The country is now in the midst of a healthcare reform debate. Lately, the media has focused on the heated confrontations that have taken place between some citizens and their congressional representatives at town hall meetings. Many of the angry shouts are based on misinformation planted by the opposition. I predict that the Rush Limbaugh driven protests will come back to bite the Republicans in the ass.
When Roach Limburger and Sarah Palin talk about "death panels" they are flat out lying! There never was a proposal to set up a panel of doctors to decide whether or not to pull the plug on grandma. When Roach compares Obama to Hitler he may be mobilizing the conservative base, but in the end such repugnant absurdities will only marginalize the Republican Party.
From what I’ve been able to tell, the biggest concern about health care reform is how to pay for it. The president wants to raise taxes on those earning over $250,000 a year and to cut the cost of Medicare by slashing waste and eliminating fraud. I don’t have a problem with raising the taxes on those who can afford to pay more. As a recipient, I do have a problem - a big one - with the proposal to make cuts in Medicare.
The president promises there will be no cuts in medical services because, coupled with higher taxes on the rich, the savings gained by eliminating fraud and by cutting out the waste in Medicare will provide enough funds to pay for healthcare reform. If you believe that, have I got a deal for you on some oceanfront property in Phoenix.
There is no way the government will be able to eliminate significant amounts of waste in Medicare. After all, it is a program with the usual government bureaucracy. There is also no way to cut out enough of the billions of dollars in fraud which, together with the hoped for cuts in waste, is supposed to help pay for healthcare reform.
Let’s get real. In order to make enough cuts in Medicare to help pay for the healthcare envisioned by the president, the government will have to make some significant cuts in the medical services provided to the elderly. For some grandmas and grandpas that will be like pulling the plug. And that should be of real concern to all senior citizens.
2 comments:
"Pulling the plug on grandma," is a line used by the president when he rediculed Palins acutal statement.
Palin never said it.
If you're going attack her position Howie....please state what that posiiton is first, and not simply repeat the administration's propaganda.
Whoa there, hold them horses!
Where did you get that I said Palin said anything about pulling the plug? I did no such thing.
I said that Paling and Limbaugh were lying when they talked about death panels.
Here is what Paling actually said: "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."
That's saying a death panel will be making decisions on pulling the plug. So what if I copied Obama's grandma statement. The president was right on that one.
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