Health Care & the Lost Art of Compromise

http://twitter.com/jsmooth995
http://twitter.com/harithecomic

I've been meaning to address the historic passage of the health care bill, but wasn't feeling fully qualified to break it down, so I got the noted health care expert and standup comic Hari Kondabolu to give his thoughts on Obama's health care plan, and what he thinks we could have done to fight harder for truly progressive reform.

You can see Hari live on Thursday night here in NY, when he headlines at Comix with another great comic, Baron Vaughn.

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captions by Radical Access Mapping Project
http://radicalaccessiblecommunities.wordpress.com/subtitled-videos/

HEALTHCARE!!!

So we finally got a healthcare plan.

Are you excited?

Kind of, right? Yeah.

It wasn't really the plan I was hoping for,

it's not an amazing progressive plan.

I really thought we would have universal healthcare,

but that was foolish!

Then I thought we would have a public option,

still overly optimistic,

because we started out with the public option.

In this country, when you start out with a reasonable proposal, it gets watered down,

and I was frustrated that we didn't
use my healthcare proposal,

cause I had a healthcare proposal ready to go

that nobody listened to,

maybe because I'm a comedian.

My healthcare proposal wasn't so much about a redistribution of wealth.

My healthcare proposal was about a redistribution of organs from rich to poor.

And you're thinking "oh, you mean after rich people die, we would take their organs from them."

Yes, friends, after rich people die,

and after we kill them,

like a bunch of scalpel-wielding
Robin Hoods in the night...

we would kill these rich people
and take their organs from them.

Cause there are a lot of poor people
who need those organs, friends,

for transplants,

and of course, for food.

And as we all know,
rich people's organs are a delicacy.

Ohhhhh yes, how we would force-feed these rich people organic grains

and get them all plump,

their organs all juicy, succulent,

and of course we'd have them walk around
their very large estates...

they'd be free range,

they'd be free range rich people.

And then very humanely
-because they're human beings!-

we would kill these rich people,

and take out their organs,

and we'd feast,

we'd eat a little meal I call justice.

And you're thinking "Hari, that is so unreasonable!"

Yes, friends!

And if we had started out with that proposal,

we'd have the public option by now.

That's all I'm saying!

We'd have the public option by now.

Yes, some of you think
it's an unreasonable proposal;

I think of it more as a modest proposal.