Mar 16, 2010

The bloody rhetoric and lies from the right intensifies as vote on health care reform

As the House vote nears that will reconcile the House passed version and the Senate passed version of the health care insurance reform bill, the bloody rhetoric and lies from the right are getting even worse, if that’s possible.

The $1.4 million a day the health insurance lobby is spending to protect their record profits is money well spent. We are hearing words from Republicans like Jihad, Holocaust and disaster just to name a few. The latest talking point is that Americans don’t want the bill, and Democrats are “cramming it down the American’s throats.”

That’s simply not true, but there is no doubt that after a year of constant lies and misinformation from the right, it’s clear that some people have turned against it. They have watered it down so much that even liberals don’t like it. But when you ask people if they support certain elements of the bill, like barring insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-exiting condition or it will cover 30 million of the 50 million people with no coverage will be covered, they support it.

For the past year 70 percent of the Americans have said they want a public option, but in a misguided effort to make it bipartisan and get it passed, that element has been dropped.One Republican talking point that came out of the President’s townhall with Legislators was “scrap the bill and start with a clean sheet of paper.”

If that happens health care reform is dead, and we will have to go back to holding bake sales and spaghetti dinners to pay the medical bills of those people who actually have health insurance coverage and made the mistake of actually getting sick and needing to use the health care insurance they have paid for.

If we start over after passing a bill through the House and Senate, health care insurance reform is dead, and Republicans know it. After all, they want it to be the President’s Waterloo so they can recapture power. This has nothing to do with covering the 50 million Americans with no coverage, the huge cost of health care and addressing the number one source of bankruptcy among those people with health care insurance, it’s about the Republicans getting power back.

One thing that has really come out during this debate is how if a Republicans does something, it’s OK, but it’s the end of the world if a Democrat does it.

President Bill Clinton was vilified and loathed because Republicans claimed he governed by the polls, and he did not make a single decision without checking the polls. Now, they loved George Bush because they claimed he made gut decisions and didn’t care what the polls said.

Now, if the false talking point were true that the majority of Americans don’t want this bill to pass, then why would they want President Obama to follow the alleged Clinton model and not the alleged Bush model?

The bottom line is this bill is far from perfect, but it is a good start that will reduce the budget deficit, and work will continue on better health care reform. If the bills die, health care that we have been trying to reform since President Teddy Roosevelt is dead for at least the next seven years.

3 comments:

Not Anonymous said...

CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox, Gallup, Rasmussen, Zogby all have done polls. All have shown that the majority of people do not want this health care plan.

The latest CNN poll showed that 25% want it. 48% say to stop it altoghter and 25% say to stop it and start over from scratch.

If this plan is so good, why do the socialist democrats have to resort to tricks to get it passed? Don't even begin to tell me it's the Republicans that are stopping it. The Republicans didn't have the numbers to stop it last year which is how it passed the House by five votes and the Senate using only the supermajority.

You're constantly talking about "bipartisanship". The only bipartisanship even in Congress, with this bill is that those against this health care bill are bipartisan.

This won't reduce the deficit. The numbers don't lie. The first ten years, the government taxes everyone to pay for it, but you don't get the health care until after four years. So they collect money the first four years, but provide no benefits, then collect money the remaining six years while providing benefits. But if you look at the second ten years, the deficit increases. Obama has already been caught in this lie last week.

No matter how you spin it, you can't stick a square peg in a round hole.

Communications guru said...

Sure, after a year of Republican lies, scare tactics and misinformation people are against it, but when you tell them what’s in the bill they support it. Plus, there was this poll in November 2008; perhaps you have heard of it, anonymous?

First, anonymous, there is no such thing as a “socialist” Democrat in this country, and that is just a fascist Republican talking point. Second, like I said in the post, this plan is not so good, but it is better than what we have now. The “tricks” you are talking about are the same ones Republicans used.

There was an attempt at bipartisanship, but Republicans are only interested in cashing the checks from the insurance lobby and handing Obama a defeat at any cost. As the health care summit proved, many Republican ideas are in the bill.

Correct, numbers don’t lie, and that’s why the CBO in January reported that it would provide a $118 billion net reduction in federal deficits over the coming decade.

Motor City Liberal Returns said...

Not you must think everyone is clue-less just like you, because you're armed with talking points you get from Fox News and right wing radio doesn't mean you're capable to handle a debate.

Fact: when you explain to people what's in the bill, support for the bill goes up. As for the numbers game unlike members of the Republican party, Democrats don't believe in group-think..
We got Democrats who rather think about the check they get from the health insurance lobby and covering their own political ass then do right by their voters.

As for tricks,your party used reconciliation more times between St.Ronnie of Reagan and George W.Bush terms in office. What you don't remember the Bush tax cuts? Or better yet I've been following Rachel Maddow example by highlighting Republican hypocrisy on the subject on my site.

If there's one big mistake that happen during this health care discussion it's when President Obama kept trying to reach out to the Republicans. The only interest you guys have are making sure you're in power and you're enriching your corporate friends.