Former Governor Palin:
The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.
FACT CHECK No death panel in health care bill:
The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.
FACT CHECK No death panel in health care bill:
Nothing in the legislation would carry out such a bleak vision. The provision that has caused the uproar would instead authorize Medicare to pay doctors for counseling patients about end-of-life care, if the patient wishes. Here are some questions and answers on the controversy:
Q: Does the health care legislation bill promote "mercy killing," or euthanasia?
A: No.
More at the link.
Let us repeat: there is nothing whatsoever in this bill or in any health care bill currently being considered that can even be interpreted to create any sort of "death panel" or any mechanism that assesses a person's "level of productivity in society" to determine if they get medical care.
When people talk about the current political climate, they often bemoan the lack of "civility" in discourse,. In fact, Governor Palin herself, after her outrageous falsehood, has called for more "civility" in the health care debate.
But con artists like Caribou Barbie exploit good people's natural reluctance to call a lie a lie in order to run their con game. They know that nice people hate to go up to someone, even someone telling the most egregious lie, and go "you know what? You're lying." They depend on it.
Well, I'm not a nice person. And I'll come right out and say it:
Sarah Palin is lying. She is lying to try to scare people away from health care reform. She is lying becuase, if she told the actual truth about health care reform, she knows people would probably support it. She cannot win the debate with the truth, so she lies. She lies shamelessly and in such a way as to insult the intelligence of Americans. And, after moaning and whining about people talking about her family, she holds up her Down's syndrome baby like a bloody shirt because she thinks it'll make people all teary eyed and more reluctant to call her on her bullshit.
This is such a transparent lie that it shows her utter contempt for her supporters. She's treating you like rubes. Like marks. Like sheep who can be herded into the shearing pen and fleeced at leisure. She thinks you're all too stupid to question her.
And this is the person being touted as the GOP's next Presidential candidate? She is despicable.
12 comments:
"They know that nice people hate to go up to someone, even someone telling the most egregious lie, and go 'you know what? You're lying.' They depend on it."
Absolutely right. I never understood why I would be taken to task for inflaming a situation when all I did was call "bullshit" when someone was obviously full of it. If civility means letting blatant and harmful untruth pass as uncontested fact, then I am not in favor of civility.
Now is that really necessary? I'm disappointed in you, Dusty. Jumping to the conclusion that she's a liar.
Maybe she's just an idiot.
And an accomplished beat poet, but that's neither here nor there.
The only death panels regarding health insurance in America these days are those who continue to get to deny insurance to at least 46 million Americans. In the year 2009, after all of OUR money this government (both parties) gave to Wall Street, et al., with all of OUR taxpayer money being absolutely burned to absolutely no purpose in both Iraq and Afghanistan (way to change things, Mr. Obama), 46 million uninsured Americans is nothing less than criminal.
Sarah Palin has become dispicable, yes, but it'll be the Blue Dog Democrats who will either kill or water down health care until it is indistinguishable from what we currently have.
Obama needs to take it directly to the people and expose those in his party who get in the way and unless he's afraid of ruffling party feathers, he'll do just that. If he doesn't and he lets genuine health care reform slip away, he's just another suit talking out of both sides of his mouth (sort of like Iraq & Afghanistan; WTF are we still doing there?)
One problem with the healthcare debate is that distrusting the government is rational behavior . . .
It becomes increasingly obvious that these people have no shame. They will lie about anything and everything to people that may have legitimate fears on the health plan. They need it explained, not a complete line of bullshit that too many of them buy into because these "good Christian folks" would certainly never lie to them(snicker).
"If civility means letting blatant and harmful untruth pass as uncontested fact, then I am not in favor of civility."
Quote of the Day. Consider it stolen.
I haven't figured out why these people are so intent on keeping the health care system as it is. Even though they all have insurance, don't they realize they're all just a layoff or a corporate cost saving decision away from losing it? And then losing everything else because they can't pay their medical bills?
When I see them on television, shouting down elected officials and sick people telling their stories, I just wish their mothers would whack them up the side of their heads and say "Didn't I raise you better than that?"
Oh wait, their mothers have all been called before the death panels.
I don't trust either side, frankly. I'd like to see everyone get needed healthcare, but I think it's a utopian dream. By the time we pay interest on the trillions of borrowed dollars already out there, we'll be lucky to afford fuel for the president's helicopter.
It would probably be good for writers, though. If we add millions more to the doctors' offices without recruiting thousands of more doctors and nurses, people will spend most of their time sitting in waiting rooms, hopefully reading a book.
Damn, I'm going to start reading your blog before I post something at the Planet. I used the same damn "bloody shirt" allusion.
Sorry.
Great post as always.
"I haven't figured out why these people are so intent on keeping the health care system as it is."
Some of them are (those in the for-profit insurance industry with money to lose if we go toward single-payer), and some of them aren't.
The latter are in it for the buzz.
Any invective, baseless distortion and fictional blame they can point toward the Democrats and the President works to their advantage. Lies sell, just like the tabloids at checkstands in grocery stores.
They're pretty sure they can lie their way back into power, as long as the weak-kneed press and Blue Dogs enable them.
I am not quite sure where to start, so I will begin with my bona fides. I was sent here to post a bit of my story and knowledge by my husband, an avid reader and occasional backblogger here.
I spent 30 years working in the health care industry, specifically in financial information systems for hospitals, and especially billing systems. Thanks to the health insurance companies, those systems have become incredibly complex (read expensive) and difficult to keep accurate. but that isn't what I came here to tell you.
Do not let anyone in this debate tell you the doctors and hospitals are getting rich and need their fees lowered. I recently had abdominal surgery and my surgeon was great. He saw me 4 times in the office leading up to the surgery and 4 times post-op in the office, as well as in-hospital visits. I need to add that I am a high-risk patient with chronic lung disease and obesity. He billed my insurance company $2000 for my surgery. This is a really fair price for all the skill and care he delivered, not to mention we are in the Los Angeles area so his office overhead is quite high.
Because of their negotiated rates, my insurance company paid him $638 for all of my care. The hospital billed a tad over 6 grand for surgery and 3 days in the hospital. They received just over 3 grand. And I have a top-tier, fee-for-service policy. Heaven knows how little they would have paid under capitated care.
This is important: the hospital had to bill and appeal *three times* before the insurance would pay. My doctor's office had to re-bill several times as well. Insurance companies pay the service providers different rates for different plans held by different employers. That additional and unneccessary complexity means that a physician's practice may well employ more staff to do the billing than to provide healthcare.
Here's the final kicker – out of that billing staff, it takes only one or two people to do the Medicare billing, which is submitted electronically and usually paid within 21 days. Larger practices and hospitals might need more staff than that, but still it will be a proportionately lower number of staff than for the private insurance billing.
And that's the power of the single-payer public option.
Would someone please blow John Boehner so we can impeach him?
(An oldie but a goodie from the Bush days.)
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