If you're an MD what's so special about the GOP?

A guest post by Teanek SheNishba

Thanks to my wife’s profession, I have had the privilege of spending the past six years living among medical doctors and residents. While the shabbos conversations during med school evolved from human dissection (first year of medical school) to the Boards (second year), to choosing a specific field (third and part of fourth years of medical school), for the most part the conversations during residency have remained status quo: whining that doctors no longer make any money, that the concept of universal healthcare is a universal evil and that anyone who doesn’t vote Republican is an idiot, anti-Zionist and not a fumma yid.

The main arguments I've heard are as follows:

· Republicans are Better for Israel: I’m sorry; did President Clinton push Israel and the P.A. to allow Hamas to participate in the Palestinian elections? Did Clinton call for the creation of a Palestinian state? I’m lost on this one.

· Obama is a Muslim: I refuse to address this issue.

· Tax Cuts Help Us (i.e Doctors): According to a January 8, 2008 New York Times article “Families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts, according to a new Congressional study.” Although I do believe my neighbors are extremely bright, I highly doubt any of them will become the head of neurology at Mt. Sinai. The $1 million a year salary is most probably beyond their grasp. Why they favor the uber-rich not carrying their burden is something I fail to grasp and they fail to explain.

· Universal Healthcare is Evil: Yes, let the poor people of this nation die! Better I should be able to go on vacation to Switzerland than a kid whose father lost his health insurance when his job relocated to India be able to have a liver transplant. Don’t you know what Universal Healthcare would do to our country? It will turn us into… (gasp) Canada! Considering that Canadians have an average life expectancy of 80.34 while Americans (with our superior healthcare system) have an average life expectancy of 78.06 maybe this would be a good thing (stats from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy)

· Republicans are Better for the Economy: Bush inherited from Clinton a fiscal surplus of $127 billion. In his first year he turned that into a deficit of $158 billion. ‘Nough said.

I am in favor of doctors making as much money as they can. I honestly hope my wife becomes the most successful doctor the world has ever seen. I am just having trouble understanding any of their pro-GOP arguments. All you medical D.B. readers out there, please post comments and enlighten me.