The GOP’s Last Chance To Spread Fear and Distort Truth on Health Care Reform
Mar 17th, 2010 | 13 responses
Republicans in Congress have just a few more days to kill health care reform, and boy are they putting that time to good use. Tea Party activists who came to D.C. on Tuesday to demonstrate at the Capitol were greeted by Rep. Steve King of Iowa, and Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas:
Reps. Steve King (R-IA) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX) addressed the crowd to warn about perceived tyranny and to distort the contents of the bill. King claimed it’s a “fact” that the bill “does fund abortion” and “does fund illegals.” Gohmert elicited cheers from the crowd when he made a graphic and disturbing claim about the bill:
GOHMERT: I brought the bill that’s being talking about. Now I don’t want to offend anybody, I’m sure that there are people here who think abortion is okay, and I don’t want to make you sick, but I brought an abortion to show you today. [...]
There’s a whole lot of demons going on. There’s a lot of demons around here apparently.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minnesota) was also present; she told the crowd of activists that her favorite sign in the rally was the one that said, “Grandma isn’t shovel-ready.” It’s perhaps not surprising that Tea Partiers still believe the health care reform legislation includes “death panels” to pull the plug on seniors — I guess Bachmann figured it couldn’t hurt to reinforce and underscore the lie.
13 Responses to “The GOP’s Last Chance To Spread Fear and Distort Truth on Health Care Reform”
So the opponents are the only ones spreading lies, eh? I took a quick read of your first link to ThinkProgress and saw this: Moreover, pro-life organizations like the Catholic Hospitals Association have endorsed the bill,
which conflicts with the news that I just saw yesterday that they opposed the plan. So where's the conflict? ThinkProgress was linking to an article from last year. Regardless of what you think about the Catholic stance on this, it's also deception.
I don't endorse what the politicians did yesterday, because it's BS that distracts from the real reasons to oppose this legislation, but people should be opposed to all BS, regardless of who is throwing it.
Fear and distortion by liberals only backfires among the intelligent.
The Dems are soooooooooo desperate right now.
As far as the “death panels” concern, you have been told before that we've had the equivalent of these since the 1960s, we have seen the formative threat of something similar included in last year's stimulus legislation, and normal people lifted their eyebrows at the VA end-of-life episode some months ago, and as with other things, the liberal dishonest and irrational reaction to concern about government misconduct is the real story.
Actually CHA still backs the bill, Prof- but they're dissenting from the main 'Catholic stance' on the Senate bill which is represented by the USCCB (the bishop's conference.)
The cynic in me would say that CHA's stance is motivated at least in part by their own financial interest, although a more charitable interpretation is that they are weighing social justice against the abortion issue, and rationalizing that the Senate bill could be addressing the abortion issue in a way that's 'good enough' to prevent public funding of abortion.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the problem we knew would get worse is happening, as even the Democratic Party's flagship reports:
With Medicaid Cuts, Doctors and Patients Drop Out
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/health/policy…
Thanks for the correction.
Which seems consistent with the problem of paying primary care doctors much less than the specialists. The RBRVS needs to be revised without the AMA's influence.
“paying primary care doctors much less than the specialists”
Of course, some specialists are also upset. Cardiologists have sued Sibelius to stop the cuts they face.
Going away from process-orientation is one likely reform, if anyone ever reforms things someday. As to the use of high-tech goodies, imaging centers (a lucrative operation), etc., I wouldn't be surprised if these were made public infrastructure someday, with or without Medicare-Medicaid health care for everyone.
My dear Kathy, I beg to differ with you. If health care is defeated, it will be Democratic votes that kill it. –Jer
The whole tea party is based on fear and lies…Starting with deficits increased only from Jan 20, 2009.
Brad,
Nobody says deficits started on Jan 20, 2009. Some people might suggest that the Obama administration, assuming it has two terms is currently projecting to run up 2/3rd as much debt in those 8 years as was run up in the entirety of the history of the country. Some people find that objectionable but perhaps you do not. Some people might even find it a cause for fear….
This is why the right wing lost me over the past couple of years: they continue to allow idiots to speak nonsense. Palin, Bachmann, and these “lets show you an abortion” clods are an embarrassment.
There is plenty not to like about this health care bill, plenty based on facts. The $$ themselves don't add up, even when you include the baseless suppositions on the cost savings. But the GOP and Teabaggers keep barking up nonsense.
They just sound more and more foolish IMO.
“Some people might even find it a cause for fear….”
Debt trap or inflation (or default) — remote, years away, but it makes me wonder again just what Geithner, Summers, and the like (and Obama?) said to and were told by the Chinese (our creditors).
As soon as we can, we need to shift to austerity, not merely curb excesses, to prepare for 2020 onward.
However, i suspect Blue Nation is going to be as upset as many Europeans are at the need for discipline.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/world/europe/…
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