it's true that all politics is local and it's true that budgets are moral documents. at the very least they are not moral-neutral. the message of matthew 25:40 is potent. we put our money into what we care about, whether a health care system inclusive of as many people as possible or a rock of crack. money, symbolic as it is, has an enormous weight and the uses we put it to give an outward sign where our values lie. that we've opted, as a nation, to put its weight behind a law that expands health care coverage and thus opens the arms of health wider rather than closing them to embrace only a few, says good, honorable things of us.
how do we pay for it? we pay for it. that's all, we pay for it. we always find a way to pay for police and fire protection, for military weapons and protective armor, for street and roadwork and government administration, expensive and sometimes galling as they can be to pay for. it is necessary to put off things we want in favor of things we need. we see the results of not doing that in congregations and churches and temples all the time: a short-sightedness that demands we hold tight to the resource we have because to let some of it go is to have less. I love good beer and am willing to pay top dollar for it, but between buying a good beer and paying a higher tax so a neighbor's kid can go to school for free, I'll opt for the latter every time: that decision will last much, much longer, and more importantly it's the right thing to do. put simply, taking an action that helps someone is always the right thing to do. contra advertising, we haven't done anything to deserve putting ourselves above others. it's in taking care of other people--our children, our friends, our neighbors, but just as importantly strangers and folks we'll never meet--that we experience our greatest fulfillment of who we are.
the arguments against expanding healthcare to the poorer among us, the less deserving, the junkies and slackers and self-destructive, are at their best selfish ones, based on the premise that health or our care is economic. that there is only a finite amount available, and anything you take from the supply means there is less for me and mine. that simply isn't the case, but even if it were, other people are worth it. to say they are not is to deny the essential specialness of existence. the best of religions and beliefs are based on this inclusiveness: I have found peace by this way and I want you to experience that peace too. the fight against that inclusiveness is simply trading "no" for "yes." god, reality, existence are not "no."
I like what you are saying here, I think part of the issue is that ultimately the insurance companies that are supposedly the problem actually stand to make more money on this legislation. People are required to have coverage-Who is going to do the covering? You are right, where is our treasure? Follow the money. Cheers!
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