Americans for Prosperity Compares Health Care Reform To Holocaust
Notwithstanding my dislike of the “political terrorists” line of attack against health reform opponents, it really is worth emphasizing the extent to which the opposition rhetoric is being dominated by grossly irresponsible slanders.
Brian Beutler points out this video of a speaker at an Americans for Prosperity rally comparing health reform to the Holocaust:
Patients First is a project of Americans for Prosperity–one of the key conservative interests groups helping to organize the town hall protests we’ve been covering. The speaker repeats the debunked conservative canard that Democratic health care reform will mandate physician assisted suicide. “Adolf Hitler issued six million end of life orders–he called his program the final solution. I kind of wonder what we’re going to call ours.”
And after comparing Democratic health care reform efforts to the murderous regimes of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot, the speaker advises his audience to “go to offices of members of Congress and put the fear of god in them.”
And this is more than just an overblown analogy; the right is seriously trying to convince people that Barack Obama will be euthanizing their grandparents. It’s a vile smear and it’s antithetical to having any sort of real conversation about health care. It’s also, intellectually speaking, totally nuts.
The right’s position amounts to “if the government guaranteed the provision of health care to everyone, cost considerations would force it to draw some limits around what it’s prepared to provide, therefore to avoid ‘rationing’ it should provide nothing.” Nevermind that a ration of no health care at all is the worst possible ration.
62 Responses to “Americans for Prosperity Compares Health Care Reform To Holocaust”
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August 7th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Well , I do wish Obama was more progressive, less of a deficit hawk, and hadn’t run a campaign of generational warfare. That his best friends in the blogosphere insist on writing that old people having their health care and don’t want young people to have any is so much a continuation of themes used against Clinton that I must presume they know the Leader’s sentiments. MY & Ezra are famous for hating, hating the boomers.
I am worried for older Americans.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
the right is seriously trying to convince people that Barack Obama will be euthanizing their grandparents.
Correct. So how is that not terrorism? They’re trying to terrify people, into literally fearing for their lives and the lives of their loved ones, in order to advance a political agenda. That’s terrorism.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
The right wing is racing to the bottom, dragging everyone into the mud, their natural habitat. Now Matt and other bloggers are reduced to finding the most deranged YouTube clips possible and offering serious comments on them: “Well, yes indeed, those people are crazy, don’t you think?”.
Perhaps if the GOP had some actual plan, on health care or in general, the talking points of those teabirthers wouldn’t be so ridiculous. That is the logical conclusion of Rovism: a level of debate now as low as one can imagine.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Speaking of canards:
“The right’s position amounts to ‘if the government guaranteed the provision of health care to everyone, cost considerations would force it to draw some limits around what it’s prepared to provide, therefore to avoid ‘rationing’ it should provide nothing.’”
Really? That’s what people on the right are arguing for? Because that would require proposals to eliminate Medicare. Medicaid, the VA, and countless state agencies that currently provide care.
Maybe I haven’t been readiong the Corner closely enough, but I don’t recall seeing anyone propose anything like that. Any more than I have seen Obama suggest offing grandma.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Do Obama, Matt, and Ezra, support cuts in Medicare funding or not? Seems a simple enough question, and a solid indicator of future praxis.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
The Republican Party should be renamed, the Party That Cried Wolf
August 7th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Do Obama, Matt, and Ezra, support cuts in Medicare funding or not?
Obama, Matt, and Ezra most likely agree that there are some areas in which Medicare spends money wastefully, and that virtually the same amount of health services can be provided for less. So, yes, that’s a cut in funding. As for whether it’s “generational warfare against seniors”, I’ll leave that for posters who aren’t actually insane.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I don’t understand you having a problem with people misrepresenting Obama’s health care program. Isn’t that what the First Amendment is all about, the right to misrepresent.
We’ve always lived with the precept that we have a battle of ideas in this country. If someone says Obama’s plan will lead to killing every poor person over 70, the answer is not to weep and gnash one’s teeth, but to make a response to the allegation.
I’m absolutely sure the Founding Father’s anticipated that scoundrels would posit false doctrines. I’m not as sure that they expected the level of intelligence would as low as it is that some people would believe them.
If Obama and his friends do not fight back against the lies other than yelling ‘unfair’ or ‘untrue’, then as sure as yelling fire in a crowded room will cause people to panic, he will lose the debate, the health care bill and probably the presidency.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Yes, Matt, it is as you said “intellectually speaking, totally nuts.”
