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While Senators in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans, do their best to kill the public option, they’ve got there own personal socialized medicine gig happening on the side.
This fall while members of Congress toil in the U.S. Capitol, working to decide how or even whether to reform the country’s health care system, one floor below them an elaborate Navy medical clinic — described by those who have seen it as something akin to a modern community hospital — will be standing by, on-call and ready to provide Congress with some of the country’s best and most efficient government-run health care.
Formally called the Office of the Attending Physician, the clinic — and at least six satellite offices it supports — bills its mission as one of emergency preparedness and public health. Each day, it stands ready to handle medical emergencies, biological attacks and the occasional fainting tourist visiting Capitol Hill.
…what is rarely discussed outside the halls of Congress is the office’s other role — providing a wealth of primary care medical services to senators, representatives and Supreme Court justices.
Yglesias comments…
What’s noteworthy here isn’t just the existence of the perk, it’s the specific form. Congress could have voted itself higher salaries. Or better travel benefits. Or larger appropriations so the congressional cafeterias can serve better food. But or just more generous health insurance. But what they wanted here was socialized medicine—health care that’s not only financed by the state but directly provided by government employees. This kind of state-provided health care is basically universal in the UK, it accounts for an important chunk of the health care in Sweden, and it’s what we give to our veterans in the United States. But most members of congress claim regard it as a horrifying prospect. And yet in practice they appear to like it just fine.
Basically, it amounts to yelling out “SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. BAD!” in public while reaping the benefits of socialized medicine in private.
Hypocrites.
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It seems that once our representatives are elected and take their place in the hallowed halls of Congress, all caring thoughts about the people who bestowed the honor on them, get lost in the shuffle. I may be getting a bit jaded, but sometimes I think from that point on any effort on their part to placate their constituents, is directly linked to their desire for re-election.
I do want to add an exception to my previous post. Ted Kennedy worked tirelessly on behalf of the people of Massachusetts and the general public. He wasn’t there for financial gain. No matter the early failings of his life, he more than redeemed himself with exemplary service to this country.
They say corruption exists in a lot of countries but we don’t look at our own back yard. What is good for the goose is not good for the gander in politics. How will we ferret out this poison that is in Washington these days with lobbyists being the worse demons for what they represent. Obama said that Washington was not going to operate like it used to. It is time to get them out or at least reduce their influence. A first item on the agenda is cancel all junkets to lobbyist resorts and holidays sponsored by them. We pay our politicians enough money that they can pay like everybody else