Michael Moore "I'm afraid a lot of young people have become cynical already..."

Yesterday Michael Moore appeared on the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to talk about how we're kind of getting shafted on the health care "compromise" that no republicans will vote for anyway. Among other things he talked about the extent to which the political environment is different because the last time we attempted health care reform an entire generation of kids are now of voting age.

He also specifically pointed out that young people are the ones who are most affected both by HCR but also by the sad and tragic fact that our government isn't doing what we worked so hard to elect them to do.

Begins at about the 9:45 mark in the video below

Talking about Hillary Clinton's attempts at HCR in the 90's:
Moore: "That was like 16 years ago! Sixteen years ago!"

Blitzer: "Well, they're still living that lesson..."

Moore: "Well speaking of living, a lot of people who were involved at that time are no longer with us. You know what happened in that time? A generation of young people have become adults. And they're the force that got Obama elected. You were there in Iowa. It was the young people that were out there pounding on those doors . . "

Blitzer: "You're saying they're gonna sit on their hands this time?"

Moore: "I'm afraid a lot of young people have seen and they've become cynical already and they're not gonna vote."

I really hope this isn't true, because my fear is that it will perpetuate the stereotype that young people don't vote and don't care. It isn't that we don't care, its that we got everyone elected and then most of them screwed us with our pants on. It teaches us the lesson of - why should we participate in a system that continues to ignore us, even when we're promised that we matter.

Other interesting comments in this video are that the insurance companies won't care about paying for pre-existing conditions because they're only being fined $100 a day. Moore says that when it comes down to paying for a $100,000 treatment or surgery that might save your life - or just paying $100 fine when you'll be dead in three months ... they'll opt for the fine.

He also says that when the GOP took over during the Clinton Administration that at the very least the White House had the guys to shut the federal government down by calling the GOP's bluff. He suggests that the Senate let the GOP filibuster all they want and publicly shut down progress and let the American people watch it. I think it'd be nice to see the White House and the Senate develop a little bit of that chutzpah that Moore suggests. The philosophy on The Hill should be "bring it on." We want to keep this majority, I say lets fight for it.