On the Health Care Scare

Let me be real clear right up front -- I oppose this socialist agenda with all my being. I think it is an abomination, contrary to the principles on which our country was founded, and if put into legislation and practice it will ruin the best health care industry in the world.

Having said that, I take issue with the hateful rhetoric spewing from both sides of the issue.

I hear my favorite pundits -- Hannity, Beck. Limbaugh, and Savage, as well as many other lesser known folks, parroting the same scary statements -- purported to be actual quotes from the bill. I'm a writer, and I've gotten so I think I can tell when something sounds way too real to be real, and is actually hyperbole, conjecture, and in some cases, outright fabrication.

So I downloaded the current version of the House bill -- it's accessible at http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf -- all 1018 pages of it.

It's a pdf file, so there are excellent search tools to enable one to find anyting in the text. I used them. Guess what? Most of the "exact quotes" being tossed around as scare bombs are simply not there. I did several searches, using different pieces of the quotes in different order, to see if I could piece together something that would equate to those purported quotes, and again came up empty.

Yes, the infamous page 16 (and following) does contain wording that exposes, yet hides the fact that we will be figuratively forced into the single-payer plan eventually, but even that is being stated incorrectly by many on the Right. Yes, there are many dangers in this bill, and yes we need to be alarmed to the point that we take action against it.

My problem is that we are being pushed into using the same tactics as our perceived opponents, and it will turn and bite us if we do not stop. According to the Bible, we do not fight evil with evil, lies with lies, or terror with terror. We are trying to fight the leftwing nihilists with the same tactics they have used all along, and it's the wrong thing to do. In the first place, they are much better at it than we are, and in the second, it is contrary to our own stated stand on the truths on which this great nation was founded.

We need to stop passing on those emails that have no basis in fact, and instead, read the blasted thing. Become informed, maintain our collective (dare I used that word?) cool, and stand up to be counted instead of hiding behind a curtain of screaming, uninformed denial. We cannot win by using their tactics! They will simply smile, point to every instance of inaccurate quoting, and dismiss us as an ineffective gaggle of ignorant right-wing kooks, which it appears we're working hard at becoming.

There are still some in Congress that are unsure about this bill. They have apparently not read it for themselves, but are waiting for us to tell them what we think. When their colleagues point out to them the misstatements coming from uninformed emailers, they will assume that we're wrong, they're right, and there goes the vote! Instead, ASK them to explain certain provisions in the bill. They cannot. Our only hope is that they will then actually read it, and become as alarmed as we are, and will kill this abomination before it's hatched.

Remember how we all got up in arms about Situational Ethics? All of us agreed that it is wrong. THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS! -- think about it.
thanks for reading -- comments are welcome.