Posted on 08/30/2009 5:19:33 PM PDT by Drango
At high noon on one of the hottest days of the summer, a small group of senior citizens sweated it out in front of state GOP headquarters in Raleigh, N.C., asking the Republican Party to stop using what they called "scare tactics" to turn senior citizens against overhauling the health care system. It could be the start of a silver backlash against what some say is a misinformation campaign about health care reform.
The members of the Alliance for Retired Americans were angry about a recent column by national GOP Chairman Michael Steele, who said health care reform would lead to rationing for the elderly and deep cuts to Medicare. Protester Michael Gravinese says that's not true — and he thinks Steele is trying to frighten seniors like him
"It's pretty blatant and obvious what they're doing," Gravinese says. "And that's not for the good of the country. Let's have a reasoned, honest debate about health care."
Gravinese isn't the only one who thinks his gray hair makes him a target for misinformation. The AARP does, too. The group is spending millions on an information campaign to counter what spokesman Jordan McNerney also calls scare tactics. He says from a political point of view, targeting seniors makes sense.
"Older Americans vote more than any other voting group, especially in midterm elections, so they're an influential group," McNerney says. "Especially for folks in Medicare, when you tell them that things are changing, they get pretty concerned."
AARP is nonpartisan and hasn't endorsed any overhaul proposal. But it is backing some key provisions to strengthen Medicare. McNerney says a majority of members supported a health care overhaul during the last year, though polls show that support is dwindling.
"I think in recent weeks we've seen that the scare tactics do work in a lot of cases. It's a lot easier to scare people than it is to educate them and get the facts to them."
That's where Brooks Jackson comes in. He's the director of Factcheck.org at the Annenberg School of Public Policy. He says when health care was debated in the 90s, most of the misinformation came from industry opponents, like drug and insurance companies. But not this time.
"The attacks are coming from ideological groups and individuals who are really responsible to no one but their donors," he says. "I think there is something of an incentive here for them to make as inflammatory a claim as they can manage, regardless of what the facts are, because it helps keep the donations flowing."
Jackson points out that both parties have a long history of stretching the truth when it comes to health care. He says while the Republican Party itself didn't come up with "death panels," it has been spreading some misinformation.
Senior citizen Betty Zimmerman says she's trying to fight back. She spends a lot of time talking — to friends, neighbors, anyone who'll listen to her — about what is and is not in the health care proposals.
"You know the word goes from one to another," she says. "As senior citizens, those of us that are active just need to tell the people what's going on."
Whether many senior citizens will do just that will likely play out in the coming weeks.
Laura Leslie reports for North Carolina Public Radio.
Michael Gravinese
http://www.aflcionc.org/about/eboard/congressional.php
Betty Zimmerman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcAeKe7JeNo
how about the healthcare bill cutting senior care and funding unionscare?
I wish people like this would just read the bill for themselves! WHY don’t they read it? Then they don’t have to listen to anyone, & they can make up their own mind?
To doubt the integrity of this bill is going to save their lives, not the opposite...
All seniors should sit down & READ the damn bill!
Scare tactics hmmmmmm, like Pres Bush is going to take your ss
recruiting new brothers and sisters .....obama army
Senior citizens are old, but they aren’t stupid.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that medical services are a scarce resource and government involvement will decrease the amount available to current patients.
So, what it comes down to is that Obama can “guarantee” the same or greater funding and access for medicare recipients. Of course that makes the whole deal an even bigger budget buster than it is now.
Thinking we might get a better price on supplemental insurance, my wife joined AARP. No where in the info they send out does it say anything about their coverage being an HMO, but when you dig deep the truth comes to light.
The AARP seems to be misinformation, on top of misinformation. If they are for something, I am against it.
Good policy!
Seniors by and large understand what Zero is up to.
Ask to see the list of campaign and political contributions.
They've been a liberal DemonRAT advocacy group at least since Klinton was in office. They gave millions to DemonRATs and Handgun control inc.
Apparently they don't want “Seniors” to be able to defend themselves or have healthcare.
Well, I've got news for “Seniors” of all political persuasions. If you think the “Government” takeover of health care is a good idea, you already should be seeking treatment for dementia.
AARP was initially put togather by an insurance agent (name not recalled tonight) for the purpose of marketing life, annuity, and health insurance products to Seniors. Back then, this was called a “Marketing Group” and the insurance industry went crazy creating “Marketing Groups”. Been there, done that....
Other service products (car rental, hotel/motel reservations, airline reservations) did not take long to sign on to the AARP “Marketing Group” agenda. It was a valid concept and it worked. CAPITALISM AT WORK....
The DemoRat party exists on GROUPS - not individual Americans and it did not take long for them to recognize the political value of the AARP membership.
At a point in time, the orignal founder of AARP ( an insurance agent) was taken out of the ownership/management of AARP to be replaced by a leftist DemoRAT group that has taken it to where it is today - an alleged spokesperson for Seniors, but really a tool for the radical LEFT and the Facist agenda they advocate.
AARP is the ACORN of seniors dedicated to the principles of Socialism and the down throw of the Republic of America.
What did Benjamin Franklin say in 1776 to the question of what kind of government had the Constitutional Assembly given the citizens of the colonies... “A Republic as long as you can keep it.”
We are very close to losing it... By this time next year we may not have the internet to use to express the Conservative opinon ... What will we do then?
In Franklin’s day, they TARRED AND FEATHERED... maybe we should start doing the same to the avowed internal enemies of of America, who want to take the country into the abyss of socialism and the New World Order...
Today, I cleaned and oiled my knife and fork in anticipation of the day when I might need them.. Tar and feathers are hard to find at WalMart. Suggest that you do the same, if you know what I mean...
Glen Beck did a great job this last week... Why has not Rush, Hannity, Boortz, Levin, et al, spoken out this way. Hopefully, they will take up the baton and run with it as well as Beck has done.
My guns are oiled, and loaded.
>I wish people like this would just read the bill for themselves! WHY don’t they read it? Then they don’t have to listen to anyone, & they can make up their own mind?<
I have an aunt who is in her 70’s pretty spry yet and a big democrat supporter. She has no idea that the democrats have been hijacked by socialists. She believes what she sees on MSLSD.
She has no way to actually read the bill, computer illiterate. She reads the papers, watches news and gets her political correspondence through democratic organizations.
When I try to tell her the truth, show her what is really happening, she absolutely refuses to believe it.
Part of her disbelief is that her beloved party would never lie to her, the media surely would never cover it up and she doesn’t want to feel used.
It’s perfect for zero’s plans, I love her dearly and she will take my advice on anything except this.
A prime example of why they won’t read the bills, they can’t, it’s just not available to them. So they take what they can and believe it because it just seems to orchestrated to be false.
I wish I had a magic answer to educate them. If you find one, let me know please. I’m all up for it.
Well done! Good digging.
The more I see this, the more we begin to realize .... ALL of the media stories are like this.
Perhaps some one on their side could figure out how to read and spend a few days doing that to the bills that we know are there? Then they would see that no one is scaring anyone, it is all spelled out there for anyone to read!
Print the bill out and go through the more heavily-publicized parts with her... If she’s a spry 70, she’s likely not unable to see what those parts would mean to her personally - once she sees them in writing and you are there to break down the legal lingo for her. Just a thought. Good luck!
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