Obama: People opposing govt Health Care, doing it purely for political advantage (??)

[Little-Acorn]

This is one of the most bizarre things I've heard a President say since "Well, that depends on what the definition of 'is', is.", on national TV.

If we are to take him at his word, Barack Obama apparently believes that none of the people opposing his attempt to put the Fed govt in charge of some or all of Health Care, really care about the issue. They are doing it purely to put Republicans into majorities in government. At least, that's what Mr. Obama says.

Never mind that more and more of the opponents, come from his own party. Are the Blue Dog Dems trying to put Republicans in power too, Mr. President? Is Nancy "I can't pass Health Care without a Public Option" Pelosi, trying to put Republicans into majorities?

And never mind that he has never offered the slightest evidence of any of these opponents being instructed by Republican officials, or insurance companies, or any of the other sinister forces Democrats keep blaming. No actual examples of even a single protester being put on a bus by those dark conspirators.

Never mind that the only people seen being bused in to any Town Hall meetings, were members of ACORN who came to SUPPORT his schemes.

The idea that people are opposing his plans because they think it's fundamentally wrong for the Fed govt to get involved in providing health coverage, never seems to occur to Democrats. Or if it does, they are fleeing from it at full speed, tails clamped firmly between their legs, not daring to admit that maybe they are governing against the will of the people.

Democrats are developing a weird tendency to try to fix what isn't broken. Rather than trying to talk straight to the American people and persuade them why we will be better off with the govt running Health Care, they are ranting about sinister conspiracies that don't exist, insurance company payoffs that never happened, organizing efforts that the protesters have never seen, and the abject stupidity and churlish behavior of an electorate that is, in fact, more honestly concerned (not to mention more polite and better behaved) than the Democrats themselves are.

Why do the supporters of Health Care, all the way to the top, keep tilting at windmills rather than addressing the real problems of govt Health Care? Do they think they are getting any closer to their goal, by "fixing" problems that don't exist?

The only answer I can see, is because the Democrats know they cannot refute the points made by their opponents. And so they keep throwing out frantic denunciations and imaginary "conspiracies", trying to scare voters into backing their schemes. Could it be that explaining to the voters why their schemes are the best way to go, is not possible?

Judging from the way the Dems keep avoiding it like the plague, it's looking more and more likely.

Obama's latest announcement, of bizarre political motivations by his opponents rather than honest concerns, is just the latest in a long line of such avoidance of honest discussion. Will it ever stop?

Or is it all the Democrat have to offer?

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/20/obama-gop-conspiracy-out-kill-health-reform/

Obama: Republican conspiracy out to kill health reform
By Joseph Curl

Originally published 02:07 p.m., August 20, 2009,
updated 03:07 p.m., August 21, 2009

President Obama took to the conservative airwaves Thursday to charge that Republican leaders are engaged in a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill health care reform in order to repeat the 1994 mid-term takeover of Congress, which followed the defeat of President Clinton's reform plan.

"I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, 'Look, let's not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, '94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out that playbook," the president said.

 

[TheFranklinParty]

Re: Obama: People opposing govt Health Care, doing it purely for political advantage

It is crazy that the Dem's are so focused on blaming the Republicans for playing unfair. The quickest way for them to stop any possible treachery on the part of the right would be to honestly and clearly defend their Healthcare, oops Health Insurance reform plan. The problem is that they can't because it is too vague to even define let alone defend.

Oh, by the way, the Republicans could do the same thing by just making clear accurate points instead of throwing all of these lies around about Death Panels. I don't see a legitimate alternative plan from the right that focuses on Tort Reform and Interstate Insurance so what. Have we lost our ability to openly debate? Are we just a society of sound bites now?

 

[GenSeneca]

Re: Obama: People opposing govt Health Care, doing it purely for political advantage

Republicans could do the same thing by just making clear accurate points instead of throwing all of these lies around about Death Panels.

Using the phrase "death panel" is certainly political hyperbole but its not a lie.

The Death Book for Veterans
By JIM TOWEY

If President Obama wants to better understand why America's discomfort with end-of-life discussions threatens to derail his health-care reform, he might begin with his own Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He will quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care.

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."

Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.

"Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living."

The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."

When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel?

When politicians wrote the legislation that gave us Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Social Security and all the other big government welfare state programs we have today... Did each of those legislative specifically state in the bill that the program would result in waste, fraud, abuse, reduction of benefits, ever higher taxes, trillions upon trillions in unfunded liabilities and explicitly admit the program would be fiscally unsustainable creating a problem that would snowball with each successive generation?

Of course not.

The same is true for this big government welfare state proposal for universal healthcare. Those who can, 1. learn from history 2. learn from the results in other countries 3. think beyond what the legislation specifically states: to consider the entirely foreseeable "unforeseen consequences" of enacting such legislation, are justified in their criticisms.

Does the legislation call for death panels? No... But the panels the House bill proposes to create would be precursors to what would result from yet another failed government program looking to save a buck.

 

[top gun]

Re: Obama: People opposing govt Health Care, doing it purely for political advantage

Republicants!

When they're not breaking something they're fighting fixing it. Oh, and of course always trying to kill the messenger...

 

[samsara15]

Re: Obama: People opposing govt Health Care, doing it purely for political advantage

It is crazy that the Dem's are so focused on blaming the Republicans for playing unfair. The quickest way for them to stop any possible treachery on the part of the right would be to honestly and clearly defend their Healthcare, oops Health Insurance reform plan. The problem is that they can't because it is too vague to even define let alone defend.

Oh, by the way, the Republicans could do the same thing by just making clear accurate points instead of throwing all of these lies around about Death Panels. I don't see a legitimate alternative plan from the right that focuses on Tort Reform and Interstate Insurance so what. Have we lost our ability to openly debate? Are we just a society of sound bites now?

It would have been nice if we had had a real debate over Health Care. Reasonable point.