The politics of politics

Commentary February 10, 2010 at 07:00 PM

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Some believe that laissez-faire capitalism is the cure for the ills of our health care system. Others favor the strong hand of government. Yet philosophy of any kind has taken a back seat to the unremitting zero sum game of politics: For one team to "win," the other team must "lose."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer opines that, "House Republicans pledged to introduce a bill to reform America's health care system, but the party of no has failed to produce legislation." Yet as of late November 2009, the Republicans had introduced no fewer than 60 bills, all seeking to add their point of view to the discussion.

You may or may not agree with what's in those bills, and that's fine. What isn't fine is that these bills never made it out of committee. No debate, no discourse. Blue wins, Red loses. Business as usual: the politics of politics and not of solutions.

Everyone agrees that reforms are necessary, yet nothing changes. In my December column for Life Insurance Selling I wrote these words: "It saddens me that we have missed any real opportunity to have a real discussion about the real changes that would make the health care universe a better place." Forget Red or Blue winning. What we need is a new reality where Red, White and Blue wins.

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