Distortions -- or Truths?

We should have "an honest debate" on health care, said Barack Obama in his Aug. 22 radio address, "not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions."

Among the "phony claims" made against the House bill, says the president, are that it provides funding for abortions, guarantees coverage for illegal aliens, contains "death panels" and represents a federal takeover of the health care system.

Is Obama right? Are critics misleading and frightening folks with falsehoods about Obamacare?

However, while the House Energy and Commerce Committee at first voted to exclude abortions from "essential" services, to the howls of NOW, Chairman Henry Waxman conducted a second vote, to drop the anti-abortion amendment. That vote carried.

In short, funding for abortions remains an open question. And whether Obama agrees to drop it to assure passage, he supports the Freedom of Choice Act that would, opponents insist, overturn every state and federal restriction, including the Hyde Amendment, which forbids federal funding. Obama has already used his authority to lift the Reagan administration prohibition against using foreign aid funds to procure abortions abroad.

Obama is a pro-abortion absolutist. And if abortion-funding is not in the final health care bill, does anyone doubt that Democrats will move swiftly to incorporate it in future legislation?

As for illegal aliens, Obama is right again. They are not covered in any of the five bills. All their children are automatic citizens and are covered, however. And no illegal alien who comes to an emergency room can be denied care. And there is no eligibility verification screening provided for in any of the bills to sort out and exclude illegal aliens.

Obama said in Mexico City he is determined to put our 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens on a "path to citizenship." That would make them legal immigrants. And legal immigrants are covered.

Moreover, a high percentage of all immigrants, legal and illegal, are poor, uneducated, unskilled and unable to find the kind of jobs that carry health insurance. We have some 40 million immigrants today, with another 100 million expected by 2050.

Any national health insurance system put in place today is going to be swamped if we do not close the borders and halt immigration.

Obama and the Democrats, who are almost all pro-abortion and pro-amnesty, are assuring us their health care bill will not advance these goals to which they are committed by ideology. This is disingenuous at best.

What about the "death panels." No, they are not in the bill. Nor is there any doctor's right to perform euthanasia or mercy-killing.

Obama's resolve to cut health care costs, at the same time he repeatedly reminds us that half of all such costs are incurred in the last six months of life, however, points straight to rationed care for the elderly ill, where drugs, procedures and operations necessary to life are going to be curtailed or cut off. There is no other way to get there.

And if government bureaucrats are making those decisions, can they not fairly be called death panels, especially if the folks for whom they are deciding are suffering from such diseases as senility and Alzheimer's?

How do you curtail or cut care for the elderly sick and terminally ill without advancing the date of their deaths? Sarah Palin may have been factually incorrect, but her instincts about what is coming were dead-on.

What of Obama's dismissal as "phony" the claim that the "public option" for health insurance must lead to a government takeover?

But did not Barney Frank say the government option is the best way to a single-payer system -- that is, a government monopoly? Barack says he wants competition. But in the past, he, too, has spoken of favoring a single-payer system and he, too, has said a public option is the first step on a 10- or 20-year march to single-payer.

Because Obama has ceased talking of a single-payer system and it is not in the bill does not mean that a public option will not put us on the road to government control.

Indeed, does anyone believe Barack has any objections to government-run universal health care? Does anyone think that a government-run insurance program, with access to tax revenues and the ability to undercut all competition, will not crowd out private insurance and take us to where Barney and Barack want to go?

Both Barney and Barack are pro-abortion and pro-amnesty. Both have spoken favorably of a single-payer system where Uncle Sam shoulders aside the insurance companies that Nancy Pelosi calls the "villains" in the health care system.

As a Fabian socialist, however, Obama will accept a small victory, if the road leads toward ultimate triumph and the alternative is a big defeat.

Thus, what the center-right needs to do is administer to this Fabian socialist a decisive defeat in a big battle -- like this one we are in.

Does the House bill fund abortions? No.

Incorrect Pat. The House Bill mandates mandatory time between pregnancies. This is post-facto abortion if you get pregnant during the official time allowed. From the bill:

Pg 769 3-5 Nurse Home Visit Services - “increasing birth intervals between pregnancies.”
Pg 770 SEC 1714 Federal Government mandates eligibility for State Family Planning Services.

As for illegal aliens, Obama is right again. They are not covered in any of the five bills.

Wrong again, Pat. Once again, it is hidden in the lack of details but intelligent people can read, and discern:

pp 50 SEC. 152. PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION IN HEALTH CARE.
pp 51 SEC. 152. 4 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.—To implement the requirement set forth in subsection (a), the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall, not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, promulgate such regulations as are necessary or appropriate to insure that all health care and related services (including insurance coverage and public health activities) covered by this Act are provided (whether directly or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements) without regard to personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services.

What about the "death panels." No, they are not in the bill. Nor is there any doctor's right to perform euthanasia or mercy-killing.

Now you are just being obtuse. The bill specifically establishes a panel that decides what treatment you receive:

PG 30 Line 123 THERE WILL BE A Government COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get, the majority of which are appointed by the president or one of his direct appointees.

Next, PG 253 Line 10-18 Government sets value of Dr’s time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans.

Further, PG 425 Lines 4-12 Government mandates Advance Care Planning Consult.

PG 427 Lines 15-24 Government mandates program for orders for end of life. The Government has a say in how your life ends.
PG 429 Lines 1-9 An “advance care planning consultant” will be used frequently as patients health deteriorates.
PG 429 Lines 10-12 “advance care consultation” may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from Government.
PG 429 Lines 13-25 The Government will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.
PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Government will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life.
PG 432 Lines 18-21 The Government will publish “quality measures” for individual’s end of life in Federal Register.

There are far too many facts listed in the House Bill that spell out the opposite of what Pat claims. He himself refutes his own thesis, just buried in the words and not a good sound bite.

And let us not forget that it also includes racist provisions requiring racial preferences in the education, training and staffing of medical professionals. A large chunk of money is also provided for that purpose.
I believe there are also various punishments spelled out for organizations not in compliance with the racial quota requirements.

Maybe this has a little something to do with Holder hiring 50 more attorneys at the Justice Department to pursue racial charges.

There is nothing that Obama touches that doesn’t have some kind of stealth racism and racial preferences built into it.

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