Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Hargrove / Politics Palin WSJ Op-Ed: Death Panels Are Truthy
Posted by Brantley Hargrove on Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 1:47 PM
"...is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health by -- dare I say it -- death panels? Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans."
If the sick and elderly are concerned, it's only because Palin and the GOP are spreading such disinformation. Secondly, what does she mean when she says rang true? Are we talking about Steven Colbert's truthiness? Are we talking about the emotional truth in memoir -- the oddly vivid recreation of long-forgotten and half-remembered events, which have the scent of truth even if the details themselves are mostly the product of the memoirist's often self-serving memory?
Is that the kind of true Palin is talking about? Opinion pieces by idiots are fine, but doesn't the WSJ bear at least some responsibility when it comes to reprinting lies that have been debunked repeatedly?
Comments (24)
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Of course they bear responsibility. But their editorial and op-ed pages haven't exactly shied away from printing lies for a long time now, well before Shit-Slinging Sarah came along.
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I wish I could get a job as Sarah Palin's ghostwriter. A few out-of-context Reagan quotes and poorly-veiled disdain for the smart ("establishment voices") are all you need to start raking in those sweet Alaskan beaver pelts.
I bet she would be all over death panels for fruit fly researchers in France, I kid you not.
The fact that Sarah Palin is a craven political opportunist "rings true" as well.
As governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin welcomed free, federal-government supplied medical and veterinary care for remote Alaskan villages.
I'm glad she did. Those folks needed it. But why she can get away with fearmongering about scary socialism and government death panels on the national stage when she took free government healthcare for her own citizens when no one was looking strikes me as a tad hypocritical.
Palin does not pay to much attention to the GOP but the media does seem to be obsessed with "death panels". That's fine I guess because it helps them avoid reporting about tort reforms, purchasing insurance across state lines and HSA's or about any type of health care reforms.
@Southern Beale,
Really, you don't see any difference between implementing a single payer socialist system for the entirety of the United States VS a few backwoods Indian reservations and communities where there are no doctors or hospitals for hundreds of miles? Surely you can see some differences. There are situations where government intervention is beneficial, and those include circumstances where there is no public sector to engender competition. Sometimes common sense is required, even when demonizing Sarah Palin, which I really don't understand. People are terrified of her, and I have no idea why.
She isn't an Ivy League intellectual, but neither are most of us. In fact, I think the intellectuals have a very poor track record with respect to anything they've done in our history, other than teach. Sarah Palin didn't go looking for John McCain or a national platform. McCain went looking for her. She did the best she could under the circumstances. What makes her so hideous. She is a mother, wife, politician, and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty, literally. I just don't see why everyone is so afraid of her success.
I would vote for her over anyone we have had run since 1984, even though I don't believe she would make an exceptional president, but the competition has been dismal for decades. We have run all the really good people out of politics into the private sector.Anyone who is more than merely competent wouldn't put up with the political crap or the personal intrusion to lose 10 years of their life for every term in the White House. I don't blame them. The really great men like Steve Jobs are creating wealth, jobs, and what inspiration we have left in our society.
The clunkers are in government making life hard for the men of action. How much longer can we last going down this road. If we aren't careful, Obama will be the end of the road for the capitalist society that has made us the wealthiest nation the earth has ever known. He is smart enough, quick enough, and polished enough to have been a Steve Jobs, but he is a marxist, and wants to go down in history as the man who made his race truly equal. He wants to do that by redistributing everything, but mostly just the wealth, and he said as much during the campaign in response to a question from a plumber, since the media didn't even try to expose his true colors. The media wants to do the same thing, and they are intent on helping him.
Which leaves so many of us who are apologists for the sins of the past, and it will cost us our liberty if we don't wake up very quickly, and start asking the questions and demanding the answers the media should have asked in 2007 and 2008.
MaeLaskanBever = excellent example of a compassionate, caring, and loyal Obama supporter. No real retort, only vile vomit spewing forth for those he/she can not comprehend.
Steve Shirk might have a point if anyone in Congress or the White House were seriously talking about a single-payer system. As it is, he, like all the other Limbaugh suckbuddies, are just putting straw men out there.
