If Republicans ran the water system

What if the Republican Party/Tea Party folks were in charge of the water system in your town?

You might be lucky enough to work for an employer that provides clean water as a benefit. Of course, you would have given up pay increases and other benefits over the years in order to hang on to that precious water. And, when you lose your job you lose your source of clean water and have to go out on the open market to get it somewhere else. If you've ever actually drank the water in the past, you will be charged astronomical rates, if you can find a provider at all. Most water providers will charge at least twice as much as as the employer sponsored program, but hey, you should have thought of that before you lost your job.

If your employer does not provide you with clean water, or you are unemployed, you have to find water where you can. If you have a source of income and own land, you might be able to dig a well on your property and treat the water yourself. If not, you will have to get it from your nearest stream or river and treat it yourself by putting a few drops of bleach into every bottle you dip out of the stream. Of course, if someone sells you a bottle of bleach that turns out to be some other random chemical, or just plain water, you have no recourse against your supplier regardless of how sick you got from drinking untreated water, because our friends the Republicans have enacted tort reform that prevents you from suing for more than the cost of the bottle of bleach.

If you are just desperately poor, with no land, no bottle to dip into the stream, then you have to line up at the County fairgrounds once a month for the free water handouts sponsored by the local charitable groups. And when they run out, they run out, and you'll have to get in line earlier the next time.

Under this system, people get sick and die because of tainted water. Sometimes people who have sources of clean water get sick anyway because they come in contact with the great, ahem, unwashed.

Of course, the very wealthy don't see any problems with this system. They can afford to dig deep wells and buy fancy reverse osmosis treatment systems to provide a lasting source of clean, fresh water. "What's the problem?" they ask.

The progressives, however, say hey, what a screwed up system! Wouldn't it be better if we all shared in the basic cost of a water treatment plant, provide clean water to everyone at a lower overall cost, and increase the overall level of public health?

In essence, this is the health care debate. The basic problem is that Republicans and their Tea Party friends find no problem with the current system. They have their clean water/health care, and it's the finest in the world. What is the problem? Why should they invest in a system that will provide clean water/Health Care to all, if that is their basic belief?

Bottom line: it is hard to get someone invest money into fixing a problem that they believe doesn't exist.