But here's a joint effort we couldn't sell:
America in the Emergency Room
Picture this: The sirens are blasting, the doors of the ER
burst open, and anxiety is written all over the EMTs as they wheel in a young
man. The sheets are dripping with blood. It is clear by where the bloodflow is most
fierce that the patient has a hole in his chest. The ER room suspends all activity as everyone
turns to him. The ER explodes into life
with people grabbing all sorts of medical equipment—people are barking orders
to one another—the whole focus of the ER is now on that young man, with his
terrifying wound that is carrying his life away without mercy.
A window of opportunity has opened: every step, every appropriate
medical procedure must happen now to
save this young man’s life. The ER
workers must act precisely but quickly to stop death from conquering him. There can be no distractions: no phone calls;
no flirting with the cute nurse; no time out for a bite or a cigarette. The window is open, but it is small compared
to the overwhelming danger that this young man will die. Yet everyone in the ER is trying to squeeze
through that window—not just any
solution, but the doctors need the right
solution to save him. They do not know
exactly when the window of
opportunity will slam shut, but everyone knows that it will—and very shortly.
The ambulance with our country in it is rolling up to the ER. It is not too much of a stretch to say our
country will shortly be on the gurney, wheeled in and needing expert and an
all-hands-on-deck kind of approach to fixing our economy. The
Congressional
Budget Office is warning us—again—of impending financial disaster if we do
not bring spending under control—not too dissimilar from the blood flowing out from
our young man’s chest. Current spending
and taxes policies means that the national debt will be
“almost
200% of gross domestic product in 2037.”
This country will collapse well before we reach that point. We now have a window of opportunity, small as
it may be, but it is a window, it is open, and when it will slam shut, no one
knows.
Republicans, hear this: run this election, and what happens
after you gain control of the White House and both houses of Congress, as if
this country is about to bleed to death.
Squeeze through the window with economic policies that will bring the
hemorrhaging deficit under control, and keep a vigil over this patient for the
long haul—no quick fixes, but a true program to bring health back to our
nation. No distractions: no chasing
pages or extramarital affairs.
We either love this country enough to save it, or watch it
being parceled out by those who would use it as their own personal piggy-banks,
while the country eventually collapses from these current hemorrhaging policies
that have depressed and will eventually destroy this country. Act now, Republicans, and you Democrats who
see this land worth fighting for—now is the time: the window of opportunity is going to close. We can’t say exactly when, but be assured, it
will close.
Yes: we know that the institutions and wealthy individuals
who really run things in Washington (regardless of which party is in power)
fund political campaigns because they expect to get something back for it. We are not expecting an outbreak of public
spiritedness by the people who have corrupted our political system. We do expect them to rein in their greed long
enough that the patient gets from the ER into a regular hospital bed, where he
can recover, before any more fatal blows are delivered by Washington. Dead
patients don’t produce any blood.
This is going to take some real courage: members of Congress
are going to have to tell the special interests that demand taxpayer money and
special favors to chill out until the economy recovers. Americans have become pretty cynical about
the political process, but if Congress and the White House don’t take immediate steps to reduce spending and
the ever-growing deficit, this is going to end very badly. When we say “end very badly,” we mean a
conflagration that will destroy not just our political system, but risk
destroying the accumulated wealth that special interests have sucked out of the
Treasury for the last few decades.
It is apparent that another four
years of Obama will bring this country to a poverty and desperation from which
genuine mass, revolutionary violence could easily spring. The history of such revolutions is not pretty,
and we see no reason to believe that it would lead to something like the first
American Revolution. Republicans after
the general election in November will have this window of opportunity during
which
really radical,
serious ideas, such as Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget, should be considered and
debated. Blow this window of
opportunity, and America is finished.
Clayton & Rhonda Cramer teach history and English at the
College of Western Idaho.
Yes, you read that right. The U.S. is #1. Pretty impressive for a horribly flawed health care system.
The article also points out that the longer life expectancy of some other industrialized nations has a lot to do with lower death rates from fatal injuries (traffic accidents and murder), and not so much to do with health care:
