Health scare tactics
james g. keegan jr.
A GOP blizzard of untrue statements
By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
I'm hoping, for your sake, that you didn't spend your Saturday night as
I did: watching the House debate health-care reform on C-SPAN.
Pathetic, I know. The outcome wasn't in doubt, and the arguments were as
familiar as an old pair of slippers. Moral imperative! Government
takeover! Long-overdue protections! Crippling mandates!
I'm not a huge fan of the House measure, but I was glad to see it
straggle across the finish line, if only to keep the process going. And,
by the end of the long debate, I was cheering for it even more because
of the appalling amount of misinformation being peddled by its opponents.
I don't mean the usual hyperbole about "a children-bankrupting,
health-care-rationing, freedom-crushing, $1 trillion government takeover
of our health-care system," as Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling put it.
Or the tired canards about taxpayer-funded abortion or insurance
subsidies for illegal immigrants.
Or the extraneous claims about alleged Democratic excesses, as in this
from Georgia Republican Jack Kingston: "Let's remember the Pelosi plan
for jobs: an $800 billion stimulus plan that caused unemployment to go
from 8.5 percent to over 10 percent."
Caused? We can debate whether the stimulus was effective, although the
best evidence is that it prevented things from being even worse. No
rational person believes the stimulus "caused" unemployment to rise.
I mean the flood of sheer factual misstatements about the health-care
bill.
The falsehood-peddling began at the top, with Minority Leader John
Boehner:
"If you're a Medicare Advantage enrollee . . . the Congressional Budget
Office says that 80 percent of them are going to lose their Medicare
Advantage."
Not true. The CBO hasn't said anything of the sort. Boehner's office
acknowledges that he misspoke: He meant to cite a study from the
Medicare actuary estimating that projected enrollment would be down by
64 percent -- if the cuts took effect. Choosing not to enroll in
Medicare Advantage is different from "losing" it.
But Boehner wasn't alone.
Kentucky Republican Brett Guthrie: "The bill raises taxes for just about
everyone."
Not true. The bill imposes a surtax on the top 0.3 percent of
households, individuals making more than $500,000 a year and couples
making more than $1 million.
Georgia Republican Tom Price: "This bill, on Page 733, empowers the
Washington bureaucracy to deny lifesaving patient care if it costs too
much."
Not true. The bill sets up a Center for Comparative Effectiveness
Research "in order to identify the manner in which diseases, disorders,
and other health conditions can most effectively and appropriately be
prevented, diagnosed, treated, and managed clinically."
Are Republicans against figuring out what works? There's nothing in
there about cost, and certainly nothing about denying "lifesaving
patient care."
Price, again: "This bill, on Page 94, will make it illegal for any
American to obtain health care not approved by Washington."
Not true. The vast majority of Americans get their insurance through
their employers. The bill envisions setting minimum federal standards
for such insurance, in part to determine who is eligible to buy coverage
through the newly created insurance exchanges. This is hardly tantamount
to making it "illegal" to obtain "health care" without Washington's
approval.
Michigan Republican Dave Camp: "Americans could face five years in jail
if they don't comply with the bill's demands to buy approved health
insurance."
Not true. The bill requires people to obtain insurance or, with some
hardship exceptions, pay a fine. No one is being jailed for being
uninsured. People who intentionally evade paying the fine could, in
theory, be prosecuted -- just like others who cheat on their taxes.
California Republican Buck McKeon: "I offered two amendments to try to
improve this bill -- one to require members of Congress to enroll in the
public option like we're going to require all of you to do."
Not true. No one is required to enroll in the public option. In fact,
most people won't even be eligible to enroll in the public option or
other plans available through the exchanges.
Florida Republican Ginny Brown-Waite: "The president's own economic
advisers have said that this bill will kill 5.5 million jobs."
Not true. Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers,
has estimated that the bill would increase economic growth and add jobs.
Republicans misuse Romer's previous economic research on the impact of
tax increases to produce the phony 5.5 million number.
You have to wonder: Are the Republican arguments against the bill so
weak that they have to resort to these misrepresentations and
distortions?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111
013406_pf.html
W.T.S.
news:jgkeegan-4383CF...@news.individual.net...
But, does the American Public deserve the benefits of health insurance
coverage if they're dumb enough to fall for the lying bull shit the
Republicans and their "owners" in the private insurance business and other
special interests? Probably not. Let evolution do it's job and kill off
those too stupid to support universal care, vaccinations, prevention, and a
host of other measures the Republicans have stopped, with the help of the
public. If they want to keep electing Republicans, screw them! I have my
coverage, let them work like dogs to get their coverage and pay the ever
rising premiums.
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