This is Historic Times » healthcare reform

Choose Your Poison

deephurting — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 04:50:17 +0000

Ronald Reagun

deephurting — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 02:29:01 +0000

I wanted to draw something that’d tie the current Universal Healthcare debate, as it applies to mental health, to the recent shooting in Tucson, which I addressed by itself in the previous cartoon.

Since one of the many terrible things Ronald Reagan did during his time in office was defunding psychiatric care programs and tossing the mentally ill out of sanitariums and into the street, I thought this might be an appropriate context in which to bring up his more easily remembered opposition of socialized medicine, so he is functioning here both as a symbol of the Republican Party in general, and as a literal representation of himself.

Similarly, Jared Loughner here represents both himself, and the United States in general.

Unfortunately, while the illustration is pretty nice, I don’t think this cartoon turned out too well, as the commentary in it is way too muddled, and I’m not even sure it clearly depicts a psychiatrist’s office.

Tortoise Wins by a Hair!

deephurting — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Here’s my cartoon on the historic healthcare reform vote which occurred a few days ago. This was among my more positive ideas for commentary on the subject.

Some readers may recognize the title as a reference to this classic Bob Clampett cartoon.

Also, I want to thank everybody who donated money to me recently, since I brought it up in the previous post. Pretty sure this means I’ll be able to pay my rent next month!

Patiently Waiting

deephurting — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:22:32 +0000

Inaction Comics

deephurting — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:39:04 +0000

If Y’Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

deephurting — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:32:15 +0000

As you may have heard, conservative talk-radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh was hospitalized on December 31st after experiencing chest pains. He was taken care of quickly and expertly, and naturally seized on the opportunity to declare that his situation was proof there is “not one thing wrong with the American healthcare system” and “it is working just fine.” Apparently, Limbaugh doesn’t understand the difference between himself–a millionaire who lives an opulent, oxycodone-fueled lifestyle when he’s not making fun of people with Parkinson’s disease–and America’s 47+ million uninsured.

I’m forced to come to one of two conclusions here–Limbaugh’s either extraordinarily stupid, or he’s generously offering to pay the hospital bills of those uninsured. In the spirit of Christmas, let’s assume the latter, and if you get sick or injure yourself and can’t afford the bill, send it to Rush! After all, I’m sure he’d rather pay it for you than be wr-wr-wrong!

By the way, I should mention that this cartoon was held up for at least a day by me knowing what I wanted to say with it, but not knowing how to frame it. I was certain I needed to have Limbaugh addressing somebody in the cartoon besides the audience, but I wasn’t sure whom.

Luckily, I got some unexpected help from Quentin Tarantino, or at least his movie, Inglourious Basterds. I figured research topics related to Conservative talk-radio broadcasters included Nazis, so I gave Basterds another watch, and the scene in which British Lt. Archie Hicox comments that Bridget von Hammersmark needs somebody around to light her cigarette inspired me to have Limbaugh making his comment to his doctor while the doctor is given the demeaning and counterintuitive task of lighting his cigar.

After that, the only issue that remained was how to fit everything I wanted in the space nicely, but again Tarantino came to the rescue–a shot in the scene immediately following the Mexican Standoff reminded me that I could just tilt the whole composition to dramatic effect, as I’ve sometimes done in the past.

So, if QT or anybody who knows him happens to be reading, I’d like to say thanks for the help!

Have a Chipper Christmas

deephurting — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:47:25 +0000

Back when I drew “Chain of Command,” quite a few people correctly observed that the cartoon was more kind to the Democrats than it should have been. Many Democrats in the federal government, if not most, seem to be complicit with their Republican counterparts in making whatever healthcare reform passes as meaningless and irrelevant as possible, reducing it to nothing more than another cash handout for the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries while ignoring those who need access to affordable healthcare the most.

The Democrats in Congress and the White House right now were put there to make healthcare reform happen, but instead of meeting their responsibilities, they’ve chosen to gut them, so as to keep from upsetting corporate donors and idiots who want them dead no matter what they do. This is political suicide, as the above cartoon depicts.

Donkey Kongress

deephurting — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:22:11 +0000

Knuckle-Dragging Neanderthals

deephurting — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:56:17 +0000

This cartoon refers to two separate topics–the first being the discovery of the oldest-known human ancestor. Nicknamed “Ardi,” the specimen dates back 4.4 million years, making her over a million years older than Lucy. Ardi was first discovered in 1994, but anthropologists announced her existence to the world last week.

The second topic is, again, healthcare reform and its opposition, especially those who oppose government-covered healthcare, even though the US is pretty much the only so-called “first world” nation that doesn’t have it. This puts us dead last in the developed world for healthcare availability, and yet some people are fighting passionately to retain our status in this area as a bunch of losers!

The title for the cartoon is taken from Representative Alan Grayson’s remark comparing the opposition in Congress to “knuckle-dragging neanderthals,”, though I recognize Ardi neither walked on her knuckles, according to scientists, nor was she a neanderthal.

Chain of Command

deephurting — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:36:19 +0000