"Bolshevik plot": Right-wing media declare Obama a radical who threatens America
Urging that "we've got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality," President Obama stated during his January 29 question and answer session with House Republicans that "if you were to listen to the debate" over health care reform "you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot." Throughout Obama's administration thus far, conservative media have embraced such rhetoric, routinely attacking Obama's agenda as socialist, communist or fascist and telling audiences that Obama and health care reform are a threat to America itself.
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Obama calls out GOP for outrageous rhetoric in health care debate
During the January 29 Q&A session with House Republicans, Obama stated, "You've given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you've been telling your constituents is, this guy is doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy America":
OBAMA: And so we were in the process of scrubbing this and making sure that it's tight. But at its core, if you look at the basic proposal that we've put forward: it has an exchange so that businesses and the self-employed can buy into a pool and can get bargaining power the same way big companies do; the insurance reforms that I've already discussed, making sure that there's choice and competition for those who don't have health insurance. The component parts of this thing are pretty similar to what Howard Baker, Bob Dole, and Tom Daschle proposed at the beginning of this debate last year.
Now, you may not agree with Bob Dole and Howard Baker, and, certainly you don't agree with Tom Daschle on much, but that's not a radical bunch. But if you were to listen to the debate and, frankly, how some of you went after this bill, you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot. No, I mean, that's how you guys -- (applause) -- that's how you guys presented it.
And so I'm thinking to myself, well, how is it that a plan that is pretty centrist -- no, look, I mean, I'm just saying, I know you guys disagree, but if you look at the facts of this bill, most independent observers would say this is actually what many Republicans -- is similar to what many Republicans proposed to Bill Clinton when he was doing his debate on health care.
So all I'm saying is, we've got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality. I'm not suggesting that we're going to agree on everything, whether it's on health care or energy or what have you, but if the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don't have a lot of room to negotiate with me.
I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that many of you, if you voted with the administration on something, are politically vulnerable in your own base, in your own party. You've given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you've been telling your constituents is, this guy is doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy America.
Conservative
media frequently invoke socialism, communism, fascism to attack Obama's agenda
Media Matters for America has documented numerous instances in which conservative media invoked socialism, communism and fascism to vilify health care reform, president Obama and congressional Democrats. For example:
- Limbaugh's website claims of Obama: "His education plan is Maoist ... and he is otherwise a Bolshevik. ... [H]e would be a Stalinist if he thought he could get away with it"
- Beck on O'Reilly Factor: "We are really truly stepping beyond socialism and starting to look at fascism"; compares proposals to Nazi Germany
- Limbaugh orders that there be no compromise on health reform: "You don't compromise with socialists"
- Hannity: Obama administration is pushing "the single biggest power grab and move towards socialism in the history of the country"
- Limbaugh compares Obama health care plan to Nazi policies
- Beck: "I was wrong. Our government is not marching down the road towards communism or socialism... they're marching us to a brand of non-violent fascism... towards 1984"
- Limbaugh: "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate"
- Beck says Obama can be considered a socialist, because Marxism and progressivism are "the same thing"
- Dick Morris' self-confessed conspiracy theory: Obama "wants his plan to fail...so that he can make the case for bank nationalization and vindicate his dream of a socialist economy"
- Days after decrying those who say Democrats are "trying to turn us into communist Russia," Beck claimed Obama "has Marxist tendencies"
- Rush pulls out numerous smears to attack health care reform -- "Nazis," "Cuba," "totalitarian systems"
- In column criticizing health care reform, Cal Thomas invokes the Holocaust: "Great horrors don't begin in gas chambers"
- Limbaugh fearmongers about health-care reform: you will be sent to "some reeducation camp if you don't lose weight"
- Pat Robertson declares health reform bills "dangerous," "rushed through" by president "with a socialist bent"
- Williams: Health reform proponents may not support Mao's murders, but they support that "level of government control"
- Limbaugh wants to be precise: "fascism is a more apt illustration of what Obama is establishing"
- In CNBC host Cramer's "U.S.S.A.": "Comrade[]" Obama is a "Bolshevik" who is "taking cues from Lenin"
- NRO's Geraghty: Obama's health care plan is "really more Trotskyite in nature"
- Wash. Times invokes Nazism, publishes Hitler photo while criticizing health-care provisions in stimulus
- "Mr. Independent" Dobbs repeatedly smears Obama, progressives as "socialist"
- Quinn agrees with caller that Democrats "took over the country without firing a shot," adds "so did Hitler"
- Savage: Obama "is a neo-marxist fascist dictator in the making"
- Quinn attacks "our undocumented president" who is "a communist"
- UPDATED REPORT: Conservative media push 75-year-old "socialized medicine" smear against health care reform
Conservative media assert that Obama, health care reform threaten America
Media Matters has also complied examples of conservative media asserting that Democrats and health care reform could destroy the United States"
- Limbaugh as truth-telling Obama: "So don't you understand, I'm in the process of destroying your country"
- Beck insists audience "must not allow" health care bill to pass, warns it would mean "the end of America as you know it"
- Limbaugh says Founders "rose up against a tyranny that is nothing compared to" health bill, liberalism is "un-American"
- Beck: Health care reform "is the end of the American Constitution"
- Limbaugh: "Human beings will die earlier than normal" under "freedom killing" and "life threatening" health-care reform
- Morris says "Obama will lose the Congress in '10. The problem is we may not have a country by then"
- Quinn: "Your republic died in November of 2008" in "a takeover by the 1960s Bolsheviks"
- Quinn on health care reform: "the end of the republic ... the final nail in the coffin of the individual, free human being"
Fact is, both the far right and far left have gotten so loud and rancorous that they've sucked the air out of rational debate in this country. Congress, first under the Republicans (pre 2007) and then under Democrats (2007 to present) have crossed every conceivable line of petty power mongering and now we're at the point that nothing gets passed, or it only gets passed through closed door session, literally being jammed through in the dark of night (and on weekends!?), bills not read, votes being bought, nothing but special interests being represented.
