The Senate goes for the pragmatic solution rather than a truly practical one

With a self-imposed Christmas deadline at stake, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid engineered a last-minute compromise in the health care debate that has won the support of the lone Democratic holdout and clinched the required 60 votes to pass a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health care system.

via www.foxnews.com

And thus puts America further in debt, places more restrictions on businesses, and penalizes health insurance companies.

It's pragmatic because it "works" right now, but it's not practical because it provides no REAL solutions. As I said, this places America further in debt - a debt our children and grand children and GREAT-grand children will be paying.

It's extremely short-sighted and selfish, but then that doesn't surprise me when it comes from a DemonRATic Congress.

More worthy quotes from the article:

"The best thing government could do to ensure more Americans have access to health care insurance is to institute reforms that would rein in costs and make health care more affordable," said McCain, who lost last year's presidential race to Obama. "Regrettably, there's nothing in this legislation that effectively addresses the problem."

(Yep. Like tort reform, multistate regulations, and so on...)

In an article she wrote in Saturday's Washington Post, Vicki Kennedy, the widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, said that while the Senate bill is imperfect, it would achieve many of the goals her husband fought for over four decades.

"I humbly ask his colleagues to finish the work of his life, the work of generations, to allow the vote to go forward and to pass health care reform now. As Ted always said, when it's finally done, the people will wonder what took so long," she said.

(It's for TEDDY! Oh, just freakin' gag me! That's not a rational, logical, intelligent argument; it's solely an appeal to emotion, and we should not be making and passing laws on the basis of pure emotion!)

The compromise package Reid released Saturday puts new limits on insurance company  profits.The measure would require insurers in the individual market to spend 80 percent of premiums on medical care. The requirement for group policies would be 85 percent.

(Big business is is Teh Eeeeee-Vuhl™!!!! It must be stopped! Never mind the money it pumps into the economy via jobs and insurance payments... Look for reduced coverage, company layoffs, and refused new enrollments.)

I refer my readers to Zombietime's excellent article on why rank-and-file America hates universal health care:

What I don’t like about the very concept of universal health care is that it compels me to become my brother’s keeper and insert myself into the moral decisions of his life. I’d rather grant each person maximum freedom. I’d prefer to let people make whatever choices they want, however stupid or dangerous I may deem those choices to be. Just so long as you take responsibility for your actions, and you reap the consequences and pay for them yourself — hey, be as foolish or hedonistic or selfish or thoughtless as you like. Not my business.

But if the bill for your foolishness shows up in the form of higher taxes on me, then I unwillingly start to care what you do. And, trust me on this, you don’t want me turning my heartless judgmental eye on your foolish lifestyle. Because I’d have no qualms criticizing half the stuff you do.

Make sure you read the whole thing, 'cause Congress sure won't. Or, even if they did, they'd ignore it...