We Give Up.

To show you how disgustingly false the Republican opposition is to health care reform is, I bring you this brilliant piece by Daily Kos diarist Stroszek:

Dear Republicans,

Over the past week, we have seen your passionate protests and heard your concerns about Democratic proposals for health care reform. We have considered your insightful and well reasoned arguments, and on behalf of progressives everywhere, I am here to say: OK! We give up! We are willing to compromise on the proposals that concern you. You’ve won! Yay!

In accordance with your cogent and potent criticisms, these are the terms of our concession:

1. We will not euthanize your grandmother. This is the big one, and I really hope you guys appreciate how much of a concession this is on behalf of the progressive movement. Since the days of the Bull Moose Party, progressives have wanted nothing more than to slaughter old people by the millions. That much is obvious. After all, if we wanted senior citizens to have long and healthy lives, why would we have created Social Security and Medicare? Think about it. Death to grannies has long been the core of progressive policy, so it’s not without some consternation that we give it up. So there: no euthanizing old people. You’ve got it.

2. Rahm Emanuel’s brother will not kill Sarah Palin’s baby. While this will require us to gut HR 3200 “America’s Health Choices and Murder Sarah Palin’s Baby Act of 2009,” we’re currently working with Henry Waxman to remove the extensive Sarah Palin’s baby-killing provisions from the final bill. While this will probably cost us Andrew Sullivan’s support, we recognize that this is a necessary sacrifice for securing broad bipartisan support of health care reform.

3. The government will not nationalize hospitals and other health service providers. This is another big one. Though the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has correctly pointed out that current Democratic proposals involve adopting the British health care system, we now recognize that this is not politically viable. The final bill, accordingly, will not involve the nationalization of hospitals and other health service providers. This will be a major setback to Obama’s well known communist agenda, but again, we progressives agree with the Blue Dogs that we need to reach a broad national consensus by responding to Republican concerns.

[…]

5. We will not subsidize abortions with your hard-earned tax dollars. Despite the fact that both FactCheck.org and Politifact insist that we already made this concession months ago, we’re going to make extra-special-super sure that we did. Just give me a second… … … … … yep, we did. [Not that this will stop Anderson and his anti-choice freaks from proclaiming that any health care reform will still subsidize abortion]. […]

8. Private health insurance will not be eliminated. Though, as Drudge recently pointed out with a damning YouTube video, the long-stated Republican goal of moving away from employer-based coverage somehow means “eliminating private insurance” when Obama talks about the same thing, we’ve decided to preserve private insurance plans for those who want them. However, we have yet to convince ultra-socialist Charles Krauthammer to drop his communist crusade against employer-based (i.e., according to Drudge, “all private”) coverage.

9. You will not be issued a “National Health Insurance ID.” While we thought this was a fun idea, the final version of the health care reform bill will not require you to have any kind of ID when you’re pulled over for drunk driving or found loitering outside of a military base. In fact, you are hereby encouraged not to carry any proof of insurance whatsoever. Trust me, it’s a terrible idea!

10. There will be no super-secret-awesome health care program for ACORN employees. Though we love our election-stealing squirrels, we have decided that they’ll have to settle for the same options as everyone else.