Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 21, 2009

Don’t rile us seniors!

We already have death panels. They’re called HMO’s.

But how are we gonna get our Soylent Green, then?

That’s one of the maddening things about the whole Health Care debate: some people’s fears of what “government bureaucrats” might do while they are unquestioningly handing over that exact same power to “corporate bureaucrats” with even less accountability.

I can just guess who Mike’s mom’s “authority” might be.

..see what happens when they make pot legal…

Garry’s back! And just in time to make fun of seniors.

When Sarah Palin’s Facebook blog has more credibility with seniors than does the “big 3” network news, there’s a fundamental problem somewhere.

No dipping the toes here, we dive right in…

Go get ‘em, Garry.

Beware, seniors vote in large numbers

GT is blurring the lines, here — I was at the Washington DC 9-12 rally - and I saw no groups of very mad people like pictured in the 4th panel… That type of group I more associate with the paid-for, bussed-in groups from the ACORN people.

Time to put mom out on the ice floe!

The ironic part about this is that the seniors are being led to protest something THEY ALREADY HAVE. Ah well. What’s politics without irony and hyprocrisy, really? (That wasn’t redundant by the way - I’m not sure politics without those can be called politics anymore.)

What barticle35 said…yeah… M Smokey, do you think that maybe that’s the reason they’re trying with the greenhouse effect to lessen the polar bear pop, to make room for the seniors? :P Oh I love warped ethics coupled with bad politics and special interest topics;)

If we maintain things as is our healthcare costs will double within the next ten years! This is what is scary! Who will be able to afford it then? As for those who want to keep others from receiving healthcare, look out! You are only one job loss away from losing your own healthcare under the current system which has been built by George W. Bush. Obama has been in office for 8 months, not 8 years. Jobs are scarce and it will take some time to change things.

Oops, I guess now it has been almost 9 months since we elected our new prez.

9 months. Yes, the Obama presidency is still very young.

scanlonwrote: ” and I saw no groups of very mad people like pictured in the 4th panel ”

Several of the town halls in Virginia were full of people so full of hate, so pathetically ignorant, and so incomprehensible, I thought I was at a fundy church where everyone was speaking in tongues.

But they all had their anonyously written e-mail (from an authority) even though factcheck.org had trashed the e-mail.

I love the following line from Bill Maher:

“Let’s replace town halls with study halls”.

If people actually understood the issues, they would be far less angry and a sane dialog could commence.

Seniors vote in large numbers, which would be less scary for the rest of us, if they actually knew what they were voting for.

I heard some wingnut swearing that 80 million boomers will be quite a voting force. I countered with how do they fall demographically? Remember that minorities and lower (poor) class vote dem. AND, how will they stack up as a force against the hispanic block?

Of course, the others I was referring to are those who don’t currently have health care. Many will be joining them soon if we maintain the status quo. What is so difficult about this to understand? What if LBJ had not championed Medicare? Ever think about that? Medicare is taken for granted now. Obama has no intention of Medicare going away. Medicare was brought about by a Democrat. It would never have been championed by a Republican. I think those who are against changing the current system should consider how they will pay twice the price they currently paying. Let’s get a grip on reality. No one is saying that the elderly will not have what they currently have. Priorities need to change. If you think it is so important to maintain the military industrial complex,as referred to by Dwight D. Eisenhower, by the way, you might have a difficult time understanding this, I know. Times are changing. Deal with it. Let’s talk about what is really important instead of the silly side tracks. One day this will all be over and again everyone will take for granted that of course we have healthcare in this country which is affordable to everyone. The conservatives are always behind in their way of thinking. Nothing new here.

Uncle Jay ( http://unclejayexplains.com/2009/09/13/uncle-jay-explains-sept-14-2009/ ) has it right… the supporters of the health care reform bill never talk about the complete package, they just pick out little parts of it that look good and tell you to support the whole thing.

But the opponents are no different, they pick out the parts that look bad and tell you to hate the whole thing.

Never under estimate to power of large groups of ignorant people. I was talking to a person at work who was dead set against Pres. Obama health care plan because it was socialist and would interfer with Medicaid. He was certain that Medicaid was not socialist and was not government sponsered health care.

I love how the protesters have recycled a slogan from the anti-war movement of the 1960s.

It’s still around cause it’s still around…

So why hasn’t Medicare / Medicaid solved this “healthcare problem” already? Isn’t that what it was designed to do? I’m seriously at a loss to figure out how more of the same from the Federal Government will make things any better. Everyone who works for a living is already being taxed to pay for healthcare whether they receive it or not. Will the addition of 30 million or 46 million (I’ve heard both numbers used by the administration) people who are now uninsured make things cheaper somehow, especially when Medicare / Medicaid will remain in place and a whole new organization will be built on top of it? In its quest to weed out the few who would defraud the system, the rules for the many have become so convoluted that everything both sides talk about as being bad either with Government run or privately run healthcare are all true.

Are you young and healthy and have better things to do with your money than spend it on health insurance? Too bad. You’re gonna hafta pay. And they call it an “option”.

psc, you already pay for health insurance if you’re young healthy and have better things to do with your money. Look at the deductions for Medicare on your pay stub.

The hilarious thing is that you two really believe that there are better things to spend your money on. I know it’s hard to believe, but there’s this thing called the future. You won’t be young forever, and you never know when you might lose your good health and wish you had that insurance. It’s fools like you who drove up costs for everyone by acting like you’re immortal until something happened, then going to the ER.

To save money the government eliminated the panel and went with a single bureaucrat with no medical training to give the go/no-go for any medical procedure recommended by your doctor independent of your insurance company. Your doctor could end up in jail if proceeds against the decision of the bureaucrat. That is Obama Care for you.