Statecraft Informer

Sparxafire! With my amazing powers of predicting the future, I hereby declare the summer of 2007 as the “Summer of Gritching About Health Care!” Where do I acquire such pervasive precognoxious skill? Well, it’s just a hunch, mind you, but Michael Moore’s latest documentary, “Sicko,” is just ready to crack open its yolk on the U.S. citizenry, and everybody’s going to be very yellow!

Great hue and cry will roll over us with waves of outrage and shock and despair. “I had no idea!” “Now I see why I’m paying $42 for an aspirin in the hospital.” “My insurance company would never… er, I’d like to think that I’m pretty sure my insurance company is probably not that greedy, are they?” Denial! Renting of garments!

Then, ever so slowly, bit by bit, our government representatives will start to hear the grumble, and be startled to attention, and with great, stern harrumphs will decry the state of health care in this country. I especially like it when such outrage falls out of the mouths of reps who have been in Congress for years and years. “Why, it has always been my position that…. harrumph… uh, health is our most precious commodity. And I am in favor of health. My opponent voted to cut health care to old people in wheelchairs and baby ducks!” Blah, blah, blah.

Statecraft Informer cuts to the chase and breaks it all down before the howdy even hits the fan:

1. It is a major purpose of government to provide things that people have difficulty doing on their own -roads, schools, a standing army and whatnot. Health care has become one of those things.

2. There are too many players in health care… doctors, hospitals, clinics, employers, pharmaceuuuutical companies, insurance companies, lawyers, the government and, well patients count too, I guess. Everybody has a slice in this Tilt-a-Whirl, and no individual sector can act without throwing the whole unbalanced thing further out of whack.

3. In our broken-down capitalist society, greed has clawed its way to the mountaintop. Capitalism, you see, has a life cycle…. like communism, for example. In a certain time, and with a certain focus, it might make sense. But, as time passes and society evolves, capitalism grows from a kindergartner into a high school dropout, with a pack of Camels rolled up in its sleeve, drooling after every piece of… er…. young lady it can find to plunder… or is it pillage? (Metaphor run amuck alert!) In any event, like communism collapsed, so stands capitalism at the edge of the swirling drain, poised to make that big sucking sound at any moment.

And nobody seems to recognize this, or see this except Your Statecraft Informer! The presidential candidates are completely unaware. The very absence of a strong middle class is the loudest clue ever! Apparently, it’s so loud, we’ve all gone deaf! If you were to define “middle class” as a family where it is no big deal to take the kids to a movie, then be very afraid. At today’s prices, it can easily cost $40 to $50 to take in a flick. Placed against America’s income scales, uh-oh. Fewer and fewer can afford it… or a trip to a major league ballpark, or a trip to Las Vegas… or a brand new car…

But I digress. We are doing health care.

3. Greed and altruism don’t mix. Oh sure, you can pour them in the same pot, but the greed will always rise to the top. And in health care, so it has.

Thus. It will come down to “government to the rescue!” And if you want to see the state of the art in government rescue chops, just check out the Katrina damage. Be aware! Be very aware! And bless good, ole Michael Moore for trying… especially when we saw how his, “Bowling for Columbine” revolutionized gun control… or how his video about the Twisted Bush did not derail the “re-election…” Sparxafire, indeed!