There appears to be a simple two-pronged strategy for killing health care reform.
One of those prongs involves, of course, delaying reform until it’s too late. If it’s not passed by the end of the year, there won’t be the political balls to do so because of the fast approaching 2010 midterms when members of Congress will be much more focused on raising money (health care industry money) and pandering to voters.
Another reason for delaying health care reform is it gives the Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats plenty of extra time to inject their special cocktail of mind-bending crazy into the discourse and make it stick, furthering both the current delay while also eroding any voter impetus to pick up the issue again after the midterms. That’d be prong number two.
Not a single dose of the aforementioned “mind-bending crazy” actually holds up when run through even the most cursory fact-checking scrutiny, and, in every statement, the obstructionists trafficking in these lies further underscore their already obvious contradictions and ideological hypocrisy.
Regarding the latter, I can’t recall, for example, this degree of nipple-twisting from Republicans and Blue Dogs about spending and fiscal responsibility when the Bush administration was pitching a blank check invasion and occupation of Iraq on the heels of invading Afghanistan — all during a recession — while also passing a $1 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest one percent the year before.
Yet affordable, accessible health care for everyone is a bridge too far, right? (My blood pressure kicks up into the red zone whenever I hear Republicans today suggesting that they were against the Bush administration’s spending habits when, in fact, they supported each program individually. After all, opposing the commander-in-chief in wartime emboldened the enemy, no? Not any more apparently since we’re still at war and the heretofore “patriotic” far-right won’t even admit the president is an American citizen. Consistent of them.)
Back to the mind-bending crazy. I detailed some of these attacks last week, and my friend Michael J. Elston (Washington, DC radio’s “Buzz Burbank”) hit some of the arguments in his new Huffington Post blog as well. But who knew they would top themselves this week with an attack so simultaneously absurd and shameless that it easily fits comfortably in the Birther/Truther wackaloon syllabus.
This is of course the notion that the president’s health care reform plan includes a mandate to kill old people.
First, here’s Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-Cuckoo’s Nest) on the House floor:
It’ll make sure we bring down the cost of healthcare for all Americans, and that ensures affordable access for all Americans, and is pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.
And the de facto leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh:
Sean Hannity believes it. So does House Minority Leader John Boehner. Talk show host Fred Thompson calls it “the dirty little secret” of the health care reform debate.
Yes, if you believe what these cranks are selling, the Obama administration is engaged in an elaborate plot to rid the nation of its burdensome population of old people. All this fluff about a public option, all the debate about reducing costs and making health insurance more affordable is merely subterfuge in the White House’s scheme to impose a final solution to the nation’s obvious elderly problem.
Seriously, this is a legitimate argument being used in mainstream Republican circles right now. This is an idea being circulated by the same party that Max Baucus, Harry Reid, Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh and Mary Landrieu want to negotiate with and capitulate to, all in the name of their fetishistic obsession with bipartisanship porn.
How many more examples of GOP insanity must we enumerate before the aforementioned Democrats stop taking seriously the nincompoopery on the right? Is there no level of ridiculousness too intolerable before enough is enough? At what point does Harry Reid finally overcome his low-T, call bullshit on these jokers and figuratively pummel their soft skulls using a sledgehammer with the number 60 burnished into the handle? Soon, I hope.
House bill that would provide Medicare coverage for an end-of-life consultation once every five years. If a person falls ill with a life-threatening disease, more frequent sessions would be allowed.
Put another way, the bill would actually provide an additional and very optional benefit for senior citizens to consult with their doctors about end-of-life decisions — decisions we’ll all have to make. It’s a consultation which is usually an out of pocket expense for the elderly, but now it’ll be covered under Medicare. Again, it’s an optional benefit for Medicare recipients to meet with their doctor. I repeat: optional benefit. Optional, as in “choice.” Benefit, as in something “good” or “helpful.” O-p-t-i-o-n-a-l. B-e-n-e-f-i-t.
Furthermore:
“This measure would not only help people make the best decisions for themselves but also better ensure that their wishes are followed,” AARP Executive Vice President John Rother said in a statement. “To suggest otherwise is a gross, and even cruel, distortion — especially for any family that has been forced to make the difficult decisions on care for loved ones approaching the end of their lives.”
Why do the old-people-haters at the AARP want to kill old people?
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, House minority leader John Boehner and most other congressional Republicans are taking this wingnut conspiratorial position outlined by Rush Limbaugh. Because naturally they’re a very serious political party — so much so that the Blue Dog Democrats want to work with them rather than laughing them off the floor. Oh the relationships $1.3 million-a-day in healthcare industry lobbying can buy.
You know what this is? The Republicans are trying to trick senior citizens into buying Old Glory Robot Insurance.
