Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Great Debate

So everyone who knows me knows I'm for the health care bill. Maybe I've tried to pick a fight with you (and you've just ignored me), maybe I've sent you a youtube link of Anthony Weiner fencing on Fox, maybe you've heard me muttering under my breath every time I remember my state replaced Ted Kennedy with Scott Brown.

And if you know me, you also know I LOVE a well-informed debate: not screaming or crying, not hyperbole or violence, not conjecture, but using actual referenced facts to support a reasoned argument. I noticed there hasn't been a whole lot of that going around with respect to the health care debate.

So here's what I want to do: I've downloaded the entire bill that President Obama signed, and I posted it here: HR 3590. I'm going to read it, 20 to 50 pages at a time, and open a debate, section by section, on the bill, er, law, itself. I'd love some participation, especially if you're a fiscal conservative or full-blown Republican.
Some rules:
1. Postings must pertain to the section of the day. No skipping ahead and arguing about death panels when we're debating the table of contents.
2. All claims must be cited from first-hand sources. Good posting = "the bill generates $52 billion in additional Social Security revenues, reflecting higher payroll tax receipts. (http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/113xx/doc11307/Reid_Letter_HR3590.pdf via rpc.senate.gov)" Bad posting = "Glenn Beck said Nancy Pelosi came out today and said that she thinks this is going to create all kinds of new entrepreneurial ideas."
3. Use of your own brain is acceptable: "I don't think it's the U.S. Government's responsibility to tell insurance companies they can't withdraw coverage once it has been started."
4. I'm the final say in what gets posted and what gets deleted. I promise I will do my best to delete posts that don't follow the rules, but I will try to keep and reply to posts I disagree with.

That's it. Ready... go!

1 comment:

benthebutt said...

"Glenn Beck said Nancy Pelosi came out today and said that she thinks this is going to create all kinds of new entrepreneurial ideas."

jk, i'll do a real comment soon; promise!