Sarah Palin came out of her seclusion today to offer up another Trifecta to her Facebook fans. It’s a grand mélange of Teh Crazy™, Teh Stupid™, and Teh Wacky™, all delivered with that trademark of the fringe: the breathless sense of emergency. Because health care reform will eat your grandma!
As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!
The “disturbing details” are imaginary, of course, but why let facts get in the way of a good rant?
The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out,
(This would be the Thomas Sowell who writes for National Review. You know, the one who calls Barack Obama a “control freak?”)
government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.
Teh Wacky™: Health care reform will eat your children! And other such nonsense!
Actually, as I’ve repeated (and the president has repeated) several times, unless there is a correction in the rapid rise of insurance premiums America will soon be unable to afford any insurance, public or private. That’s going to mean lots of baby Trigs with no health insurance.
Sarah can say these things because her family is covered by her husband’s insurance through his job; I’d love to see Sarah try to find an individual policy for her special-needs baby — she’d soon learn about the “tender mercies” of the free market. It’s Teh Stupid™ in spades.
Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion.
Thank you, Sarah! Yes, we really are talking about human dignity and human rights here. For example, the right to not have a panel of corporate bean-counters cancel your policy when you get sick. And there’s a strong argument that health care is already a human right, but America covers indigent care in the most expensive and inefficient way possible.
But again, why let facts get in the way of a good rant?
Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.
Really? Sarah praises Michelle Bachmann for highlighting “Orwellian thinking”? That’s a whole new level of Teh Crazy™. It’s meta-crazy.
We must step up and engage in this most crucial debate. Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back. Ronald Reagan once wrote, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Let’s stop and think and make our voices heard before it’s too late.
Sigh. Ronald Reagan said those things about Medicare…in 1961. The socialist hell he promised has yet to materialize. Instead, we bear witness to hordes of misinformed seniors screaming at town halls: “keep your government hands off my government-run Medicare!” while thousands of Americans die from lack of affordable coverage.
Sarah has built her entire argument on a foundation of right-wing hysteria. Pull one thread, and the whole thing unravels. Why is this woman still considered ready for prime time?
ADDING: Over at Obsidian Wings, blogger Publius expands on the point I made above about Trig:
It’s goes without saying that this statement is an outright demonstrable lie. And it’s coming from a former candidate for Vice President of the United States.
But that said, Palin is sort of right on one point — there are people who weigh whether children like Trig are worthy of insurance. They’re called insurance companies, and they have decided that these children are not in fact worthy of coverage. That’s because Down Syndrome is a “pre-existing condition.“