Joe, you seem to have a real taste for vile vomit, son.
I have been watching the speech and Obama just oratorically body-slammed Palin, although he didn't call her out by name. He specifically mentioned "death panels" and referenced "certain politicians" for continuing the non-sense.
Steve Shirk, was that satire? You referenced Steve Jobs, who I believe was and is an Obama supporter, as is other Marxists like Warren Buffett.
Mr. Shirk,
Your statement "In fact, I think the intellectuals have a very poor track record with respect to anything they've done in our history, other than teach." is . . . interesting.
Are we to assume you did not study the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or any of those high flying ideas that led to those things?
Populism is a good thing in many ways. It does not, however, excuse Palin being disingenuous.
You're right on target!!! They bemoan the fact that seniors are scared while at the same time playing the boogieman.
Who's even talking about single-payer anymore? Good Lord, you wingnuts have a talent for distraction. Shirk, if you're as much of an ideologue as you sound, I want you to take your parents and your grandparents off Medicare, because otherwise you're nothing but a no-good socialist.
I'm serious -- taking care of the most vulnerable among us is just plain wrong. In fact, it's un-Amurrican!
Lisa Zhito calling someone "a tad hypocritical" is ironic. The lady who regularly sees evil in any profit making corporation was damn upset about the idea of taking less than the optimal profit from TVA / NES when it came to her own finances.
Yep, I guess that would be a "tad hypocritical".
Steve - Nobody is "afraid" of Sarah Palin's success. They're bewildered and perhaps disgusted by it. But "afraid"? Of HER?!? Never.
Obama is the real liar on health care. Try to refute one of these many lies. He lowerer his 46 million lie to 30 million in the last speech. Ony 12 more to go. Libnuts swallow any BS the beloved leader serves.
http://www.examiner.com/x-17412-Macon-County-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m8d12-Top-10-baldfaced-lies-from-Obamas-staged-health-care
10) "One of the chief sponsors of this bill originally was a Republican -- then House member, now senator, named Johnny Isakson from Georgia -- who very sensibly thought this is something that would expand people's options."
Isakson came out immediately after this and emphatically condemned this outrageously false claim.
9) "AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay?"
The AARP quickly corrected this misinformation: "Indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate."
8) "You will not be waiting in any lines."
All the evidence says otherwise.
7) "46 million Americans don't have health insurance coverage today."
This is an obscenely dishonest "calculation."
6) "I'm not promoting a single-payer plan."
Obama admitted that such a plan is exactly his goal here. And here is a non-partisan study confirming that ObamaCare will indeed destroy free market health care, leaving us with no other options but government-run care.
5) "Under the reform we're proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan."
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 10 million workers would be forced out of their employer-based coverage and into government health care by this bill.
4) "So the intention...was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they're ready, on their own terms. It wasn't forcing anybody to do anything...And somehow it's gotten spun into this idea of 'death panels.'"
House Republicans, patient advocates, and conservative publications have repeatedly highlighted the specific parts of the bill that would in fact force seniors into counseling sessions that pressure them to stop burdening the system.
Obama's own Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has openly admitted that Obama's "vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely 'lipstick' cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change." The real savings come from rationing care. ObamaCare will have panels modeled after Britain's system, which cuts costs by denying care to the sick and elderly.
3) "We're not talking about cutting Medicare benefits."
Obama admitted that this was how his health care scam would be funded. He has proposed $313 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid to pay for this.
2) "This is not about putting government in charge of your health insurance."
Yeah, how could passing a needless, blatantly unconstitutional law to address a non-existent crisis with endless government rules and regulations on every aspect of health care possibly be misconstrued as "putting government in charge?"
1) "I won't sign a bill that adds to the deficit or the national debt."
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the current legislation being promoted and defended by Barack "No Pork in This Bill" Obama will cost an absolute fortune and increase, rather than decrease, health care costs...making this claim completely absurd.
Ponravilsya vash sayt. Otlichnaya podborka materiala.! Ne zabrasyvayte glavnoe.
http://www.vprv.com/
