Why do I subscribe to my local newspaper? Surely not for the editorial staff, as reliably conservative a group as ever was. A December editorial said that any health care reform or environmental legislation would be unconstitutional infringements on our liberty. My letter of reply suggested the dumb fuck editor/writer stuff all his cash and guns in his pickup truck and move to Montana, permanently. (It wasn't printed, which is probably a good thing.)
Thursday's Dispatch featured an editorial calling for the defeat of health care reform. Titled "Say No" (the unofficial Republican motto), it was an argumentative screed which had nothing to say about the need for reform, the benefits which might result, the moral imperative to do something about the current system. Nope, it was all about costs. The Dispatch says the Congressional Budget Office is a bunch of know-nothing morons who can't add two plus two. The Dispatch says that, contrary to the CBO findings, the reform bill would not pay for itself and would increase the deficit. The Dispatch says that access to care would be made more difficult, because adding 31 million newly insured people would result in long lines at medical facilities. (Hell, yeah! Especially if they all show up at once! What a staggeringly arrogant attitude -- "I couldn't possibly wait in a line, so fuck all those awful uninsured people.") The Dispatch says that by expanding the pool of insured people, premiums will increase. This statement is unsupportable, ignorant, and exactly backwards. Expanding the pool spreads the risk over larger numbers and reduces the loss ratio, which allows for lower premiums for all. This is the essence of any good group insurance product. Most people understand this intuitively.
The Dispatch does not. The Dispatch is a piece of shit.
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