The following is my lament on the healthcare legislation, which leaves me angry, confused, concerned, and without the sense of victory democratic political leaders are telling me I should feel.
It's hard to know where the blame goes for this rather abysmal piece of legislation, though I think it falls on all sides. One need only look at the stock market ticker for the past few days to see who the real winners were in this charade called healthcare reform.
The Night Before Healthcare
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the House
All the Repubs were stalling, each cretin and louse.
The Senate had voted the healthcare bill through
After getting Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, too.
The lib'rals were angry, and so was the right,
While insuranceless people pondered their plight.
And Markos was on Keith, and Ed had on Dean,
Everyone asking what the hell this bill means.
When there at Fox "News" there arose so much ranting,
I turned off the tube lest I hear Glenn Back canting.
Onto the Internets I jumped in a blink,
Signed onto Daily Kos to see what you think.
The posts on the rec list were lacking the glee
I had thought I would see with dems making hist'ry.
But how could I blame them when I felt the same,
After watching this crap, and the Senators' game?
With a timorous old man, so weak in the lead,
I knew from the start we'd get little from Reid.
More vicious than vipers the teabaggers came
And they catcalled and hooted and called people names;
Like "Liar!" and "Traitor!" and "Socialist Nazi!"
"No Stalin!" "No Hitler!" "No lib paparazzi!"
"To the White House front steps! To the National Mall!
Now kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill care for all!"
Then up to the White House the teabaggers trudged,
Their numbers inflated by Fox, Limbaugh, and Drudge.
Those signs that they carried that threatened great war,
When espied by police they were dropped to the floor.
And then, on her Facebook, I saw Sarah whine,
Of grandmas and babies and death panel time.
As I thought how absurd, and was surfing away,
Who else but Michelle Bachman should leap in the fray.
Her eyes were all crazy, as she gripped Cantor's hand,
And she called for revolution across the land.
Conservatives stood with the bill in a stack,
And they waved pages like zombies addicted to crack.
Their eyes -- how they darted! Their nostrils, they flared!
Their words had such malice, and no untruth was spared!
Their cold little hearts were shrunk up like old prunes,
And how clear we could see they were nothing but loons.
McCain we all saw was old, mean, and bitter,
After losing his race with Sarah the quitter.
He bashed Obama, along with healthcare reform,
Calling it nutty on every show he performed.
He went psycho and yelled, stamped his foot on the floor--
I pray Arizona kicks him right out the door.
A vote in the senate, 60 the tally--
The bill finally passed as Democrats rallied.
I felt little joy--public option now dead,
No trigger, no Medicare add-on as said--
Yet mandates that force us to give through the nose
To the insurers we count among our worst foes.
The bill will be signed, "A victory!" some will crow,
But nobody scores except the health co's CEOs.
"It's better than nothing," the Prez said with a grin,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good win."