Today was a monumental day; Olympia Snowe (R-ME) broke the Republican pseudo-filibuster to vote for the Baucus Bill on Health Care Reform. “Why is it so historic?” you may ask. “Don’t the Democrats have enough votes to pass some kind of  health care reform anyway, despite Republican sputtering?” you may counter. Though the Dems could force through a bill on health care reform should they be so inclined, here is why today was monumental:

Ms. Snowe recognized that “History is calling” American legislators to take up the challenge of the systemic problem of health care reform. Like Ms. Snowe acknowledges, there are lots of provisions and problems in the bill – but here’s a secret;  no bill is ever “perfect” because the ugly, chaotic mess that is Representative Republicanism ensures that bills will be debated, distorted, emasculated, and adulterated to the point that the original author might no longer recognize it.

But Ms. Snowe’s “History” statement brings up a good point, and a counter to many on the far right who argue there is no “guarantee’ in the Constitution or Bill of Rights covering the right to health care. History, however, has played with our rights, making them malleable and open to interpretation (which was the initial intent of the framers).

For example, in the original Bill of Rights, there were no provisions for African Americans or Women to vote. It took years – no, decades – of struggle to allow women and non-whites the right to vote. Yet would Rush, Coulter, Beck and Hannity ever dream of arguing that the 14th and 19th Amendment should be repealed? No matter how much my friends on the left  would argue that the above just hide their sheets in a closet at home, I would venture a guess that revocation of these “evolved” rights have never ventured into their heads.

Let us take this one step further: Education. Education was not outlined as a “freedom” that should be provided for all in any founding document. In fact, for most of the history of the United States, education was more of a costly luxury that only the elite could afford. Yet the Federal, State, and local governments of the United States spend billions of dollars providing for basic education for all Americans, free of charge and with no eye toward profit. Why? Because a more educated populace is a more secure populace, a more flexible populace, a more productive populace, and (finally) a more “free” populace – potentially free from the shackles of ignorance, potentially free to change jobs without starting over at the bottom, free to follow the call of their inner muse whether it be art, business, education, science, music, or radio talk show host.

Public education – regardless of your personal opinion of its efficacy – provides a basis for future potential and frees parents from having to worry about choosing between educating their children and providing food, clothing, and shelter. Unfortunately, parents now have to choose whether to take themselves or their child to the doctor’s office or put food on the table. It is a known fact that 60% of bankruptcies could be avoided if the American people did not have to worry about medical bills and expenses. Most of those in the Harvard Study did have medical coverage, but were cut off because preset yearly or lifetime limits on health care – Tell me; which would you sacrifice? Your credit rating, house, car, and savings or your child or spouse’s life?

Why should Americans be forced to choose? In all honesty, like Americans do not have to choose whether to send their child to school or not, Americans should not have to choose whether to take themselves or their child to the doctors.

“But what about ‘Socialism’ and the death of American innovation in medicine?” you may ask. I counter that with concrete examples from industrialized nations with universal health care:

Germany has a nationalized health care system yet BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagon,  and Porsche are considered some of the best vehicles on the road. Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz even purchased Chrysler several years back, but the cost to operate the American auto maker was too much for the Germans and thus sold it to a private equity firm a few years ago. What kinds of savings would the automobile industry realize if the crushing burden of health care were removed from them?

Japan has universal health care, yet Toyota tops sales in the US while electronics firms like Sony dominate the electronics, music, film, and entertainment industries. Imagine what would happen if American companies could focus on their productivity and worker’s compensation instead of health care cost-to-benefit ratios.

France has a nationalized healthcare system yet was the first to transplant a face! Italian doctors, working in a socialized medical system, taught American doctors how to fix a woman’s blindness by using her TOOTH as a graft material! The British have had universal health care since 1948 and, despite rumors to the contrary spread by Republican fear-mongers, it was that very system that allows us to enjoy the gifts from the rare genius that is Stephen Hawking. China has had socialized medicine – and a Communist government – since 1949 and owns the majority of our US debt as well as dominates our markets with their inexpensive, poorly made products.

How’s this for the kicker: China, Russia (socialized medicine), Japan, France, and the Gulf States (Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia) are conspiring to stop pricing and trading oil in American Dollars! The Chinese warned that “We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security.” A Communist country who we owe trillions of dollars to and who has the benefit of socialized medicine is preparing to challenge our hegemony in the United States.

Makes all the dire predictions of a “slippery slope” of “Socialism” seem like hysterics, doesn’t it? All the evidence available does not seem to indicate that Socialized medicine automatically equates to a lack of competitive edge in the marketplace or the demise of a nation’s business. And while we’re on the subject of undercutting American business; the same argument was used to counter workers’ and progressives’ arguments for an end to child labor, occupational safety, weekends off, and twelve (then ten, then eight) hour work week, color-blind hiring policies, environmental pollution regulations, and workman’s compensation insurance.

So, my dear Republican friends, as Ms. Snowe has clearly stated, “History is calling” and you have a choice; free the American people of the fearful spectre of costly health care once and for all, or become as ghosts yourselves.

QED