A Thing and Two

The sun sure did shine, and I wanted to play,
Still we sat and we sat on that beautiful day.

I sat there with Barbara, we sat there we two

We were waiting for Himes, our new congressman who

Was to talk to us doctors about a new bill

Being bandied about up on Capitol Hill.

We doctors grew restless, we bided our times,

Just who does he think that he is this Jim Himes!

We heard he’d been talking to town halls of late

He was dealing with folks spewing venom and hate.

Though he was a freshman, of little import

Fear mongers set out free discourse to abort.

I cut him a break as I sat and I waited

He just tried to listen and ended up hated.

A bit late and flustered he entered the hall

He looked like an intern who’d just come off call.

He said he was sorry, yes friends, fancy that

A humble young man, not no Cat in the Hat.

He was a bit slim with an oversized collar

He was poised, I believe he had been a Rhodes Scholar.

Retired real young, he said those were the facts.

He made all his millions at Goldman and Sachs.

Now some would not trust one so young and so wealthy

To keep us in health and to make health care healthy.

But me, I believe that a man who’s patrician

Is less apt to be a corrupt politician.

Our own Constitution was drafted you’ll note:

A Pres’dent gets in by Electoral vote.

So back to Jim Himes, what did he then do?

He pulled out of his tall hat Thing One and Thing Two.

No kidding, he said it. He said that Thing One

Was though smoking and drinking and eating were fun

They were bad for us one and thus bad for us all.

And in order to get healthcare spending to fall

It was up to us doctors to somehow arrange

To institute effective life style change.

Thing Two then chimed in with a screech and a shout

Saying docs, pretty soon all our money runs out.

If we don’t all spend less getting sick people cured
We’ll be unemployed and we’ll be uninsured.
Great Britain’s care’s cheaper, Canucks they pay less
It’s spending and costs got us into this mess.

I listened to Himes going on with offenses
And sat on the fence not yet come to my senses.
Did he think that changes in base human nature
Could come from a bill he and his legislature
Would magically cook up and somehow then pass?
Was he bold and enlightened or foolish and crass?

My friends, I’ve no knowledge of mirrors and smoke.
I’m a doctor and sometimes I tell a good joke.
But big steps, they scare me. Small steps they seem wiser
And if to Obama I was an advisor
I’d say be more cautious. Don’t go risking it all.
Take it small step by small step or you and we fall.