Republican fear-mongering on health care

The Republicans – and the right-wing conservative Christian terrorist base it panders to – are fear-mongering experts. They whipped the US into a fearful frenzy after the 2001 terrorist attacks, which led to an unnecessary war with Iraq and sank the US economy into near Depression. Bush Jr. fiddled while America burned, leaving Obama to rebuild from the ashes. On the campaign trail, Obama promised health care reform and he's been pushing Congress to move on an overhaul all summer. Cue Republicans to send the fear-meter into the red.

Local town hall meetings have turned into brawls and shouting matches, with conservatives showing up with signs and screaming SOCIALISM at every news camera in site. One woman was weeping uncontrollably about how she "wanted America back" as if it had been wrenched from her arms. And because crazy loves crazy, the right wingers praised their own messiah Sarah Palin, who decried the "death panels" Obama would be setting up to decide who lives or dies under his fascist health care plan.

The misinformation spread by frothing idiots like Hannity, Limbaugh and Beck on the radio and Fox "fear-monger central" News about America "losing its freedom" is straight out of the Republican playbook on how to scare a nation into submission. They're going to let old people die, strip them of Medicare, your insurance will be taken away and given to illegal immigrants and on and on the lies go.

Obama has repeatedly stated that Americans who like their health care plan can keep it with no changes. How many times does he have to say it? Since there are five different plans floating around the Capitol, it's hard to get a handle on just what might be in the final draft, but I think we can safely rule out "death panels" and old people dying in the street for lack of care.

The right wingers continually cite the UK's National Health Service as a giant failure. Many Britons would beg to differ. The NHS is not perfect, but everyone -- EVERYONE -- gets medical care for free. The Guardian had a great piece in yesterday's edition where it takes the right wing's claims about the NHS and dismantles most of it or gives the facts, which Republicans are distorting in mailed and televised propaganda. Read the article here.

In my opinion, Republicans and conservatives don't want health care reform. They get big money from drug companies and healthy people make for more active, educated people who might upset the power balance. There's a little racism thrown in, too, but that's another post for another day. More than 40 million people in this country have no health care, but these wingnuts screaming and crying at town hall meetings (coordinated by the right -- you betcha!) don't give a damn.

Obama is exactly right that insurance companies are holding this country hostage and rationing health care. He needs to keep hammering that message home and the next time he goes on TV, he needs to tell the Republicans to roll their fear-mongering tactics up tight and cram it.

Comments

DeadMule said…
Preach!
Spot-on sugartits.


Word veri: duchmess
Karen J. Weyant said…
Great post. Health care is a very serious issue in the United States. Besides those who don't have health care, let's not forget those who do have health care, but have to pay an arm and a leg for it (forgive the cliche) --- so much so that their standard of living is seriously hurt.
And remember one of the best arguments--we HAVE to get better health-insurance-coverage, because if we don't change this, the U.S. will be bankrupt because we cannot afford all the UN-insured we have, already. Why? Because we(all taxpayers) are ALREADY paying for it. It's not efficient to pay for hospital visits for folks who have a cold or a mild sprain--those are best seen in a doctor's office--but without Universal Coverage offered, the uninsured(and I personally know many people who are UN-insured) will be a drain on the current system.
One more thing: The French may have the best program, yet: Like the Brits, they offer a single-payer option, but they also offer for you to KEEP your own coverage(as President Obama has promised you may)if u wish.
We CAN have the best coverage of all, instead of the(current) most expensive health-insurance, with the not-so-great care.(We're only 37th in the world in terms of how good our healh-care is, and our infant-mortality rates are higher than some third-world countries!)
Thank you, Coll, for making excelent points--I'm with ya!! ;)

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