After "Death": Teresa Sue And Howard

I was gonna take a break. You see, a little piece of me died when I wrote this post.

But then, a Pediatrician made the N&R's front (online) page. Of course, it wasn't local "health care hero" Dr. Mary Johnson . . . despite five years of riding John Robinson's "citizen journalism" train.

It's Teresa Sue Bratton - running against Howard Coble for North Carolina's 6th district Congressional seat. And she made the front page because she's spewing all the predictable Democratic drivel you'd expect her too - and the News & Record is positively swooning:

Teresa Sue Bratton seems to savor questions, sloshing them about like a connoisseur swirling wine in her glass before pouring out an answer.

Who writes this stuff? Oh. Mark Binker.

And who takes the pictures? Because Howard looks like death on a stick.

After the swirl we get the whine. Bratten tells us she would have voted "Yea" on the first "Bailout bill". Well yeah, duh. Pelosi, Franks & company will seize any chance to throw more good money after bad - then blame the mess on the other party.

It's not flying this time, Dr. Bratton.

A Pediatrician, Bratton particularly takes issue with a vote Coble cast against a bill that would have expanded federal support to state-run health insurance programs for children . . . Coble said at the time of the vote that the program would have been expanded too much and would have created a new health care bureaucracy.

I've come to understand that during one's stint at university (getting that liberal arts education that will open all the doors - unless you hail from Asheboro) . . . and afterwards - if one stays remotely attached to academia (as Dr. Bratton is) . . . especially if one lives and practices in a state run by Mike Sleazely & company . . . one's politics tend to gravitate to the left of center.

But in the real world - after one gets bashed and battered around by the government-sponsored monopolies of medicine - and the politics of entitlement, one will wake up one day and suddenly find one's self sitting on the conservative side of the aisle. In my own case, I am slowly turning into my Father.

Sometimes it frightens even me.

When it comes to SCHIP, Howard was right. And Dr. Bratton (darling of all the state physician advocacy organizations) was wrong. From the Housecalls post on the "Death of Pediatrics":

If I had not already resigned from the NC Pediatric Society, I would risk excommunication for saying this: Expanding SCHIP (i.e. the State Children's Health Insurance Program) is NOT about "improving access" to care. It is about how the Pediatricians will get paid for providing that care - and increasing their incomes. It's about pumping up the volume of entitled children to make up for the slicing and dicing that has made making a decent living as a Pediatrician so hard . . . (I wish I were clever enough to make the point with beer.) . . . You see we as a society "value" the people who take care of our children so much that we've cut their reimbursement (from insurance companies and the government) to the bone. And that's been done despite that fact that so many people are having children they cannot afford to raise - and these people think medical care should (1) be perfect (and if it's not they'll sue), and (2) be free.

It's all about money. And power - i.e. buying the votes of people with their hands out. The trouble is, sooner or later, just like the housing bubble (when folks with their hands out got loans they had notasnowballschanceinhell of paying back), the healthcare bubble will pop. There will be no more money to cover the bills.

At some point there will be more people with their hands out than people funding the Treasury.

Bratton also drinks the Dems' Koolaid on Iraq - that Congress must force the President's hand and bring the troops home - and it must happen NOW. Well, that makes perfect sense. Let's let the enemy know our strategy - that won't put anyone at risk. Oh, and let's drop everything - let's just tuck and run - and leave a country/people we ruined to ruin (bygones).

And when I say, "we" I mean "WE" . . . Democrats and Republicans and Independents and Libertarians/Socialists/Communists/whatever . . . President and Congress and ordinary citizens set on a roller-coaster of fear on what should have been an ordinary, gorgeous September morning seven years ago.

You see, despite the Obamamaniacs best efforts, my memory is not so selective.

I forget where I read this, but it made an impression when I did: "America is not at war, America is at the mall."

Dr. Teresa Sue Bratton is at the mall. And she wants to spend more money. Because it's all for the kids. The problem with that theory is this . . .

. . . from the "war on terror" to our current economic mess, "the kids" will ultimately pay the bills that kill.

Now let's be clear. I don't like supporting Howard Coble. I think he's a bloated dinosaur and a "good-ole-boy" cut from the oldest of good-ole-boy cloth. Like Jabba The Hut, he's just too comfortable in the chair . . . and too cozy with many of the usual suspects. Moreover, despite his reputation for sticking his neck out for his constituents (which the N&R never fails to cite), Howard did not do anything near what he could have done in the Federal realm to help this home-grown Pediatrician in her battle against the unrepentant, unpunished liars and cheat running our local "non-profit" hospital.

You see, Howard thinks that "whistle-blower protection" actually exists.

On the other hand, as this Pediatrician sees it, Howard is the lesser of evils in the bigger picture.

Besides, this "health-care hero" burned and scorned has other options which she is now resolved to actively pursue.

The game is beyond old.