For example, take President Obama’s healthcare initiative. Ask any conservative dead-ender (tip of the cap to Donald Rumsfeld), just how will health reform lower the nation’s Rx bill? The response: Obamacare plans to knock off the old folks, who tally up big health bills. They call it "mandatory euthanasia."
Talk about throwing grandma under the bus. How bizarre...North Carolina Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx recently floored everyone in the House, warning fellow Members that Obamacare will put seniors in position to be put to death by their government. Alaska’s Sarah Palin went one further, gabbing about a “death panel” that would have forced her to argue before a committee of bureaucrats to make the case for her child born with Down Syndrome.
Foxx and Palin reside in fantasyland. Sadly, their inanities receive much play and support in the conservative press.
The White House today launched WhiteHouse.gov/Reality Check to dispel the “rumors and scare tactics” of the hard-right. There’s a nice video there of Melody Barnes, Domestic Policy Council Director. She has the chore of assuring visitors that Obama’s plan does not require “mandatory end of life care” sessions for seniors, where counselors will advise people to take one for the country. It’s the patriotic thing to do.
Barnes explains Obama’s plan is far less dramatic. He wants Medicare to pay for one end of life session every five years. It's the first time that Uncle Sam will foot the bill for such a meeting with a doctor or counselor. It is not mandatory. A senior citizen can take it or leave it. Case closed.
The mobs storming town hall sessions this month, trampling the free speech rights of others, won’t spend any time at the White House’s reality check. Ignorance is bliss for those yahoos.
Everybody else should get the facts about healthcare before supporting or opposing Obama’s plan. That is what citizenship is about.