaders in Washington missed their original deadline and have to make up for lost time.
Furthermore, health care reform in America is a crucial and pressing issue, but our friends in Young Democrats wish to turn this serious debate into hyper-partisan politics. Today, Monday, August 31, 2009, Mehul Patel, Executive Director of Young Democrats, compared our system of health care to the tragedy of September 11, 2001.  Our friend fails to realize that the implications of that unfortunate day have had lasting effects, not only on the people in the cities attacked, but more importantly, their families. To further the Young Democrats’ goal of promoting health care in a purely partisan fashion, they will be showing a Michael Moore documentary entitled Sicko, the same movie publicly criticized by CNN’s senior health correspondent because of its fallacies. Let us remember that Michael Moore is a not a health care provider, he does not provide insurance, he is not a government official, and has never served one day in any health care occupation. Therefore, Moore is hardly an expert when it comes to these issues.
While our friends from the opposing party wish to promote health care reform with comparisons to September 11 and attempts at indoctrinating people with the hyper-partisanship that Americans have come to distaste, the University of Georgia College Republicans is committed to have a fair, honest, and calm debate in which members of the health care community can address their concerns. In the month of September, we will be holding a discussion concerning this dire problem. Health is an issue that affects all Americans, and we want to have honest discourse away from the hyper-partisan rhetoric with which our friends wish to address this issue.
Health care is a real and serious issue. The rhetoric that was used on the campaign trail is not the type we need to solve these serious problems. Our friends in Young Democrats seem to be thinking lightly of the issue, which is of no benefit to the American people.