Right-wing media use Clinton's heart procedure to stoke fears about health care reform
Following former President Bill Clinton's hospitalization to undergo a procedure on his heart, several conservative media figures used the incident to attack Democratic health care reform efforts. For example, Rush Limbaugh said he was "thankful we don't yet have Obamacare," or "the death panel" might not have approved Clinton's surgery.
Limbaugh, Malkin, Fox News' Johnson use Clinton's hospitalization to attack reform
Limbaugh is "thankful we don't yet have Obamacare," or "the death panel" might not have approved Clinton's surgery. On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh said he was sending out his "best wishes" to Clinton, then stated, "All of us need to be thankful we don't yet have Obamacare. Otherwise, somebody on the death panel might have assumed that he's old and retired and might not have been worth the expense." [Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, 2/12/10]
Johnson exploits Clinton's heart surgery to stoke fears about health care rationing. On Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade asked, "So if the Democrats' health care reform had gone through, would President Clinton have received the stents?" Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. replied that "best practices" for medical procedures could be determined by government "comparative effectiveness" studies. Johnson further stated, "If the new standard is, save money, best practices, does President Clinton -- or you or I who needs it -- get the stent under that new regimen of health care effectiveness?" [Fox & Friends , 2/12/10]
Malkin treated Clinton's procedure as an excuse to trumpet October 2009 complaint by stent-maker about health care reform bill. In a blog post headlined "Bill Clinton, stents, and Demcare," Michelle Malkin reported that Clinton had undergone a procedure to place two stents in one of his coronary arteries. She included a link to an October 20, 2009, Reuters article that reported that Boston Scientific Corp, a stent manufacturer, "warned on Tuesday that a proposed tax in the U.S. health care reform bill that cleared the Senate Finance Committee last week could have serious consequences for the company, including job losses." Malkin concluded her blog post: "A teachable moment: Taxing innovation in the name of 'health care reform' has consequences." [MichelleMalkin.com, 2/12/10]
Conservative media previously used Kennedy's death to attack health care reform
Limbaugh, Marr suggest that health care reform would deny care to elderly cancer patients like Kennedy. Previously, conservative media figures used Sen. Ted Kennedy's death to attack health care reform, baselessly suggesting that if reform passes, elderly cancer patients -- as Kennedy was at the time -- would be "denied" treatments or that their treatments would be "rationed." Limbaugh stated that "it would be a tremendous disservice to come up with a health care bill we have now in the House and is floating around in the Senate, the one that Obama's talking about, where the government is going to decide whether people like Ted Kennedy get to go through every aspect of survival that he did." Guest-hosting The Lou Dobbs Show, Tom Marr said that under a public option, a "bureaucrat" would have told Kennedy, "77, brain tumor, bye-bye."
The Extreme Right has a lot in common with Tooth-Paste.
If you squeezed them they would ooze.
The more the Extreme Right opens their Mouths the more they Amuse.
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
No health care system would be able to adequately treat him without private funds.
Suppose a person needs an expensive procedure paid for by the government, and that the government can't afford it. What will the conservative stereotype of a liberal do?
a) let the person die to preserve the budget
b) spend deeply into the red to save the person and thus own and indoctrinate them forever
c) save the person, then raise taxes to the moon on America's finest small businessmen
More importantly than loosing than to the Dems, they would loose to the truth. That is why they work so hard at hiding, avoiding, twisting, and doing everything thing except telling, the truth.
Progressives should run an all out aggressive "dishonesty" campaign against the Republicans and their conservative media outlets in which they expose all the lies and distortions of their opponents.
This is pure conditioning for the flock. obamacare = death panels = absurd irrational attack on fairness and common sense. It is almost Pavlovian, isn't it? Sick liberal = hypocracy = indifferent health care treatment.
I am sure he didn't mention that Clinton, like Rush, has enough money to go to the best doctors even if some sort of Obamacare was in place.
I can only wonder why it is the right cannot tell the truth ABOUT ANYTHING?
Why is it they have to always resort to lies? Especially for a group or people who continually push their better than thou values and holy christianity on everyone else and wahhing about how the 10 commandments should be in every school but don't really pay any attention to what the 10 commandments really because lying to people is okay with God if your a republican.
And they know it.
