The Guilty Pleasure of You Know Who

Okay, I’ll admit to having a guilty pleasure: Sarah Palin. I tried to ignore her temptations and go on a Sarah free blog diet. Unfortunately, it’s so hard to pass her up when she’s making so many “If-she-had-a–brain-she’d-be-dangerous” comments.

Actually, she was never far from my mind, even when I was dieting. When the FDA last week announced plans to totally ban trans fats from food production, I couldn’t help wondering what the divine Mrs. P would say on the subject. I could just hear her ranting about government intrusion to our God-given right to stuff whatever artery-clogging fats we can into our bodies, and in turn clog the nation’s emergency rooms with preventable cardiac events.

More unfortunately, she has another book to sell. What a coincidence: I have a blog to write, and I was getting low on ideas.

Palin is touring the countryside now, hawking her newest book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas. I will refrain from saying where it is available for purchase because I don’t give a flying eff if you buy it or not. As we can surmise by the title, it’s another right-wing offensive against the alleged war on Christmas. 

 

Her appearance on The Today Show this week stands out as an already bizarre event on her new book tour.  Host Matt Lauer noted that the Tea Party was trying to repeal Obamacare. Palin responded with a boisterous, “Right On!” Lauer tried to extract more details about any plans the Tea Party has to replace the President’s health reform law, but to no avail. She launched into another series of obviously memorized sound bites about more competition, less tort reform threats, and “less trajectory of cost increases”. Huh? More competition where? In the health insurance marketplace or the healthcare sector itself? How does one seek out which healthcare professional will give you the better deal if, let’s just say, you’re suffering from a gunshot wound?

I can just picture this scene in an emergency room as the hapless victim shops around for a surgeon: “You can pull the bullet out for $750, but this guy across the hall says he’ll do it for $500, and he’s in my network. Now wait, is the anesthetist and radiologist you use participating with my carrier? I have some paperwork for you to fill out…oh, sorry, don’t mind the blood…”

RIGHT ON!

Given the chance to give concrete proposals, Palin blew it to appeal to her hard core, take no prisoners, don’t even think about compromise base. So three cheers for the status quo, where insurance companies can drop coverage for individuals when they become sick.

RIGHT ON!

Hooray for terminating young people from their parent’s policies because they’ve reached a certain age, yet the only jobs available to them are in the low wage service industry which won’t give them the opportunity to purchase their own policies.

RIGHT ON!

Let’s hear it for the soon to be outlawed practice of insurance companies refusing to pay benefits because the insured has a pre-existing condition. Actually, Palin should probably rethink her position on this aspect of the ACA, since her youngest has Down syndrome. He may require a lot of medical attention when he reaches adulthood. The pre-existing clause could deny him the ability to get these services.

With the ACA, President Obama has worked to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health care. Who could be against such an ideal that has been called the morally correct thing to do? This alone should be reason enough for the naysayers in the Tea Party to support this effort rooted in the Christian values of our country.

And Sarah Palin should know a thing or two about Christian values, because she wrote the book on the subject.

(Thank you for reading. And my Palin diet starts again…until the next time when she performs another act of public stupidity!)