[Yes, another critical commentary piece. So I lied: I’m a poet.]

            Those of us earning less than the median income know that the death panels are already in place and operating. They are called private insurers.

            Last time around, the insurance companies had their dupes screaming about how you wouldn’t be able to select your own doctor. Even if you have good insurance, today, in an emergency, you go to your clinic and take who you get, sometimes even if ‘your own’ doctor is on duty.

            And who do you think did this to medicine? It wasn’t the government. It was private insurance and corporate big medicine that forced the individual practitioner off the streets and into the group practices – group practices which, if you read the fine print, you will notice are now under the thumb of big corporate medicine.

            And, if you earn less than the median and pay for take-what-you-can-get insurance, your insurance company determines your health care, not your doctors.

            And don’t forget that the private insurers’ aggressive discounting of the face prices set by big medicine is a primary driver for medical cost inflation. The disingenuous hypocrites on both sides shrug and turn their palms out and swear they are doing everything in their power to keep the costs down, while raking in unprecedented profits.

            Hooligans and thugs shouting down discourse with lies are not ‘part of the democratic process’. They are criminal disruptors of the process. When are ‘liberals’ going to stop pissing in their own shoes and start using language as strong or stronger than that of their adversaries? They not only have the right, they have the substance. If the press is nothing but cowards, today, that is still no reason not to speak the truth about these things