A couple of days ago, in his town hall response to one of his constituents whose husband is suffering from traumatic head injury, Sen./Dr. Tom Coburn told us and showed us the Republican prescription for our ailing health care system:
Well I think personally, yeah we'll help. The first thing we'll do is see what we can do individually to help you, through our office. But the other thing that's missing in this debate is us, as neighbors, helping people that need our help. You know, we've had a - (applause). The idea that the government is a solution to our problems, is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement.
I say it's time for America to listen to Sen. Coburn.
What did we learn from Senator Coburn's response to this woman's tragedy?
Well, he invited the woman to call his office so that they could help her and her husband get the financial assistance they need to deal with his injury and their other expenses.
Thus, what we learned is that the correct type of help for us to demand from our elected representatives is NOT legislation, but instead for them to use their governmental positions to help each of us individually in the challenges we face due to our broken health care system.
So that is what we should all do.
I am lucky enough to have perfectly adequate health care coverage through my employment. But I know many here on DKos are not so fortunate. I would encourage all those in that category to contact your Republican or Blue Dog Congresscritter and request the same help that Sen. Coburn is providing for his constituent.
And those of you in my former home state of Oklahoma, I especially hope that you will avail yourselves of Sen. Coburn's kind offer. He clearly relishes the opportunity to spread the milk of human kindness, and the least we can do is honor his desire to live out his beliefs in this way.
We should be swamping the phone lines to give Sen. Coburn, his Republican colleagues, and the Blue Cross Dogs a chance to demonstrate the effectiveness of compassionate conservatism. They are our neighbors, and what more neighborly action could we take than to give them the opportunity to help their neighbors and thus vindicate their principled opposition to government-run health care? (H/t to Sherrod Brown's wife Connie Schultz, who raised this idea on Rachel's show last night.)
And in fact, we should go further than that. I have sent an e-mail to Eugene at truthandhope.org, recommending that he produce and air an ad showing Sen. Coburn's philosophy in action (based on agreat suggestion by MissInformation):
Run a clip of the desperate woman's appeal, then Coburn's answer... then show the back of a woman, as she is:
> holding a bake sale
> knocking on neighbors' doors
> standing with a tin cup and sign at an intersection
(sign could read: husband needs tens of thousands of dollars to stay alive)
Then show other people doing the same thing. More and more of them.
Announcer: THIS is the REPUBLICANS' ANSWER to the health care crisis in America. Is this the best our country can do for its citizens?
I hope that if Eugene shows any interest in making this ad, that all of you will join me in donating to truthandhope.org so we can honor Sen. Coburn's compassionate vision by plastering this ad on every television screen throughout the country.