obama does it!

There is a God! Finally, after almost a hundred years of political effort the US House of Representatives has passed a universal health care bill guaranteeing some form of health coverage for all Americans, especially the poorest. What seems like a no-brainer for the rest of the developed world somehow proved to be a massively wide Rubicon for the United States of America. American conservatives, the inheritors of the freedom-loving frontiersman Davy Crockett mentality, perceived a universal health care plan for which the tax payer would have to foot the bill as an unwarranted intrusion by government in the lives of its citizens. Many still believe this and it looks likely that Obama’s health care plan will prove to be a rallying cry for Republican opposition at the US mid-term elections come November. But for the moment something unparalleled and extraordinary has been achieved. One member of Congress likened the achievement to walking on the moon!

And, as an interesting sidelight, one of the significant contributors to stiffening the resolve of Democrats especially to vote for the bill was the support from the 59, 000 Catholic nuns who came out publicly in its favour, thereby allaying the fears of some that the bill had not sufficiently accommodated the concerns of pro-life voters. Some had interpreted support for the bill as support for public monies paying for abortions. Even some of the US bishops saw it this way.

Anyway, one small step for Obama, one giant step for America’s poorest!