However, that’s not really relevant in this discussion, is it? What matters is that it’s f§&%ing WORKING!!
It is a vile, disgraceful tactic that relies on stoking fear and resentment. No, it’s not intellectually coherent, but it apparently works incredibly well with far too many people on a purely emotional level.
I am scared of these fools. I simply don’t know how to counter this much raw fear and hatred.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
This train wreck brought to you by Senators Baucus, Reid, and Conrad. If the damn health care bill had been passed before August like Obama wanted, we wouldn’t be seeing this wingnut fake outrage crap for the same reason we’re not seeing them say that Vlad the Impaler and Darth Vader would be in favor of the stimulus bill. There’s a value in making stuff a fait accompli. Seriously, which one of these geniuses truly thought that the nation would be enlightened by the discussion that would take place if the bill was delayed?
I guess we can have fun with this in future bills. Did you know that Hitler was opposed to limits on carbon emissions, BECAUSE HE WANTED TO KEEP THE SMOKESTACKS AT AUSCHWITZ PUMPING AWAY? Why do Republicans want to kill us all in death camps?
August 7th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
You’ve got Republican leaders, top tier talk radio hosts, and Republican organizations spreading lies that health reform is literal euthanasia, comparing Obama to Hitler and health reform to genocide, saying private insurance will be outlawed, and saying care will be rationed.
You’ve got a playbook that directs people to scream and yell and interrupt, to basically search out and destroy civil town halls. You’ve got Republican party websites posting video of town halls being turned into mob scenes with this playbook’s tactics.
All this over a health plan that every honest policy observer agrees is a very moderate plan.
This is simply not a functioning political party. It’s a frustrated political movement been completely taken over by its most radical and short-sighted elements. It seems like a lot of guys in DC are stupid enough to think they can ride this tiger someplace good. They are seriously wrong.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
If Obama and his friends do not fight back against the lies
No. That’s not the problem.
The problem is that people are lying and we’re blaming the people who are not lying. The problem is the Republicans who are lying. The problem is that Bohner is lying about euthanasia. The problem is that Republicans won’t stand up to the insane Rush Limbaugh. The problem is that they have let the birthers take over their party, and now they’re bringing their insanity to health care. Period. Full Stop.
That’s the problem. The problem is the Republicans have gone nuts. You can’t have a functioning democracy when there are only two parties and one of them is full of batshit insane liars.
That’s the reality. It’s not the false balance of “Republicans are bad because they’re lying, but so are Democrats because they are not using their magic powers to stop them.”
Republicans are lying about health reform. They are lying and they are telling crazy people to smash up town halls. That is the problem.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Did Hitler’s victims have any real choice? Oh, they could, I suppose, decide to die immediately in a gas chamber or they could sort of opt for a slow death through starvation and disease. Assisted suicide is all about choice and the right to make decisions about your own life.
BTW, where are AIPAC, ADL, Atlas Shrugs, etc. on this? I thought that the Holocaust was unique to the Jews and that no one else was allowed to use it for political purposes. Stupid me for forgetting that doesn’t applies to conservatives.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
How do you effectively counter attacks this crazy? How about responding with “The people who lied to you about Iraq are now lying to you about health care”?
Mike
August 7th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Remember when some random guy submitted an ad to contest on MoveOn.org comparing Bush to Hitler? MoveOn.org had already taken down the ad but the mere existence of it was so outrageous that Reps all made speeches denouncing MoveOn.org.
I’m not holding my breath waiting for them to express similar outrage about these various right wing lobbyists who are actually maiing the holocaust arguments themselves…
August 7th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Obama, Matt, and Ezra most likely agree that there are some areas in which Medicare spends money wastefully, and that virtually the same amount of health services can be provided for less. So, yes, that’s a cut in funding.
I suspect that this has far less to do with actual Medicare funding than the fact that Obama’s been trying to take Medicare funding out of the political arena somewhat, which neutralizes a good bit of seniors’ accumulated political power. The fear that objective review of medical practices will hurt them may even be secondary to anger over the loss of raw power.*
*for people who actually understand anything about Medicare at all, I mean, not the fools who think that it comes from the No Premiums or Health Savings Fairies instead of the government.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Bingo! And I am going to try that this weekend when I visit a friend and have to listen to his Glenn Beck watching mother.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I do think it is important to at least call them liars. I simply don’t understand why calling a liar a liar is worse than accusing advocates of healthcare reform of being genocidal.
