The Politics of Fear
Momus 
I normally refrain from posting things like this, and I am not advocating that the current health care and insurance reform bill is perfect and I support it 100%. However, the lies and manipulations that are causing so much grief and fear among the misinformed is unconscionable and I feel it’s important that tactics like these be strongly fought no matter who is perpetrating them.
I ran across this column on the health care debate that I feel addresses many of the latest falsehoods. There is so much politically motivated lies and distortions flying around on TV and the internet, with respect to health care and insurance reform, that I think it’s important that some of this be called out for the blatant lies they are.
I hope that the column above helps correct some misinformation you may have heard lately or encourages you to find out what the proposed legislation actually says. Please take the time to read the actual text of the latest bill that came out of the house: H.R 3200. (Note that it takes a few minutes to load.)
In particular, the section dealing with the Advanced Care Planning Consultation (aka “Death Panels”) is Sec. 1233.
Please take the time to clear up any misconceptions you may have with this issue and try to correct people when they make blatantly false claims that have been created to instill fear and mistrust for purely political reasons.
Reader Comments (5)
Thanks for posting this information. It's ridiculous the amount of misinformation being perpetuated by the right wing, and I hope that people do take the time to check out these links.
regardless of the myths and misinformation being disseminated by both opponents and proponents of universal health care, i for one have absolutely no faith in our governments ability to institute and maintain such a program when considering the failures of virtually every social program attempted, including welfare, social security, etc....
I beg to differ, social security is a very successful government program. I know because my grandparents weren't on the street begging for change or my parents bankrupted trying to take care of them and instead could afford food and a roof over their heads.
Medicare is the only reason my last living grandparent is still alive today. Just becuase a program isn't perfect does not mean it is a failure.
I recommend you reevaluate your opinions on these programs through more research with respect to thier real world affects on our society over the last 80 years.
Social security is not enough for anyone to live on. I'm sure it helped, but a retirement plan including savings and pensions are the only reason my grandparents are still able to support themselves.
I have no need to reevaluate to any opinion. 80 years is a very short time in the history of government, even in our own nation, to base a conclusion of success on.
My problem isn't with the concept of social programs inherently, but merely with the bureaucracy that runs them. One example is when President Johnson moved the funding for social security from an independent standing into the general fund in order for him to borrow against it to support the Vietnam conflict. It's the fickle nature of our leaders, and the short-sightedness of our voters and politicians that ultimately causes these failures. Much of the same can be seen in California, where many long term plans to solve problems were derailed by a change of power from one party to another.
Quite simply, I don't have any faith in the government as it currently stands.
Just because SS is not enough to live on entirely does not mean it isn't successful. I'm fine with there being some personal responsibility still, and without SS many people are on the streets or bankrupting their families. That's certainly not a valid argument that SS isn't successful.
I agree that over the years politicians have used SS for terrible policies, raiding it and leaving IOUs. To me that just bolsters it's success, since it's withstood these encroachments and attempts to dismantle it.
We can sit around and complain how our leaders did this or that, that government can't run social programs as perfect as we'd like, that social security has only been successful for 80 years, but in the end all your doing is supporting the status quo. I'd love to live in a fantasy world were private industry did the right thing over profit motives with respect to health care. I'd love to live in a country where social security is housed in Fort Knox and politicians have no access. Unfortunately this is the real world, and we get to choose between the lesser of two evils.
The bottom line for me is, while I too have little faith in our government in many areas, I have even less faith in a profit driven health insurance industry. There needs to be reform and this current effort is a good start. It won't be pretty, it won't be perfect, but it is most certainly a step in the right direction.