Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Have These People No Shame?

Off topic, but ... it’s astounding to me how willing the right-wing is to lie, if that’s the only way it can destroy any chance that the United States will reform its overpriced, restrictive, and economy-busting health-care system and thereby prevent President Obama and Democrats from being credited with helping millions of people stay healthier, longer. Telling folks that health care reform will be used by their government to put seniors to death? Or that health care will be rationed in order to pay for abortions? How gullible do Republicans believe Americans are? They think we’re idiots!

READ MORE:Bipartisanship ‘Ain’t What It Used to Be,’” by Steve Benen (The Washington Monthly); “Is GOP Using Race to Block Obama Agenda? Ya Think?” by Joan Walsh (Salon).

4 comments:

John Van fro NYC said...

How about the Dems who don’t want to vote for it? Are they falling for the right-wing lies are do they have there own reasons to vote against it?

I thought you guys had the majority?
Vote it through if it’s so good.

J. Kingston Pierce said...

The problem for some of the so-called Blue Dogs is that they come from relatively conservative districts, where the lies spread by the right-wing have had some influence on voters.

And politics is never so simple as "the majority rules." (You can ask George W. Bush and his other Supreme Court Justice, Harriet Miers, about that.) Politics usually involves compromise, both with members of one's own party and with other parties involved. Eventually, I presume, Democrats in Congress this term will get health-care reform passed, but it might be a multi-step process. Fortunately, President Obama is a pragmatist; he knows that sometimes progress comes in stages. Health-care reform in America may be something that will be improved and tinkered with for years.

Cheers,
Jeff

Corey Wilde said...

The lies stem from the people who have the most to lose: Insurance companies. The insurance lobby has reached its long arm of power deeply into both parties.

Any reform that actually makes it through Congress will be designed specifically to do the least amount of harm to Big Insurance and Big Pharma, not to give America the best possible health care system.

J. Kingston Pierce said...

I think you're too cynical, Corey. And this sort of criticism just feeds the campaign by conservatives to stymie any systemic change that could be of value to the general public or the U.S. economy.

Cheers,
Jeff