The GOP is lying to senior citizens by convincing them that the Obama administration is going to strangle them with their robotic Obama claws — and when President Obama grabs you with his metal claws, you can’t break free. Because he’s made of metal. And President Obama is strong.
I can’t emphasize enough that this is an actual argument from the mainstream of the Republican Party.
And they’re getting away with it because, despite their utter lack of seriousness, they continue to be granted untold latitude and legitimacy through this inexplicable Democratic bipartisanship deference (not to mention a wide berth from the establishment press), while peddling an obvious lie. And then, next week, there will be another one. And another one. Until healthcare reform is dead in the water.
UPDATE: ThinkProgress assembled a compilation video documenting this deception:
Another serious question here is: Are the Republicans knowingly lying to senior citizens, or are they just morons who believe anything they hear on the Rush Limbaugh show? (Answer: Both.)
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You mean, do the Republicans know when they’re lying?
It must be hard for them to keep track, after all those lies.
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Is Limpballs a Republican? Or is holy Joe Lieberman a Democrat? Or Steney f**ing Hoyer, how about him?
If anyone in the Republican party would either tell the truth, or perhaps they are suffering from memory loss – the Republicans have been beating the drum for many many years to get rid of medicare and medicaid, at the very least to weaken them.
The biggest lie they are telling seniors is that the Dems want to lessen or get rid of Medicare. Not true.
The Republicans are saying if a Government option like a Medicare type of insurance becomes available to everyone, all the insurance companies will go out of business.
No, they may be forced to lessen the premiums, they may be forced to NOT penalize people for being sick – or having a preexisting condition, but they won’t go out of business.
The head of United Health, for example, might not be getting 700 million bucks, and their obscene profits might suffer, but they won’t go out of business.
Ronald Reagan ran ads when Medicare was up to be approved, telling(just like they are now about the reform) that ‘this is the beginning of the march toward socialism’(paraphrasing, but that was the main content of the message).
If they would look, we are no nearer to socialism now than we were then. The far right wing has kidnapped the Republican party, and I see a split coming to that party in the future.
They pray on the elderly, those that are – for the most part(not all, I am a senior and am very internet savvy) not familiar with using the internet, many don’t even have computers in their homes, and many more are not interested in learning.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, that, like everything else, should be a choice. But – with the 24-hours of FOX news, half or more of CNBC and a good portion of the mainstream ‘liberal’ media giving a lot of airtime to anyone who will come on their show – there are a lot more outlets that seniors have easy access to – that will spread the words of Limbaugh and his ilk.
With radio station owners forcing any left wing radio off the air, the radios here are blasting all the far right hate mongers also 24/7.. without looking at the internet, most folks over 70 don’t hear any other opinions, or the truth.
They even had that Taintz woman, the dentist turned lawyer from Russia or somewhere – with the laughable phony Obama ‘birth certificate – on CNN.
I mean, come on! I wasn’t surprised to see her on FOX, but CNN used to have more credibility.
That being said, the right are also well practiced experts in robo calling. They can target anyone over a certain age, and whatever they say becomes fact in the minds of many they target. They get them out to the townhall meetings – and anyone on the other side who criticizes them are called everything from unpatriotic, enemies of free speech, or worse, Nazis.
If they want to come to the meetings, and even if they are sent, that is fine. They should just ask their questions in turn, when they are called on, and wait for an answer. The rest of the crowd they brought with them instead will begin shouting or raising their signs which show the opinions they have been taught, or both. The meeting dissolves into chaos, and no one gets to speak or get anything answered.
If people would remember, Bush had screeners to tell him which news people to call on in press conferences, many of those had canned questions that he could give canned answers to. He almost never called on veteran Helen Thomas, for example.
(if ever).
How many times in the last few weeks have we heard seniors saying – no government healthcare – but don’t mess with my medicare! DUH! Medicare is government healthcare.
Frankly, after the election was stolen from Gore, I no longer put anything past them, and I believe there may be no choice but for the Dems to fight back by sending tons of their folks to townhalls conducted by Republicans.
Unless the more moderate Republicans come to their senses, and start telling the truth, keep the floors open for civil discussions — there will be no choice.
The Dems might just have to take advantage of their majority while they have it, and push things that we need through – and forget about the bipartisan idea. The Republicans refuse to be reasonable.. so what else can they do?
If they are afraid of doing it because they may get bad press, what are t hey afraid of? I don’t think the Palins and the Limbaughs can say anything more evil than they already are.
Since Obama was elected, not even sworn in, the smear machine has been going in full force, all day and night, non-stop. Just get some things done.. By passing anything after the right has put in their changes and additions – it is counter productive, AND they go ahead and complain about the bill or law or whatever after it is passed – and mostly about the changes they put in, and blame that on Obama also.
I am sick of it, and I truly wish others would wake up and realize what is really happening.
To quote Frank Zappa: who are the mind police??
I say – the current leaders of the Republican party.