It is really time to start going on the Sunday talk shows and dropping the stupid civility. We need our Senators to call their Senators liars to their faces on national television. The Republican party has just gone nuts relying on this taboo to hold. Dishonesty is their default position. While I assume there are honest rank and file Republicans, their leadership is morally bankrupt and it doesn’t look like any decent person could rise to power in that cesspool of a party.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I can remember when some guy posting a video comparing Hitler to Bush on Move On’s web site – which immediately took it down – was a good reason to oppose John Kerry.
Remember 2004? When the right thought Hitler comparisons and forged documents were bad things?
August 7th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
This collective tantrum is gobsmacking. The Republican party needs a basket hold.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Next, they’ll be putting out animation which depicts an old lady in a wheelchair being shoved down a staircase, and saying this is what Democrats want to do! The nerve!
August 7th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I don’t know that it will do them good in the long run. In the 2008 campaign, I think their insane, hateful, rhetoric wound up hurting them. It’s a short recess though. The press will probably not schedule any backlash stories until near the end – they’ll want to milk the maniacs for all they can first. By then, it might be too late.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I’m confused. I thought most of our wingnuts liked the Holocaust. Now it’s some kind of bad thing?
August 7th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
What isn’t being paid for by Big Insurance is all coming from Rush. The rage and the animus. The outright racism.
Rush is getting fatter and meaner every day. He literally grows before your eyes as you watch him, his message larger and more menacing and his girth, oh god. If he doesn’t physically explode in mid-rant it will be miracle.
Hopefully his body will blow up on its own in his working chair. I wish to be rid of this meddlesome radio host. And soon.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
The difference, Will, is that when Democrats ran that ad, they were not saying that Republicans wanted to push old ladies down stairs in wheelchairs. They were saying that Republican policies with respect to medicare and social security were extremely bad for the elderly. That was the point of having it be a cartoon. It was, if tasteless, true.
This jackass is saying that Democrats plan to kill old people – not that their policies will be bad for the elderly, no. He’s saying that the Democrats will send bureaucrats out to force old people to die in huge numbers. That is not merely a difference of degree.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Will is one of those people who say something like “my head is literally about to explode”. He is confused about the difference between metaphor and reality.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
If you’ve not been paying attention, the situation is looking more and more similar to Weimer Germany.
Consider: as of yesterday, Democrats are deploying ACORN to disrupt and destroy peaceable public meetings. Average citizens are being brutally beaten and hospitalized by the purpleshirts. This is an attempt to create an increasingly polarized, violent atmosphere. And naturally SEIU is now accusing its opponents of doing the same things it does, faking threats against its headquarters. I fear that this is an attempt to set up a Reichstag fire situation, where an attack somehow happens against Democrat thugs, and that’s used to transition us to a formally fascist state. Obama’s calls for Americans to spy on Americans and keep an enemies list also circumstantially supports this idea.
Comparing the Holocaust to Obamacare, if anything, an understatement. While the Holocaust was restricted to a relatively small population, health deform’s explicit purpose is to deny people their medical coverage and make us all subject to a totalitarian government. We’ve got to protect the Constitution and American civil society. And if to protect the First Amendment we have to rely on the Second, that’s just a risk we’ve got to be willing to take.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Some reality here: Boomers aren’t the ones on Medicare, it’s the Silent Generation (like myself, age 66) and even older GI Generation folks. Sure, Boomners will be soon, but they aren’t going to be the majority of those at the end of their lives for a good while.
The vast majority of health care dollars are spent on about 5% of the population. Much of this is in the last year of life. Obviously Obama and the Dems aren’t talking euthanasia at all, only advance directives, which could actually forestall premature death, depending on ones orders. But still, hospice and palliative care, in addition to being more humane, does save money. We all dance around this, but if you’ve been there, you know it’s true.
All that said, I think the only way to deal withg these people is to directly allay their deepest fears. Obama needs to go on TV and clearly explain what health care reform is all about. It is a moral right that all people in this country receive minimal health care, and it is in the economic interests of all that they do, because it will reduce costs in the long run and protect all of us from communicable diseases. Medicare is a government-run health care and seniors are the happiest of any group with their health care. There are no plans for withholding care from old people–if that happens now at all it is when they are uninsured and the hospital pulls the plug. (Remember when that happened in Texas around the time of Terry Schaivo?) We just want to be sure that care is effective and consistent with what the elderly person wants for himself or herself. Medicare will not be changed in any significant way. If coverage costs less, which it will with competition, and if there are subsidies, than it will be good, not bad, for small business. No one is going to lose out significantly in this reform, not even the insurance cos, because they will have more people to insure.
