The DNC fact check sheet

The following is an email I sent out after being forwarded from propaganda from the DNCC.  As promised  I have posted it here this morning.

I saw this fact check card put out by the DNC and its ridiculous assertions.  Since this email was forwarded to me I hope no one minds me setting a few things straight.  I am a West Point Grad, a 2 tour Iraq war veteran and I guess a conservative extremist according to the DNC.  Anyways, I hope no one minds me giving my 2 cents.  I will post this letter on my site for those interested. thesteadyconserative.com

MYTH: Grassroots Protestors are Disrupting Town Halls
House Republican Leader John Boehner’s Office: “Back home for the August recess, rank-and-file Democratic Members of the House are facing a backlash from their constituents.”
FACT: Lobbyist-Run Groups Are Orchestrating Extremist Mobs Republicans and well-funded special interest groups are sending far-right extremists to local town halls to stop any meaningful discussion of Health Insurance Reform. Some of these mob scenes have turned especially ugly – including the hanging of Members of Congress in effigy and use of Nazi SS symbols.

These town halls are just representative of the views of people around the United States.  The following polls all show that more people disapprove of the current legislation than approve: Gallup, Pew, Quinnipiac, WSJ, NPR, Washington Post, NY Times.  You will notice that these polls come from both conservative and liberal bases as does the discontent with this legislation.  I have seen numerous videos with registered Democrats voicing their discontent as well.  I will go into more detail as to why a lot of people do not support this legislation a little later.  The anger comes from these politicians not answering legitimate questions or saying things that are misleading or just untruthful.  You will notice this ‘fact’ is not supported with any data.  Numerous reports have shown that many of these people have formed loose net groups originating from the tea parties around the country.  Others are simply everyday Americans with some common sense.  In almost every video I have seen the question is asked.  If the government cannot run Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security; then what should give us the impression that they can run a government healthcare plan (public option).  Especially when this bill does not address those problems first.  It is a reasonable question.  It is unfortunate that a few people have brought pictures of Congressmen hanging in effigy or used Nazi SS symbols. But you will find the same thing on the other side of the aisle.  And I can offer evidence that Obama is mobilizing unions to combat conservatives at town halls.  Memos have been publicly released by ACORN and the SEIU mobilizing their members, but somehow nothing is wrong with this fact.  George Soros has just committed $5 million to a liberal activist group whose goal is to pass this legislation.  Soros has previously provided $15 million for a death in America project supporting Euthanasia, supported abortion providers and RU-486.  He has also spent $15 million on initiatives to legalize drugs.  And to come full circle he compared the Bush administration to Nazis.  There have also been several cases of legislation supporters beating conservative activists.  The most famous so far is Kenneth Gladney, who had to be taken to the emergency room.  6 people were arrested in the incident.  So to summarize it is very hypocritical for the DNC to release this particular Myth/Fact when they are doing the exact same thing and they offer no evidence to support their allegation probably because there is none.

MYTH: “Government-Encouraged Euthanasia” House Republican Leader John Boehner claimed the House bill “may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia.”
FACT: The claim is “nonsense.” The bill never requires anyone to discuss end-of-life care. Rather, the bill ensures medical professionals who do offer this type of counseling … are reimbursed for their time, just as … for other types of counseling or medical services.

First, lets clear up what Boehner said.  “may start us down a treacherous path”.  This is reference to the fact that the bill does not explicitly say they will encourage euthanasia, but it is possible based upon recent events in England and France who have socialized healthcare systems.  Britain’s government commission has decided that if they have to spend more than $45,000 to ensure a patient lives one more year, then that particular person will not receive that treatment.  Great for cost savings but not so great if that is your mom or dad.  There is currently an uproar in France because the government is rationing care.  This is just a simple fact that occurs with single payer healthcare systems.  The only way to really cut costs in these heavily subsidized systems is for the government to mandate what can be covered and what cannot.  Rationing does not start in the beginning just like the public option will not take us directly into a single payer system, but it eventually will.  For reference the legislation describes what level of “end-of-life” treatment you receive, according to a pre-determined government-mandated schedule managed by a government panel on page 430.  It is one of over 50 bureaucracies created with this legislation.  If you need an example of how rationing of care would come about, look at Massachusetts.  It started universal healthcare eerily similar to what is being proposed in 2006.  And it already cannot afford the plan.  The state is being sued by a major hospital and has been forced to drop people from the plan and ration care.  You run out of money and you have to ration.  This in only 3 years.  The real reason this issue is a scary reality is because many of Obama’s advisors advocate such a rationing system.  Dr. Ezekial Emanuel, Rahm Emanuel’s brother was hired a few months ago as a healthcare advisor.  He advocates a system called “the complete lives system”.  The system advocated by Dr. Emanuel would allocate health care based on the government’s perception of the societal worth of the patients.  You can read it here: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60137-9/fulltext

Dr. Emanuel is also a VAT advocate and would use this value added tax to pay for healthcare if he could, but I believe this method has been shot down already.  Other liberal healthcare advocates such as Tom Daschle offer similar methods for healthcare rationing.

MYTH: Private Plans Outlawed Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) claimed on his website that individual private health insurance plans will be outlawed in 2013 under the Democratic health care plan.
FACT: Private health insurance not banned Individual policies will continue to be available, but people will buy those policies through the national health insurance exchange, which will ensure that people with pre-existing conditions will be able to get coverage. The House bill also allows for existing policies to be grandfathered in, so individual purchasers who like their coverage will be able to keep it.

