Recently, when Barack Obama was pushing the challenging but - he thinks - do-able task of re-arranging massive aspects of the entire health care industry in America, he invoked the Apollo 11 space mission to use as a comparative rallying point.
Uhhhh... try again.
To think that the Apollo 11 mission and ObamaCare are comparable in the least, is a joke. Analogy = FAIL.
The reasons are simple.
Yes, it took Uncle Sam's wallet to fund NASA and the people in charge of putting us on the moon. Yes, it took JFK's stated mission to land on the moon as a generational challenge to official put us on the clock. Yes, it also took Russians working hard in their own backyard on the thing to prompt us along.
But after all that, it took a room full of extremely smart - likely, brilliant - scientists and mathemeticians to get Messers Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins up and back without a scratch.
The people who populate Congress are not that smart.
Not by a moon shot.
On a good day, our politicians are stupid, lazy, corrupt, and horny. Don't ask about all their other days. The men in charge of the Apollo 11 mission wake up smarter than 99% of us will ever be on our best day.
Plus, the moon landing was relatively simple compared to overhauling the most complex part of our trillion dollar economy. Moon landings are math. Health care is complicated choices, the vagaries of personal habits and genetics, and limited resources.
Lastly, whether or not Neil Armstrong came back to earth as a national hero, or a crispy burnt chicken nugget in a tin can, didn't matter personally to every working person in America. Sure, we'd have been sad. Very sad. But we'd press on. Like after the Challenger disaster.
The cost of botching Apollo 11 was relatively low. Would we be embarrassed as a nation? Maybe. Would we lose some good, good men? Maybe. But in all likelyhood, we'd have a line of even braver men volunteering for the next mission to the moon, because that's how we roll.
And we'd have figured it out.
Good luck on fixing our complex health care system if the Democrats succeed in breaking it totally. Is it perfect now? Hell no. Nobody said that. But government's ability to complete fuck something up, is beyond debate.
Rasmussen Reports said back in February that "voters strongly agree with the perspective that “No matter how bad things are, Congress can always find a way to make them worse.” Fifty-eight percent (58%) share that view, and only 26% disagree."
This was before the $787 StimuFail package, and the now hilarious dog-chasing-his-tail economic policy of "Cash for Clunkers."
So stop the moon landing thing. As an analogy, it blows up on the launch pad. Government didn't put us on the moon, scientists did. And we paid for it anyway.
Good points, Czabe. Perhaps a better analogy would be that of sending a band of crooks in to fix the medical industry. Oh wait, that's not an analogy, that's actually what's happening...
ReplyDeleteIf ONLY we had more scientists in congress. Too bad they do the smart thing and never run in the first place.
ReplyDeleteA republican who is giving science props? Bah, this from a person who rejects evolution, climate change and probably Newtons 3 Laws of Thermodynamics. Ilove it when your side embraces what it has riducled and belittled just to make a specious political point.
ReplyDeleteAsk most people who use Medicare or a VA Hospital if they like goverment run health care.If you can fix those small by comparison programs first, then tackle universal health care Mr.Obama.
ReplyDelete"A republican who is giving science props? Bah, this from a person who rejects evolution, climate change and probably Newtons 3 Laws of Thermodynamics."
ReplyDeleteFunny that Newton's 3 Laws of Thermodynamics is the only actual Law mentioned by our dimwitted friend. There's a reason the other 3 ain't, Excuse me, aren't a Law. Thermodynamics is the only one which can be proven and agreed upon by a MAJORITY of scientists.
Thanks, Czabe, for being a small voice in a business full of liberal gasbags.
That's $6 trillion economy Steve...
ReplyDelete[sigh]...and I thought this was a sports blog.
ReplyDelete"Thermodynamics is the only one which can be proven and agreed upon by a MAJORITY of scientists."
ReplyDeleteReally?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/01/19/eco.globalwarmingsurvey/index.html
97% isn't a majority? 64% of meteorologists even satisfies the definition of a "majority".
Please note how I supplied a reference.
If I could take more time, I could find something similar with respect to biologists and evolution. 150 years and biologists work with it everyday.
Yes, Exley, I also have noted that odd dichotomy among pundits, real and pretend (Steve is pretend, as mgoodrich70 succintly points out).
My favorite online reading is scienceblogs.com. Check it out and see what actual scientists have to say and Steve can get back to sports. : )
the flag is moving in the pis above.
ReplyDeletei thought there is no air movement on the moon ?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
"Exley said...'A republican who is giving science props? Bah, this from a person who rejects evolution, climate change and probably Newtons 3 Laws of Thermodynamics. Ilove it when your side embraces what it has riducled and belittled just to make a specious political point.'"
ReplyDeleteYes, you're right Exley, only people who vote Democrat are allowed to give props to science...and if someone rejets man-made climate change (which Czabe mentioned nowhere in this post) they have to reject NASA as well. LOGIC FAIL.
Anyway, great post Czabe, I actually appreciate the times you blog about non-sports topics just the same. And to all those who complain: YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ IT!
-Bill D.
Life IS sports - keep up the continual commentary Czabe -
ReplyDelete"On a good day, our politicians are stupid, corrupt, lazy, and horny." - yes, Czabe that is probably very true.
ReplyDeleteBut politicians do not ever actually write the laws that we have. No senator or congressman fires up Word and starts writing a Bill. (Just like no senator or congressman sits down with a #2 pencil, scratch paper, calculator and Excel and tries to balance the budget, thankfully!)
The people that are actually writing and dealing with the nuances of this and other legislation are actually well trained economists, health care professionals, sociologists, etc.... They are actually professionals that know what they are talking about. By all accounts, that doesn't mean we have to agree with it, it just means that usually a team of very competent people put something together that might/might not work. This analogy is actually decent. I am a professional scientist, and took no offense to this.