Then appeal to our better angels and say we all need to calm down and ratchet down the anger and violence. It isn’t America when people are threatening office holders or fellow citizens with violence.
I think he needs to do this pretty soon. “Long hot summer” in John Boehner’s phrase is what people called it in the summer of 1968 when we had all the riots in various urban areas. These are the race riots of the white mobs, and they need to be dialed back quickly. I was always afraid then and am still afraid that whites, due to their sense of entitlement, will be far less reatrained.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Maybe people like Ananymous are beyond reaching. If Bush wasn’t totalitarian, how is Obama totalitarian? Bush wanted to destroy Social Security. Where’s the evidence that Obama wants to take people’s health care away? It is just the opposite–he wants 97% of the population to HAVE health care. The insurance cos are the ones who deny care to people when they get sick–no one on Medicare (a government-run program) gets their health care denied for getting sick. S/he has it backwards.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Yeah, sure, Njorl depicting, in animatiion, your political opponents assaulting elderly people is merely a tasteless way to say your political opponents’ policies will be bad for old people, just like when, for instance, WWII cartoons which depicted Japanese as non-human were merely a tasteless way of saying the Japanese Empire was non-optimal.
Yes, saying your opponent will pursue the policies of Hitler is worse (primarily because it insults Hitler’s victims) than showing a depiction of your political opponent physically assaulting people, but one is entirely ignorant of the nature of propaganda, or disingenuous about it, if one thinks the latter is merely “tasteless”, or that it is significantly better than the former. The latter is still an attempt to send the subliminal message that one’s opponent is not merely wrong, but criminally evil. Once you start down that path, it is a very short step to overtly stating that your opponent is criminally evil.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Anonymous, you are clearly out of your mind so this is probably futile. But I would (again, probably in vain) remind you that the Weimar Republic was a liberal, social democrat government brought down by the violence of thugs who seethed with racial resentments, who considered educated people to be effete and disloyal, who also glorified the military and blamed liberals for the defeat in WW1. So, maybe not such a good historical analogy.
But it just occurs to me: you don’t know shit about the Weimar Republic, do you?
August 7th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
We’ve already seen FEMA setting up concentration camps and the whole National Service proposal thing ready to create another generation of Red Guard youth ready to spy on their parents. I can’t figure out if we’re going in a Pol Pot direction or more of a Hitler direction.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Anonymous @27 takes the thread, hands down. Two people came into my office to find out what I was laughing so hard about. I doubt anything I’ve ever said here, or anywhere, could have that kind of impact.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Keith, the fact that you are ignorant of the history of propaganda says nothing about me. Guess what? The War Department, in 1942, was not literally saying, in their cartoons, that the Japanese had three inch fangs.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Mimikatz, it is not unreasonable to think, given the frequency with which Democrats compare the U.S. system unfavorably with other systems, that they would prefer the U.S. be more like those systems. One undeniable feature of those systems is that they ration health care more to non-poor retirees than is the case with Medicare recipients.
Now, I happen to think that we transfer too much wealth to old people from young people in this country, especially given that old people have a much higher median net worth than young people. Therefore, I don’t really mind if the Democrats suceed at this per se, but I think it likely that this proposal will also have other large unintended negative effects which have been inadequately discussed in a forthright manner.
Finally, I have to take issue with the notion that there is a “right” to health care. We may decide to provide for it collectively, like we do with an interstate highway system, but that isn’t even close to saying it is a right. Health care is provided by the labor of people, and, no, you have no “right” to the labor of people.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Will, why do you assume I’m ignorant of the history of propaganda? Try to make an argument without these sort of diversionary tactics. I know it requires much more effort, but humor me.
Let’s try an experiment:
“Will Allen is like one of Goebbels’s lackies.”
…as compared to:
“Will Allen is a neo-Nazi.”
Now, tell me how that feels. Is it merely a “very short step” from the first sentence to the second?
Idiot.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
There was a link to it on the Wikipedia ‘Nazi’ page, and that’s all s/he needs to know.
I don’t see how this isn’t going to end up with some sort of ultra-violence happening at one of the meetings.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
And this is more than just an overblown analogy; the right is seriously trying to convince people that Barack Obama will be euthanizing their grandparents.
I half have a notion that this might be the moment when, finally, at long last, the right jumped the shark with respect to healthcare reform opposition.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Re: it really is worth emphasizing the extent to which the opposition rhetoric is being dominated by grossly irresponsible slanders.
