By Cady Stanton

I make the following modest proposal so that we might have an honest, sincere discussion in Washington over health care:  Before you, members of the House and the Senate, consider anything, repeal your own benefits.  It is indeed cliche to say it, but you must walk a mile in our shoes; you must understand what it’s like to buy an individual policy for a healthy individual, while the person with a history of diabetes is priced out of the market or denied altogether.  You must understand what it’s like to choose between your prescription and food for your family.  You must feel the sacrifice of a foregone medial appointment because you lack the funds to pay the doctor.

At the risk of going too far with the simile, you all are, right now, like King George.  Our tax dollars take good care of you while you prepare your sound bites and talking points that the rest of us are to accept as debate, with millions of us uninsured or without adequate insurance.  How can any of you even begin to engage in honest debate over a serious public issue when you are removed from its consequences?  Most of us “little people” see nothing but a partisan fight.  We see you all engaging in gamesmanship with our lives.

Do the right thing.  Take the moral stand.  Give up your generous benefits before you dare to speak to any of us, before you act on our behalves.