The section of the legislation being referred to is section 102.  The very shortlived outlaw rumor was initiated by IBD, when they saw one provision that did state this (I believe on pg 16), but did not realize it qualified the statement later in the legislation.  It is true that it does not outlaw private insurance but this section will regulate them out of existence according to experts at various organizations to include the Heritage Foundation.  Private insurance can be sold, but only in “Exchange-participating health benefits plans.” In order to qualify as an “Exchange-participating health benefits plan,” all health insurance plans must conform to a slew of new regulations, including community rating and guaranteed issue.  This will drive up costs of private plans to include employer provided plans effectively pricing them out of the market.  Adding to this problem of fair competition is that the private plans would already be at a disadvantage because the public plan does not have to operate under the same rules.  An amendment offered by Republicans to fix this was shot down.

Creating a True Level Playing Field - (Radanovich) - This Amendment would move to create a true level playing field between private insurers and the government-run plan by requiring the government-run plan to be subject to the same standards and business environment as private plans. Currently, the government plan doesn’t have to pay state premium taxes, state and local property taxes, corporate taxes, market rates for buildings, equipment, and services, or finance its own start-up costs. Additionally, the government-run plan would have exclusive access to government agency data, special protections from lawsuits, exemption from financial stability requirements, and the implicit financial backing of the entire U.S. Treasury. Failed 23-32

This particular failed amendment also has implications to the next ‘myth’.  If you are serious about learning the truth about elements of this bill I challenge you to read all the Republican amendments offered and whether they passed or failed.  It will reveal a lot about elements of this legislation and its true intent.  Here is the link: http://newt.s3.amazonaws.com/public/Health_Care_Bill_Amendments.pdf

But back to section 102.  The worst part is that a liberal blogger asked Obama about this part of the legislation and after stumbling a bit, he had to admit he had not read the legislation.  That did not stop him; however, from promising once again that no one will be forced onto the public option a few minutes later…scary.

MYTH: 120 Million Americans Will Be Deprived of Health Care Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.): Democrats’ plan “will deprive roughly 120 million Americans of their current health care coverage.”
FACT: “False” The 120 million number Pence cites comes from the Lewin Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of insurance giant UnitedHealthCare, which based its numbers on several public-option scenarios that are dramatically different than what Democrats have proposed. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that in 2013 about 11 million—NOT 120 million—Americans will end up voluntarily enrolling in the public option, and none of them will be “deprived” of coverage.

The number does come from the Levin Group and it has actually been revised to somewhere around 84 million I believe.  The only problem for liberals is that Levin did an independent study based on numbers, not some biased made up study.  And it is based upon public option and the effect it will have on the private market.  You cannot have fair competition when one of the competitors is making all the rules.  It does not pass the common sense test nor past the history test.  And worst yet, they are not the only group to point out the fact that the public option will lead us to a single payer system.

First the history test.  This excerpt is taken from the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s report “The Role of Government Affordable Housing Policy in Creating the Global Financial Crisis of 2008″  You can read the whole document here: http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/media/pdfs/20090707HousingCrisisReport.pdf

Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s dominance in the secondary mortgage market was made possible by numerous competitive advantages stemming from their unique relationship with the federal government. These advantages for the two GSEs were justified by the government as an implicit subsidy to American homeowners in the form of reduced mortgage rates. With the help of these subsidies, Fannie and Freddie were able to squeeze out their competition and corner the secondary mortgage market.

So like I said. A recent American example of how a government run entity or in this case a GSE gets an unfair competitive advantage because of its relationship with the government.  This does not even take into consideration the associated corruption.  If you do read the report it is like reading about a mob organization.  Scary stuff.

Then we have the other experts saying the same thing. Scott Harrington, professor of health-care management and insurance and risk management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, describes in this article how the public option and private insurance cannot co-exist.  I won’t even try to explain it as he gets pretty technical and is, by the way, a professor at the best business school in America.  Here is the article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124502127377113741.html

The bottom line is that the public option is a means to an end, if I may steal Alinsky’s philosophy.  It will lead to a single payer system.  There is no other reason that the public option should be needed.  The Congressional healthcare system that Obama praised yesterday is made up of an exchange much like conservatives are pushing for.  It has worked and guess what.  There is no government option.  It is full of over 200 private insurance choices.  It should make you step back and think.

MYTH: There is a Republican Plan Minority Whip Cantor: “The Republican plan”
provides “access to affordable basic coverage.”
FACT: “Republicans have yet to coalesce around a single plan.” Even though the House Republicans’ “Health Care Solutions Group” guaranteed a counter proposal, they have refused to release a plan to the public.

At this point they either think you are stupid, lazy, or both.  Here is a link to my website where I discuss the Patients Choice Act.  http://thesteadyconservative.com/wordpress/2009/07/24/bring-patients-choice-act-to-the-table/

I have links to the legislation, to 2 separate summaries, and a question and answer page.  For the record I believe that 2 other pieces of legislation introduced by Republicans.  The hard left has also ignored legislation offered by the Blue Dog Democrats.

When it comes down to it people such as myself are skeptical of any major government intervention into private industry.  It is especially hard when the President gets up repeatedly and flat out lies about his prior position on the single payer system.  It makes you question his intentions, especially when there are proven free market ideas and reforms that could be tried first.  And to end this debate once and for all on Obama’s position on the single payer system here is a link to his campaign website where his team refutes Clinton’s claim that he does not support a single payer system.  Case closed. http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2008/01/21/fact_check_obama_consistent_in.php

For all those reading, please do not take this as a personal attack if you support this legislation.  We all want healthcare reform that will benefit everyone, but history has shown that the method being proposed by this administration just does not work.  And this is without even discussing the enormous cost to the taxpayer, which I see was conveniently left out of their defense.  Anyone is welcome to discuss or argue these points with me if you wish.  I will post this letter on my site tomorrow: http://thesteadyconservative.com/wordpress/

Tagged as: dnc, liberal disinformation