These folks passed “grossly irresponsible” some time ago. they are now rubbing shoulders with the concocters of The Popish Plot and the authors of The Learned Elders of Zion.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Re: Health care is provided by the labor of people, and, no, you have no “right” to the labor of people.
And who has suggested that we not pay healthcare workers for their labor?
Re: Democrats are deploying ACORN to disrupt and destroy peaceable public meetings.
No doubt they’ll be calling in the Orcs of Mordor next. Good grief, how can anyone take this vomit seriously?
Re: Rush is getting fatter and meaner every day.
Rush used to look happy, like he enjoyed what he was doing. Of course that was when he had more opioid drug stockpiled than you’d find in the lock-closet of a cancer ward. These days the guy is making the pre-Xmas Grinch look like Mary Poppins.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
it is not unreasonable to think
Whoah there, Will Allen, sounds to me like you’re inferring meaning from non-explicit utterances. By your own rules, as articulated in endless Sotomayor threads and others, that’s a big no-no!
Careful, or someone will accuse you of having different standards for Democrats and Republicans! Wouldn’t want to sully your stellar reputation for even-handed policing of rhetoric and logic.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Deny me something that I don’t actually have in the first place? Ooooo scary.
Wake up you stupid tool.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Whatever Republicans accuse Democrats of doing, that is what they themselves are doing, or intend to do.
We have video after video after video of Republicans using thuggish tactics to shut down public events, of rushing doors, of threatening people’s lives, so what do Republicans claim?
Democrats are deploying ACORN to disrupt their own health care town halls? Do you have idea how stupid that claim is?
Democrats hold town halls to drum up support for health care. Republicans crash them, shouting down the speakers and attendees and chanting things about fascists and liars – but it’s the Democrats, the ones who have been pursuing bipartisanship to a fault as they try to bring on Republican votes, who are trying to create a polarized atmosphere? That doesn’t even make any sense on its own terms!
Now this is scary stuff. This is preemptive excuse-making for violent attacks against unions and Democrats. When they finally happen, he’s proclaiming, they’ll be faked.
These people lost at the ballot box, so now they’re threatening violence.
They are violent scum, and they are being backed by the allegedly-respectable Republican and conservative institutions in Washington.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
“Deny me something that I don’t actually have in the first place? Ooooo scary.”
Amen, brother. And with me, it’s not a question of money. It’s that nobody will insure me at any cost. And even if they did, they’d rescind my coverage as soon as I needed it. It is an outright lie to say the Democrats want to kill off the elderly by supporting the Medicare system that keeps them alive. But it isn’t a lie to say that the Republicans want to kill off everyone with a pre-existing condition by allowing the private system to deny them medical care. And this is what sucks about the current system for me. I pay into the Medicare system even though I won’t live long enough to get covered by it. I’ve also paid into the private system for most of my life and now they’ve kicked me out before I could ever get them to pay for anything. My only real option is to commit crimes so the prison system can pay for my care. Either that, or move to another country.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
One of the problems with the public provision of services is that people who would have been able to buy services with their own money they end up with reduced quality services than if no public provision exists. Its somewhat difficult to explain whay this true and government rationing is a short-hand version of it. Public education provides a good example. If we lowered taxes and abolished public education illiteracy would rise, but some people who currently can’t afford to send their kids to private schools would suddenly be able to. And being educated would give those upper-middle class kids a huge advantage in the labor market.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
FART!
I may be an idiotic troll, but I’m not as bad as the Freedom Watchers at the Town Halls. I’m just trying to change the subject on this blog. They’d be trying to take down CAP’s server.
That’s the diffrence!
August 7th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Will,
You’ve gone off the deep end.
I’ve stuck with arguing rationally with you much longer than most here, because I remember a time when you actually did it yourself. But you’re gone now Will. Congratulations. You are now Al.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Re: One of the problems with the public provision of services is that people who would have been able to buy services with their own money they end up with reduced quality services than if no public provision exists.
Counter Example 1: Private schools,
Counter Example 2: My, your and everyone’s cars despite public transportation.
Public provision of services only eliminates private provision when private provision is banned by law (we do not allow private courts or armies). Otherwise both coexist and in some cases the private provision even flourishes and predominates.
Re: If we lowered taxes and abolished public education illiteracy would rise, but some people who currently can’t afford to send their kids to private schools would suddenly be able to.
