Tag: Health Care

Frum: Seniors Are Already in Public Plan – Medicare – Govt ‘Could Kill Them All Now If It Wanted to’

Jon Ponder

A poll last week about who believes what lies about health-insurance reform proved to be a damning indictment of Fox News and of the insurance lobby’s use of the Republican Party’s propaganda machine to disinform the public about reforms.

“The thing that is so wacky about this debate is that it is already true that virtually everybody over 65 is enrolled in a public plan. The government could kill them all now if it wanted to.”
– David Frum

The NBC poll found that a whopping 75 percent of Fox viewers, versus 45 percent of the population overall, believe that Democratic reforms include provisions that would require senior citizens to be evaluated for euthanasia by “death panels.”

This lie, which was first floated by health-industry lobbyist Betsy McCaughey and Facebook blogger Sarah Palin and has been heavily promoted on Fox, has been disproved by non-partisan evaulators like Factcheck.org. And yet, like the good soldiers that they are, Republican pols and pundits have fallen in line to promote this disinformation to their followers.

The latest is Sen. John McCain (R-Maverick), who flushed away what was left of his credibility in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” yesterday:

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GOP Ex-Leader Tom DeLay Declares Support for Killing Medicare

Jon Ponder

Republican leaders are sending signals that their real target in killing health-insurance reform is privatizing Medicare, and thus killing it, too.

Just this week, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) described Medicare on “Meet the Press” as “tyranny.” Tonight, on MSBNC’s “Hardball,” another former House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, R-Texas, agreed with Armey, saying Medicare must go:

TOM DELAY: I want Medicare to be privatized. It shouldn’t be a government program. It’s the thing that is driving up costs. Not [the need] to have a public option. It’s Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP — the government-run programs — that are running up costs. That’s where the reform ought to be.

There are 44 million million seniors on Medicare right now. Killing the program by privatizing it would bankrupt tens of millions of them and cause self-imposed rationing by millions more who would find themselves choosing between food and medicine or paying the rent and seeking treatment.

That is the Republicans’ Dickensian vision for health-insurance “reform.”

White House Offers Reality Check

Trish

As the Quote du Jour and Jon’s post about Palin exploiting her children to distort Democratic health care reform point out, there is a lot of misinformation making the rounds on the topic. Enter the White House, which has launched a new site to set things straight. Health Insurance Reform Reality Check dispels such rumors as the death panel euthanasia horror, the end of veteran’s benefits, and my favorite, the idea that relieving small employers from the burden of insuring their employees will put them out of business.

Anticipating the reading level of people who fall for such bunk to begin with, most of the information is provided in video format. Check it out.

Truly Evil: Palin Exploits Down Syndrome Son in Health-Care Reform Debate

Jon Ponder

From the moment she signed on as the Republican vice-presidential nominee last year, Sarah Palin has made a habit of using her children as political props but then denouncing the media for reporting on it when she thrusts her kids into the spotlight.

Palin’s exploitation of her children took a nasty turn on Friday when she lied on her Facebook page about a provision in the reform proposals that would pay for consultations on end-of-life options:

“And who will suffer the most when they ration care?” Palin asks. “The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”

If any part of what she wrote were true, it would be evil. But what is truly evil is a politician who is so corrupt and degenerate that she would use her handicapped child as a prop to illustrate a lie.

DNC Ad Goes After GOP’s Astroturf Tea-Bagger Anti-Reform Flash Mobs

Jon Ponder

The Democratic National Party has released a web ad that unmasks this summer’s Republicans astroturf campaign of deploying tea-baggers to disrupt health-care town halls and other events. The ad exposes the fact that the people shown in cell-phone videos of the disruptions are not the angry constituents confronting their elected representatives they pretend to be, but rather are tea-baggers bussed into the districts to shut down discussion about reform.

While the current GOP campaign seems to be working so far — meaning the visuals from the videos are likely duping millions of low-info voters — the party’s record on astroturfing has had mixed results over the past decade.

From DU: Identities of Brooks Brothers “rioters” revealed

The GOP’s first astroturf action was the “Brooks Brothers riot” in 2000, when a handful of paid operatives were parachuted into Miami to as part of its campaign to shut down the Bush v. Gore recounts. (There’s a list of the operatives and who they worked for here.)

At the time, the hapless mainstream media portrayed the “riot” as if it were a legitimate outburst of outrage by concerned Floridians. It was just one in a series of successful tactics that helped the GOP abscond with the presidency in 2000, with disastrous results for the country and the world over the ensuing eight years.

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Olbermann Names Reform-Killers in Both Parties Who Are Prostituting Themselves for the Medical Lobbies

Jon Ponder

In his Special Comment on MSNBC’s “Countdown” last night, Keith Olbermann called out prominent members of Congress who are working to kill health-care reform, accusing them of prostituting themselves to the health industry lobbies.

“We know what you are, sir, we’re arguing about the price.”
— Olbermann addressing Sen. Thune (R-N.D.), who has been paid $1.2 million by medical lobbies to kill health care reform

In particular, he accused Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., of lying in his follow-up to the president’s weekly address last week when Thune said the Democrats’ reform proposals would produce ” … government run health care that would disrupt our current system and force millions of Americans who currently enjoy their employer-based coverage into a new health care plan run by government bureaucrats.” (The Republicans’ meme that government bureaucrats are worse than, say, Blue Cross or United bureaucrats never ceases to rankle.)

Sen. Thune — whose family benefits from a very nice health care plan run by government bureaucrats — has received $1.2 million in donations from medical lobbies, according to Olbermann.

Olbermann also called out Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.), who said on the House floor that in their reform proposals, Democrats were saying to America’s seniors: “Drop dead.” Rep. Brown-Waite has received $369,255 from the lobbies.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has received $3.1 million; Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ok., has taken $2.6 million; and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. has been paid $1.6 million to kill health care reform.

And then there’s Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Finance Committee who has done as much as anyone to kill the government option. He has taken in $2.6 million from various medical industry groups, according to Olbermann.

Others members of Congress cited by Olbermann as turning tricks for the medical lobbies include Rep. Bart Gordon, R-Tenn., ($1.17 million); Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., ($215,000); Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark.; Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C.; Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.; Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del.; and Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.

Transcript:

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Arizona’s Priorities are Different from Yours and Mine

Trish

A new Rasmussen poll provides the third reason you don’t want to live in Arizona. First, let’s review numbers one and two:

1. John McCain is your United States senator
2. Temperatures over 110 are common

And now, number three:

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Arizona voters say it is more important for Congress to pass immigration reform than health care reform…

Voters in the Grand Canyon State still highly regard Maricopa Country Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, known for his tough immigration enforcement. Fifty-seven percent (57%) say the sheriff’s policies have helped the state’s image, showing little change from May.

There you have it folks. Bottom line: if you want to live in Southwest, move to New Mexico where they have Bill Richardson, John Nichols, and Taos.