We Can Do This, People

Folks, last night the Senate did something wholly unexpected: the right thing. In a stunning display of not being a dick, Senator John McCain cast the decisive vote to bring down the Senate "skinny repeal" bill that was slightly better than the ... uh ... I guess you'd call it the "fat repeal" bill, in that it only kicked 16 million people off health care over ten years, instead of 23 million.

In statements on the floor of the Senate afterward, Mitch McConnell dejectedly complained about not being able to pass the bill that would essentially anally violate the poor, and Chuck Schumer opined that it was time to put together a bipartisan solution. Of course, this means that it is time for Congress to roll up their sleeves and set about the difficult work of placating the various lobbying groups associated with health care, such as the pharmaceutical companies that want to screw consumers, the insurance companies that want to screw consumers ...

So here's what I'm thinking. It's a safe bet that the readers of this blog have crapped out more intelligence after a night of dubious burritos from a 7-Eleven freezer than Congress has demonstrated over the past six months, and I'll bet we can craft a better healthcare bill than those brainstems.

I am totally serious about this.

We can all put our heads together and draft legislation that will meet all of the following criteria:

• Reduce overall medical costs.
• Guarantee health coverage for all.
• Provide necessary services (preventative care, for example).
• Shore up insurance markets.

I will have the same level of input as all of you; the only thing I will be doing that y'all won't is the actual typing up of the proposal. Once we have something we can elect delegations from each state to present it you our elected representatives.

So .... who wants to take the first swing at it? I have created a shared document that anyone can edit here, so have at it, folks. All I ask is that you include your name so that a) we know who proposed what, and b) we can (assuming we get this done) publicly thank people for their efforts.

I gotta lie down.

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