Nonsense. School taxes amount to a few hundred dollars a year, for most people middle class and below (I’ve paid property taxes which go to support schools so I know this) How many people could send their kids to school for a few hundred more dollars a year? Rather few, I would imagine. Meanwhile a huge rise in illiteracy under your scenario would affect the opportunities available even to the well-educated: the entire society would be much the poorer and while they might do better relative to others, overall they would come out the poorer– we see exactly this dynamic in the poorer Third World countries where illiteracy abounds. Only the ultra-rich in those nations escape it– and the ultra rich can always afford private schools already, private everything. Would you rather be one of the privately educated few in Haiti, or one of the publicly educated many in the US?
August 7th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
I can’t get private insurance because of a misdiagnosis. Since the V.A. is just fine, I don’t need a lawyer, but I am looking forward to good health care reform for the sake of our nation. It looks like most Republicans need a long break in a soft room, with soft pajamas, and those fawn brown sockies.
August 7th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Anonymous @27 is what happens when siblings fuck.
August 8th, 2009 at 1:07 am
bob mcmanus Says (#1): “Do Obama, Matt, and Ezra, support cuts in Medicare funding or not?”
I would assume so. But note that there are limitations mandated by Congress. For example, in Medicare Part D (drugs), the government is forbidden to use its purchasing power to get substantially reduced prices on the drugs that it buys. It has to pay full retail prices. (This is what happens when you let drug industry lobbyists write the bill.)
August 8th, 2009 at 1:14 am
mattconnolly Says (#8): “I don’t understand you having a problem with people misrepresenting Obama’s health care program. Isn’t that what the First Amendment is all about, the right to misrepresent.”
Sure. Just like you have the right to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater.
This is not just a political game. Real uninsured people – 22,000 of them – die every year. An estimated 100,000 people die each year due to medical malpractice. This country needs health care reform badly, and these conservative lies, if successful, will kill people who might otherwise have lived.
August 8th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Mimikatz Says (#28): “All that said, I think the only way to deal with these people is to directly allay their deepest fears. Obama needs to go on TV and clearly explain what health care reform is all about.”
I wish I could believe that this would work. Unfortunately, conservative extremists (and most of the Republican base) tend to ignore facts and to believe only what is said by Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly.
August 8th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Will Allen Says (#35): “Now, I happen to think that we transfer too much wealth to old people from young people in this country…”
You are welcome to think this, Will, but remember two things:
(1) Barring misfortune, every young person will eventually become an old person.
(2) Most people create more wealth than they use up during their lifetimes. (If not, we would still be hunting with clubs and living in caves.) This excess wealth accrues to younger generations.
August 8th, 2009 at 9:37 am
[...] Why hide their political party affiliation? Well, would you like to break bread and work in common cause with people like these? [...]
August 8th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
[...] of death camps and swastikas are bad form to bring to a town hall on health care. Or this brilliant piece Patients First is a project of Americans for Prosperity–one of the key conservative interests [...]
August 9th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Brian Beutler is so far off track that he is in the woods and his audience is following without much coaxing. They must be reading the Washington Post with the Lobbyist backing. My Aunts were killed by Statin…there is NO comparison. If he wasn’t there in Russia or Cambodia and he can’t comprehend what he is reading then he should NOT be misguiding the public and insighting hate over something he cannot comprehend…like we need another one of those idiots in this world. REPUBLICAN SMEAR CAMPAIGN…PURE AND SIMPLE…trying to destroy the country from inside out (like RUSH LIMBAUGH)….didn’t the Bush Administration do enough harm?
I’m too over American’s to lazy to get the facts straight…and not realistic and not reading the proposals. Any jerk can yell….but few can yell objective fact based information. Take the cotton out of your ears and stuff it in your freaking mouth!
August 10th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
[...] reformed in a moderate and responsible way or with those who believes Obama is offering nothing but a Nazi-like Final Solution as Americans for Prosperity explains: Adolf Hitler issued six million end of life orders – he called his program the final solution. I [...]
August 10th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
[...] the emotional impact of sensationalistic charges. Corporate funded groups like Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity, along with Betsy McCaughey, Sally Pipes, Rick Scott, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich distort and [...]
August 11th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
[...] Halls have buried any meaningful coverage of the health care debate. Groups like Freedomworks and Americans For Prosperity are generating wild rumors about the proposed health care reform and the overwhelming majority of [...]
August 11th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
[...] have featured Democratic members of Congress hung in effigy, rhetoric comparing health reform to the Holocaust, and signs accusing lawmakers of being [...]
August 12th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
[...] have featured Democratic members of Congress hung in effigy, rhetoric comparing health reform to the Holocaust, and signs accusing lawmakers of being [...]