Let's Talk About Healthcare

I was so excited for the Kathleen Sebelius hearing. I anticipated it for days, making sure I wasn't working, recording it for viewing during Oliver's nap time, I even had coffee and a bagel ready. I love these hearings because Republicans love these hearings. They like to make lots of inaccurate pop culture references, and spring rigid bigot boners as they ask a lot of irrelevant hypothetical questions. This hearing wasn't nearly as exciting as Chuck Hagel's was, but I did hear a common theme in the questions from Obamacare detractors. Obamacare takes away choices.

I heard it over and over, with my brow furrowing a little more each time, Republicans actually upset that their choices are being limited. Aside from the fact that the Affordable Care Act does the exact opposite, Republicans don't seem to mind limiting choices on family planning, banning abortion and shutting down clinics wherever they can. They don't seem to mind limiting the American citizen's energy choices, fighting the electric car at every turn, screaming about the jobs that Keystone would make as they furlough 800,000 government workers. They don't seem to mind limiting choices on education, opposing universal pre-k, and slashing public school funding. Republicans certainly don't want immigrants having choices, or southern blacks and hispanics having a choice of when and where to vote. Republicans hate giving LGTB tax payers the choice to get married. Or in Virginia, the governor there wants you to have no choice but to submit to two ultrasounds before getting an abortion, even if your doctor says that it isn't medically necessary and you don't want to. In my home state of Oklahoma, Senator Coburn wants to force you to file a police report if you have a miscarriage that isn't in front of a doctor, or face jail time, no choice there.

This weird Republican habit of screaming freedom while trying their best to take it away is what makes these waste of time hearings so much fun. They don't care about choices, they care about their money, and now that the Affordable Care Act gives the 47 million Americans teetering on poverty a real chance to live medically insured lives, I'll take old grumpy white racists being angry as a good sign.