I don't think all Republicans are crazy. But most leaders in the Republican party are, when it comes to fixing this country's health care problems.
The insanity has got to stop. For a while it was sort of amusing to see how bizarre the lies could get.
Death panels! Socialized medicine! Veterans being encouraged to commit suicide!
Now, though, summer is almost over. It's time to get serious. No more funny stories.
Which, of course, aren't so funny if you can't afford health care, are getting screwed over by a health insurance company, or are a small business faced with another round of double digit premium increases for your employees that are making your bottom line sink like a stone.
The lies above are debunked by PolitiFact, a web site that does a great job of separating fact from fiction in political debates.
They catch both Democrats and Republicans in truth-shredding. But the truly stupendous "pants on fire" lies are almost always the work of the not-so-Grand Old Party.
I don't see how any reasonable person could be proud of being a Republican these days. The Democratic Party has its freakish fringe, but in the Republican Party craziness is mainstream.
Illegal aliens getting free health care if a reform bill passes? Utterly untrue, says PolitiFact.
But I hear this claim being made all the time on right-wing talk radio and cable news. Where's the shame in telling a blatant lie? How Republicans can call themselves "values voters" is beyond me, unless lying has become the Eleventh Commandment.
Fortunately, there are some truth-tellers in the media. I hugely enjoyed the Washington Post's "Five Myths About Health Care Around the World."
1. It's all socialized medicine out there.
2. Overseas, care is rationed through limited choices or long lines.
3. Foreign health-care systems are inefficient, bloated bureaucracies.
4. Cost controls stifle innovation.
5. Health insurance has to be cruel.
And Newsweek recently exposed "The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate."
1. You'll have no choice in what health benefits you receive.
2. No chemo for older Medicare patients.
3. Illegal immigrants will get free health insurance.
4. Death panels will decide who lives.
5. The government will set doctors' wages.
Interesting. Each of these myths and lies is being spread by opponents of health care reform, not by the proponents.
Like I said, there is some shading of the truth by Democrats and progressives. But the real down and dirty lying is all Republican and right-wing.
I am glad you wrote on this with real responses to the ridiculousness but what is irking me and making me want to scream is the Democrats and their reneging on what they said they would fight to do. The public option is the only way the insurance companies will have to compete for reasonable rates and without it, we have another public giveaway that will fail and be blamed on us. better we went down in defeat for a real program than to be like happened with no child left behind party to a partial answer that fails. I am totally disgusted right now in both parties and Obama if he really is backing off on the most important part of reform. I may have to take up meditation myself to get my blood pressure back down. grrrrrrrrrrr
Posted by: Rain | September 03, 2009 at 07:41 AM