It’s too hard! It’s too hard!

Healthcare reform is rife with difficult problems. But not impossible problems.

While many politicians and media types are running about throwing dirt in the air screaming, “It’s too complicated! It’s too difficult!” the New York Times yesterday described what’s in the bills currently being considered in congress and I actually understood them.

Of course, those trying to scare off healthcare reform are very good at fear and confusion.

One of the stock fears is that rickety old meme: we must never raise taxes (another subject) because, despite extraordinary examples to the contrary, the government always does things badly while the private sector does them much better.

I’m a preacher’s kid. I spent half my life hiding out in the non-profit world: my father worked there and I started out there. Until I got my first secular job, I projected all sorts of wisdom and effectiveness onto corporate people. (Of course, when you spend half your life in deadly dull church committee meetings, it’s easy to think that someone, somewhere must be more effective than this.)

It didn’t take long after my emergence from the cloister to have my faith in the effectiveness of the corporate world utterly eradicated. I was stunned by the self-destructive instincts of the first big company I worked for. The way they splashed around money and wasted time and creative energy was appalling.

Watching the recent meltdown of supposedly smart companies, I find the belief that the private sector is always the right answer laughable.

Plus, it seems to me one of government’s unique advantages is its ability to occasionally make choices that benefit those lest able to benefit themselves.

Corporations, no matter how many melodic commercials they roll out on public television, are by their very nature inhuman. They’re built to make money and protect themselves. I don’t blame them for that. That’s why they were created. It’s takes real dedication for them to care about you and me when that's unprofitable.

So healthcare reform is hard because it's complex and it threatens moneymaking businesses — and we all depend on moneymaking businesses. But it’s not impossible.