The biggest right-wing lie about the health care reform law

[thatcrazycajun]

Ever since the Democrat-led 111th Congress and President Barack Obama first proposed the sweeping measure to reform our nation's health care system that became law two days ago, their opponents in the Republican minority, aided by the right-wing noise machine (Faux Noise, El Rushbo et al.) and the self-styled "tea party" movement have been spreading (not to put too fine a point on it) utter horse manure about what's in it and what it does. Since they can't argue it down on the merits and haven't the votes to stop it, they've resorted to lying—as in bearing false witness, as in prevaricating, as in just plain Making Shit Up.

And now that it's been signed into law and the package of amendments to it is working its way to doing likewise, the anger on the right has gotten truly out of hand. The offices and homes of Democrat legislators who voted for it have been vandalized and death threats issued by phone and fax (see story here). My own Congressman, African-American civil rights icon John Lewis, has been called the N-word by opponents in public because of his support for it (not that such thuggishness is anything new to him, as columnist Leonard Pitts notes here). And 13 state attorneys general—all but one belonging to guess which party?—filed suit to overturn the law not an hour after its signing, with Georgia's own Democrat AG, Thurbert Baker, being openly pressured by GOP Gov. Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III to join the suit. To his credit, he is resisting the bullying from Perdue's office and calling him out on it for the blatant political grandstanding (not to mention legally futile effort) it is. And all of this over a law that is, in point of fact, far more conservative in policy terms than any self-respecting Democrat should even vote for, much less write (as Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein points out here; thanks, abovenyquist )...but I digress.

From the git-go, the talkmeisters, Rethugs and teabaggers have been insisting that the bill will destroy "the best health care system in the world" (ours doesn't even rank in the top ten, by measure of what we get for how much we spend); that it will balloon the deficit even further and beggar our grandchildren (the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reveals that it actually will reduce the deficit over time); and that it is, or amounts to "a government takeover of health care" (only a national health system similar to England's replacing the sector entire would do that, which this law never comes anywhere near doing—particularly since the "public option" was dropped to appease Blue Dog Dems and Traitor Joe Lieberman). And let's not even go into all the "health care rationing" and "death panel" foolishness (neither was ever in the bill).

But none of these shibboleths is nearly as bald-faced and colossal an untruth as the outraged claim that this bill was somehow made law in an un-Constitutional fashion, that it was shoved down the throats of an unwilling electorate by power-hungry Dems, that it was the product of sleazy backroom deals and behind-the-scenes maneuvering out of sight of or redress by the voters. Loudmouths from Limbaugh to House minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio Fantasyland) have tried to make us believe that "a majority of the American people" are violently opposed to the measure, and have been "screaming at the top of their lungs" (Boehner's phrasing) at lawmakers to kill it and start over from scratch.

They have been willfully misintepreting Dem losses in a couple of gubernatorial elections last fall and last month's admittedly painful loss of the late Ted Kennedy's seat to a GOP candidate promising to be "the 41st vote" in the Senate against HCR (in one of the bluest states of the liberal Northeast), not to mention the ever more raucous signs and rhetoric of teabaggers at rallies on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, as a mandate from the Peepul. Allow me to drag out yet again the immortal words of the late Democratic Senator from New York, Pat Moynihan: "Every man is entitled to his own opinion...but not to his own facts." Like the fact that poll after poll from impartial organizations with no ax to grind show that when people are asked about the individual elements of the bill, they support them. Or the fact that slightly less than half of those polled about their impression of the law shortly after its signing voted it a "good idea" to about a quarter "bad idea." Or the fact that this process has been one of the most widely and deeply covered news stories of the day, thanks in large part to the Internet and its bloggers and activists digging where the mainstream media can't or won't.

They decry the Democrat effort to help the millions who are uninsured and/or suffering—even dying—with inadequate coverage as being more about some nefarious "agenda" than about what will truly benefit the people. Well, guess what, guys? Enacting an agenda (as if having one were per se evil, rather than what is or is not on said agenda) is what politicians are elected by their party and supporters to do! Are you going to try and tell me the Rethugs didn't have an agenda the eight years they held the White House and six they held Congress last decade? Or that they didn't do their utmost to enact it...and damn near destroy our financial system and economy, not to mention killing thousands of soldiers in two needless wars and laying waste to Constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties, in the process? Your side's people did what you elected them to, and our side's did (mostly) what we elected them to. This is democracy in action, folks, with all its messiness and rancor and double-dealing. It's why the famous old saw about how those who enjoy either sausage or legislation should never watch either being made still carries such a punch.

You are absolutely within your rights to protest the law, try and get it repealed (good luck with that, considering the results of the last two elections and your side's behavior since) or to amend it. You even have the right to make it Campaign Issue A in this fall's midterm elections; we knew a year ago you'd be doing that regardless of the bill's ultimate fate...and I for one eagerly join Obama in saying, "Bring it." What you have abso-frakkin'-lutely NO right to do is lie about it...and certainly not to physically assault anyone over it. And those of us on the left have no business whatsodamnedever letting any of them get away with such dishonesty and vicious acts.

Comments

[mshollie.livejournal.com]

For another point of view about the bill, on which I agree:

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2010/march/pro-single-payer-doctors-health-bill-leaves-23-million-uninsured

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

My sense is that Rs have done themselves more harm than good on this. The media narrative shaping up (outside Fox) is that Obama and Pelosi showed grit and stuck to their guns while Rs acted like children. The rise of antisocial activity is also starting to scare independents.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

That would be because Obama and Pelosi (at least Pelosi, and Obama let himself be persuaded) actually did show grit and stick to their guns, while the Republicans actually are acting like spoiled children. Occasionally, public perception has its basis in reality, especially if reality is quite this obvious.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Too man on the far right simply don't live in the world G_d created.

Republicans/Teabaggers = Hamas. They're more than willing to resort to violence, they don't believe in Democracy, they don't recognize the legitimacy of any other viewpoint, and (as the Texas School Board proved, again) they're willing to sacrifice their children for their own petty hatred.

[maugorn.livejournal.com]

Amen brother Matt! Preach it!

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

There's an old joke about a profession where you know they're lying because their mouths are moving. It's not true; I know several folks in that profession who speak truth far more often than otherwise.

These days, though, it's possible to tell that joke with a large measure of accuracy using any of the following as subjects: Republicans, right-wingers, Teabaggers, or any equivalent terms for those three.

Fortunately, the (mostly Republican-owned) media's beginning to pick up on the public's desire to hear truth, and slowly beginning to speak it. Not entirely -- look at the Sunday morning talking-head shows -- but in dribs and drabs.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

When the law is on your side, pound on the law. When the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. When neither of them are on your side, pound on the table.