Left and right, conservative and liberal, can disagree philosophically, but when we start dismantling the structure of our Constitutional Republic just to get our way, every side, every party, every institution, every special interest, and yes, every individual loses. It's not that Obama is a Socialist, and Bush wasn't a Fascist, what threatens the fabric of our society is the deterioration in trust and the rising generation is losing faith in the process. God help this country!
But these remarks were just an extension of those at the State of Union where he said that...
And the TV pundits work hand in hand with the Republicans to make public discourse more hostile and less substantive.
We need more of this kind of honesty in politics and media.
Obama is professing socialist ideas -- where government control of your life is paramount to individual freedom.
MSM seems confused and uncertain what's going on. They'll get it eventually.
1. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - DEFICIT NEUTRAL BILL: "Do the American people believe that this almost 2,000 page bill won't add to the deficit?" [Rep. Eric Cantor, 10/29/2009]
HOUSE BILL - DEFICIT NEUTRAL BILL: According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House bill costs $894 billion over 10 years and actually reduces the deficit by $30 billion and continues to reduce the deficit over the second 10 years.
2. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - REDUCE COSTS OVER LONG TERM: "Nevertheless, House Republicans recognize the need to lower health care costs." [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), 9/9/09]
HOUSE BILL - REDUCES COSTS OVER LONG TERM: Encourages payment reforms that can help lower costs. Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish specific benchmarks for expansion of the Accountable Care Organization, Payment Bundling, and Medical Home pilot programs. The bill will also slow the rate of growth of the Medicare program from 6.6% annually to 5.3%.
3. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: "Interstate competition allowing people to buy insurance across state lines." [Sen. John Thune (R-SD), 9/8/2009]
HOUSE BILL - POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: Allows for the creation of State Health Insurance Compacts - permits states to enter into agreements to allow for the sale of insurance across state lines.
4. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM: "Why not bring about reasonable restrictions and limits on medical malpractice claims to end the era of defensive medicine?" [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IA), 9/9/2009]
HOUSE BILL - ENCOURAGES MALPRACTICE REFORM: The bill establishes a voluntary state incentives grant program to encourage states to implement "certificate of merit" and "early offer" alternatives to traditional medical malpractice litigation.
5. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - HIGH RISK POOLS: "Senator McCain has a proposal sometimes called high-risk pools at the state level...These are efforts I think we can have bipartisan agreement on and deal with the question of pre-existing conditions." [Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), 9/10/2009]
HOUSE BILL - HIGH RISK POOLS: To fill the gap before the Exchange becomes available in 2013, the bill creates an insurance program with financial assistance for those uninsured for several months or denied policy due to preexisting conditions.
6. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO STAY ON PARENTS' POLICIES: "Recognizes that not all high school and college graduates are able to find a job that offers health care coverage after graduation. By allowing dependents to remain on their parents' health policies up to the age of 25, the number of uninsured Americans could be reduced by up to 7 million." [Republican Health Solutions Group]
HOUSE BILL - ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO STAY ON PARENTS' POLICIES: The bill requires health plans to allow young people to remain on their parents' insurance policy until they turn 27.
7. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR ABORTION: "The American people will not stand for government-run insurance that uses taxpayer money to fund abortions in this country." [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), 10/16/2009]
HOUSE BILL - NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR ABORTION: The bill prohibits abortion services from being made part of essential benefits package and prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortion (except in cases of rape, incest, and to save life of the woman).
8. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - PROTECT SMALL BUSINESSES: "Helps employers offer health care coverage to their workers by reducing their administrative costs through a new small business tax credit." [Republican Health Solutions Group]
HOUSE BILL - PROTECTS SMALL BUSINESSES: The bill exempts 86% of businesses from the requirement to provide coverage. Businesses with payrolls below $500,000 are exempt while firms with payrolls between $500,000 and $750,000 would pay a graduated penalty. Small businesses would also receive a tax credit that helps cover 50% of their health care expenses.
9. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - PROMOTE JOB WELLNESS PROGRAMS: "Promotes prevention and wellness by giving employers and insurers greater flexibility to financially reward employees who seek to achieve or maintain a healthy weight, quit smoking, and manage chronic illnesses like diabetes." [Republican Health Solutions Group]
HOUSE BILL - PROMOTE JOB WELLNESS PROGRAMS: The bill establishes a grant program to help small employers create or strengthen workplace wellness programs.
10. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - DELIVERY SYSTEM REFORM: "Uses new and innovative treatment programs to better coordinate care between health
care providers, ensuring that those with chronic disease receive the care they need and do not continue to fall through the cracks." [Republican Health Solutions Group]
HOUSE BILL - DELIVERY SYSTEM REFORM: The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish specific benchmarks for the expansion of the Accountable Care Organization, Payment Bundling, and Medical Home pilot programs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/31/tv-soundoff-sunday-talkin_n_443488.html
Feel free to point out the government takeover and socialism.
Socialism is when the government controls the means of production. England has socialized medicine. The VA is socialized medicine. This is when the doctors and nurses all work for the state. Single payer and socialized medicine are very different. Single payer is more like Medicare - the doctors do not work for the state, the coverage of the individual is paid for by the state. Do you see this difference?
I am sorry your school failed to provide you with even the basic of civics lessons in order to grasp these concepts. They are simple. You seem confused and uncertain about what's going on. I fear you will not eventually understand. But, let me make it very simple for you. The options are to find a larger pool of people under one plan (whether that be a single-payer, government funded, or a hybrid) in order to bring down costs or to deny care to those without coverage. Which do you choose? Right now, we cover those without health insurance at the most costly level possible to the rest of us. We cover them through ERs, etc. This is the worst possible way to pay for the uninsured. The free market would dictate that we deny care to those who cannot afford it. Is this your alternative? Do you have any alternatives? Do you even understand the debate?
a radical, they should be in jail along with Bush, Chaney and the rest of that cartel
It all circles back to skin color, doesn't it?
The Right has abandoned the issues (the benefits of healthcare reform vs. the drawbacks and costs) for hyperbole and character assassination (Obama is a Communist). Even Clinton got a fairer shake from the Right, and they impeached him. That is damn well saying something.
Randy
Right hasn't abandoned the HC issues. They have submitted a number of bills all rejected by Reid and Pelosi. O refuses to consider the two biggest issues that would benefit people immediately: tort reform and interstate insurance purchase. In 4000 pages of bills, Obamacare has a Secretary who can make people's lives miserable and no one here cares about that. All the people a mmfa want is any HC bill irrespective of how it is implemented. Read the bills and defend the contents.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/31/tv-soundoff-sunday-talkin_n_443488.html
1. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - DEFICIT NEUTRAL BILL: "Do the American people believe that this almost 2,000 page bill won't add to the deficit?" [Rep. Eric Cantor, 10/29/2009]
HOUSE BILL - DEFICIT NEUTRAL BILL: According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House bill costs $894 billion over 10 years and actually reduces the deficit by $30 billion and continues to reduce the deficit over the second 10 years.
2. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - REDUCE COSTS OVER LONG TERM: "Nevertheless, House Republicans recognize the need to lower health care costs." [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), 9/9/09]
HOUSE BILL - REDUCES COSTS OVER LONG TERM: Encourages payment reforms that can help lower costs. Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish specific benchmarks for expansion of the Accountable Care Organization, Payment Bundling, and Medical Home pilot programs. The bill will also slow the rate of growth of the Medicare program from 6.6% annually to 5.3%.
3. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: "Interstate competition allowing people to buy insurance across state lines." [Sen. John Thune (R-SD), 9/8/2009]
HOUSE BILL - POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: Allows for the creation of State Health Insurance Compacts - permits states to enter into agreements to allow for the sale of insurance across state lines.
4. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM: "Why not bring about reasonable restrictions and limits on medical malpractice claims to end the era of defensive medicine?" [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IA), 9/9/2009]
HOUSE BILL - ENCOURAGES MALPRACTICE REFORM: The bill establishes a voluntary state incentives grant program to encourage states to implement "certificate of merit" and "early offer" alternatives to traditional medical malpractice litigation.
5. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - HIGH RISK POOLS: "Senator McCain has a proposal sometimes called high-risk pools at the state level...These are efforts I think we can have bipartisan agreement on and deal with the question of pre-existing conditions." [Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), 9/10/2009]
HOUSE BILL - HIGH RISK POOLS: To fill the gap before the Exchange becomes available in 2013, the bill creates an insurance program with financial assistance for those uninsured for several months or denied policy due to preexisting conditions.
6. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO STAY ON PARENTS' POLICIES: "Recognizes that not all high school and college graduates are able to find a job that offers health care coverage after graduation. By allowing dependents to remain on their parents' health policies up to the age of 25, the number of uninsured Americans could be reduced by up to 7 million." [Republican Health Solutions Group]
HOUSE BILL - ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO STAY ON PARENTS' POLICIES: The bill requires health plans to allow young people to remain on their parents' insurance policy until they turn 27.
7. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR ABORTION: "The American people will not stand for government-run insurance that uses taxpayer money to fund abortions in this country." [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), 10/16/2009]
HOUSE BILL - NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR ABORTION: The bill prohibits abortion services from being made part of essential benefits package and prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortion (except in cases of rape, incest, and to save life of the woman).
8. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - PROTECT SMALL BUSINESSES: "Helps employers offer health care coverage to their workers by reducing their administrative costs through a new small business tax credit." [Republican Health Solutions Group]
HOUSE BILL - PROTECTS SMALL BUSINESSES: The bill exempts 86% of businesses from the requirement to provide coverage. Businesses with payrolls below $500,000 are exempt while firms with payrolls between $500,000 and $750,000 would pay a graduated penalty. Small businesses would also receive a tax credit that helps cover 50% of their health care expenses.
9. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - PROMOTE JOB WELLNESS PROGRAMS: "Promotes prevention and wellness by giving employers and insurers greater flexibility to financially reward employees who seek to achieve or maintain a healthy weight, quit smoking, and manage chronic illnesses like diabetes." [Republican Health Solutions Group]
HOUSE BILL - PROMOTE JOB WELLNESS PROGRAMS: The bill establishes a grant program to help small employers create or strengthen workplace wellness programs.
10. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR - DELIVERY SYSTEM REFORM: "Uses new and innovative treatment programs to better coordinate care between health
care providers, ensuring that those with chronic disease receive the care they need and do not continue to fall through the cracks." [Republican Health Solutions Group]
HOUSE BILL - DELIVERY SYSTEM REFORM: The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish specific benchmarks for the expansion of the Accountable Care Organization, Payment Bundling, and Medical Home pilot programs.
The rest of your post is full of talking points, but very little facts to support them. Fail.
As to tort reform, every credible study I've seen has concluded that its impact would be minimal. And to further the point, look at my home state of Texas. We've had tort reform since Bush was governor here and it's had no effect on health care costs here. None. What's more, as a medical professional I've seen my malpractice rates rise at the same steady rate as before tort reform.
As to lifting interstate restrictions--that's just laughable. The same insurance companies operate in all fifty states. The only thing we could expect to see if interstate insurance purchases were allowed would be an increase in premiums. Like the credit card industry, when the insurance industry no longer has to comply with individual state regulations, they'll "headquarter" in whatever state will allow them the biggest loopholes, the weakest regulation and the highest rates.
And Clinton was impeached for the cause. The Republicans knew it would come down to a party line vote and that they didn't have the votes, but they chose to tie up the Senate anyway. All at the urging of Tom Delay. What every happened to ole' Tom, anyway? Oh, right.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/obamagopqa/
I might have to watch it again.
You can get full medical coverage at the lowest price from http://bit.ly/atGzeD
It's surrealistic to watch these incompetent and very confused individuals trying to respond to Obamas responses. I mean it was one lie after another. I hope this shows the 80% of people in this Country who haven't been brainwashed by the wing-nut party that they can't give these parasites another chance until they come to their senses.
and 14 MORE closed THIS YEAR ALREADY!! Yeah ... working REAL WELL!! Of
course, his friends over at Goldman Sachs ...yeah, they're doing REAL well, with bonuses higher than almost ANYBODY in this country makes in a LIFETIME!! Yeah ... working real well ... for SOME people!!
Don't be surprised if you hear Obama killed Jesus Christ as a headline on Fox
See, this is why very little gets done in this country. Simple minds can actually be convinced of anything. Posters like seahawks never bring any facts or any relevance to any of their posts. They do not offer any insight or anything of substance. They just regurgitate what they have been spoonfed from Fox News and hate radio. And they think they have made an excellent point and walk away smiling. This is the failure of an educational system that does not teach even the most basic of civics to its young people.
The Welfare/Warfare state is healthy and running under O-Bomb-A.
And no one ever mentions the fact that the december 25 bomber tried to attack the US because Barack I-Bomb-U sent missle attacks into Yemen--nobel in hand--december 17.
Barry W. Me-Bomb-U has made it very clear; the only difference between the different regimes is a blue or red cape over the militarist empire.