The White House flagging program was both less useful and less sinister than its advocates and opponents, respectively, believed.  One can understand the frustration that the White House has about the astonishing level of lies, misinformation and nonsense being promoted by the opponents of health care reform.

However, most of the criticism is the result of well-orchestrated (and easy to locate the source of) campaigns by right-wing groups, talk radio hosts, a former Vice Presidential candidate and the insurance industry.  White House staffers probably didn’t need to get an e-mail from some guy living in Des Moines to know that Sarah Palin wants us to believe that “death panels” would soon be arriving to murder her son if the Obama plan passed. Indeed, CNN used a crawl message to that effect for over 24 hours two weekends ago. 

Similarly, I doubt that Rahm Emanuel was planning to send the FBI to the Jones residence at 1234 Main Street, Oshkosh, Wisconsin if Jones’ neighbor had sent an e-mail to the White House noting that Jones had criticized the cost of health care reform while eating egg salad at the neighborhood picnic.

I believe that our current health care system is inefficient, “rations”
health care in particularly pernicious ways, often pays for useless and
patient-unwanted medical interventions, and should be changed. 
Although this blog is not really about health care reform, some sub-
issues, such as end of life care and reproductive health, impinge on
important constitutional issues and I hope we can discuss them.

My
biggest problem with the way the debate is going on the overall package
is that the representations of what the President originally wanted
(I’m not sure what he wants right now) are so disingenuous.  How would
conservative politicians feel about these ads if they ran in their
states or districts?

ORRIN HATCH NEVER SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. MAYBE THAT’S WHY HE HATES MILITARY FAMILIES AND VETERANS.  Sen.Hatch is on record
opposing government health care.  This means that he wants to eliminate
all the government-provided medical care for the dependents of
servicemembers at bases around the United States.  Since the entire
Veterans Administration hospital system is government-run, that will be
closed down too, leaving the men and women who protected America unable
to obtain any assistance unless they can afford it out of their own
pockets.

MITCH MCCONNELL PROPOSES  UNLIMITED HEALTH EXPENDITURES TO PREVENT RATIONING.  Sen. McConnell opposes rationing
of health care.  This means that every American should be able to
obtain every drug, every procedure and every treatment that he or she
wants — without limits!  Our government will not be able to deny a
drug because it does not work, a procedure that at best helps a small
percentage of those who obtain it live an extra week, or
immediate treatment by any and all specialists demanded by a patient.
Since rationing will  be outlawed, people will soon be able to call for
an ambulance any time they have an ache and get tests every day if they
choose.  This end to all rationing will bankrupt our country!

Obviously,
these are not the positions of Senators McConnell or Hatch.  However,
it is the kind of deceitful commentary that is rampant on the Right
these days about the Obama effort.  It is time we had a debate about
specifics; not a generalized attack on “socialized medicine” or
“euthanizing the disabled.”  Right?

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