So they're only option is to lie, and distract from reality.
That's why we get trolls who derail threads here! They don't want us to actually be able to discuss the issues, because it hurts their misinformation campaign. They know that it poisons the national discourse, but that's good for them.
It's now been over seven and a half hours since you posted your BS. It's been over six hours since foghornleghorn challenged you on it. Can you back it up? I'm doubtful. Make that EXTREMELY doubtful.
In other words: "You must prove your innocence."
Implied in: You believe what you wish. is that you will continue to believe what you will, whether anyone disproves it or not.
First, I doubt seriously that I personally know you.
Second, it was already pointed out the the video was edited.
Third, it is not up to me to "prove" anything.
Forth, from what I see you don't have an open mind, so you are not really here to debate anything.
BTW I consider myself a centrist. I am not a Repub or a Dem. When I vote, I study the canidates and the issues and then vote for the person who I feel is closer to being the right choice, based on my beliefs.
Saying it isn't proving it. You have the link. You have seen the tape. If you believe it to be unfairly edited, it continues to be your responsibility to support that allegation that it is. Otherwise it remains only that: an allegation.
Interestingly, I have not reflected any point of view other than to a)point out that the tape exists; and b)to say that it offers reasonable cause for concern. If you believe that is outside the mainstream of rational though, then continue to believe and behave as you are.
Funny, I could have sworn that he said we needed to look at whether a procedure was actually necessary or not and whether a pain killer might provide as much or more releif, based on the individual case.
What exactly do you think he meant?
I would say that we means the people actually involved in it at the time. The person and their family with input from their pysician.
Come on give me your opinion, you have mine.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.
Obama didn't say that someone who would benefit from a medical procedure shouldn't get it. In fact, he said the exact opposite of that. He said a lot MORE than the uTube video you provided, which dishonestly cropped his comments.
President Obama suggested at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive and ultimately futile procedures performed on people who are about to die and don't stand to gain from the extra care.
In a nationally televised event at the White House, Obama said families need better information so they don't unthinkingly approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care."
Here's a link to the transcript of the whole town hall meeting!
I'll tell YOU what. I'll believe what the words from Obama, perfectly understandable in plain English, actually state. That does NOT support your claim. Additionally, I provided support for my refutation of your falsehood. Your youtube link doesn't support you.
You're a liar.
Name calling + no substance is unbecoming and is a logical fallacy.
Name calling + substance is not a logical fallacy and is easily ignored by an adult.
To continue your education, I'll translate your youtube into simpler language since you can't even see that the others here have refuted it and the ball's in your court to defend or admit being owned.
Question: "If expensive surgery makes someone better, can we do it?"
Answer: "If expensive surgery doesn't make someone better, we should consider not doing it."
That would be you, weasel.
Obama never recommended that people for whom treatment is a good idea not get that treatment. He said that we need to evaluate treatment options, and make sure that 'nothing' is considered as a treatment option where appropriate. Just because we CAN provide all kinds of extensive medical treatments nowadays doesn't mean we SHOULD do so.
For the mother of the woman in the audience, she should have gotten a pacemaker. For Obama's grandmother, she shouldn't have gotten a hip replacement, since her health was already so fragile. For some people, rather than getting a medical procedure, a painkiller is a better option - make them comfortable with their existing medical conditions rather than more invasive procedures that most likely will further adversely affect their health without significant long-term benefits!
I did not reference Obama's grandmother's situation in my comment string; therefore I will not comment on it now.
I am glad we got to an agreement.
If you're behaving like a fool, and I call you a fool, it's not namecalling, you liar.
And your note above has NO relevance to my post, you disingenuous poster.
...wait, that's not fair to the porn industry. My apologies to Larry Flynt.
I'm not advocating this, but if Michelle Malkin were dumped in the middle of London after being given a curable STD (which I'm not so sure she DOESN'T have), and robbed at knifepoint and cut several times, she'd change her tune on the NHS over there.
Again, NOT advocating the above, but I wouldn't cry a tear for her.
I think it's despicable for media (and Rep. politicians) to jump on this particular band wagon - it's in incredibly poor taste and glaringly highlights the desire to pounce on any little excuse to badmouth this adminstration, and Dem's in general... to campaign, as dirty as you please...