What is it with Patches?

As if there wasn't enough chaff in the wind about the Health Care issue, now we have US Representative Patrick Kennedy picking a fight with his Bishop.  Here is the take of Providence Journal.

It looks to me like the Bishop was saying to the Representative that if he was out of step with Roman Catholic teachings he might avoid giving scandal by not taking Communion.  Seems reasonable.

But, the real problem here is fixing our health care problem in the United States.  Frankly, the bill making its way through Congress doesn't look to be likely to survive in its current form.  And, in its current form it leaves millions not covered by health insurance.

Worse, the problem is lack of health care providers and especially lack of health care providers in certain parts of our nation, like inner cities and the great unpopulated expanses, along with the money to allow those in those areas to pay for that health care coverage.  I am seeing this problem pop up in the news from time to time, which is heartening, but it doesn't seem to be at the heart of the current efforts on Capitol Hill.  And, didn't the US Congress contribute to this problem by working to curtail the production of physicians some time back in the Carter Administration?

If I were a cynic I would say that the Democrats don't see their current efforts as solving the problem.  They just want to throw something up on the wall and then play with it year to year to get to where they think they are going.

In the mean time, we are going to distort the health care market by giving money to more people, to spend on a fixed amount of health care production.  And, in the process perhaps kill the goose that laid the medical golden egg, the American pharmaceutical and medical device industry.  And scare people like Margery Eagen, over at The Boston Herald.''

Whatever you do, don't read this Ann Althouse post on health care and health care reform.  The woman has become sarcastic and cruel toward the Democrats Big Government people in the US Congress.

Come on, be honest. Don't you want the federal government to have a complete overview of health care? The potential rationality is stunning. And one thing in this emerging rationality is clear: Although women tend to love the notion of government control more than men do, it is women who will be told they'll have to cut back. On treatments. And years. You know we've been taking more than our share.

Regards  —  Cliff

PS:  Hat tip to my friend Dollar Bill, over in Chelmsford, who got this started with a reference to a post by some 96.9 talk show person.