Can I ask each of you to take off your respective political party hats for a little while and just ask you to listen to my talking points. Can I ask you to evaluate them without hitting the "Political Party Loyalty" reset button? For lack of time, I am only going to address 3 or 4 issues that President Obama addressed in his speech. I believe these topics are sufficient to support my logical basis for my conclusion at the end of this article.
Let me begin with this contention: The real battle lines are not Republican vs Democrat, nor Conservative vs Liberal, nor White vs Color nor Rich vs Poor; the true battle lines are WE THE PEOPLE vs Corrupt politicians. My position on this issue are based on placing love of country over loyalty to political party.
Liberal Americans, please tolerate my following quote. I am sorry, but he said it and no liberal has said the equivalent. Rush Limbaugh said, "Words mean things." [Yes, I use to be Rush fanatic but I don't think he has been critical enough of the Republicans lately. I think he has been co-opted by his success.] Get some liberal to say something similar in a meaningful way, and I will quote them in the future.
Please understand what I am about to say I would say regardless of whether the President were a Republican, conservative, white, purple or otherwise. My position and sentiments do not spring from racism nor party loyalty nor political indoctrination. They are born of logic and logical deduction. Question Authority, Question all authority, even me. Having asked you to take off your political party hat, I demand of you to question everything I say. Ponder on it yourself. Debate it in your own mind. Agree with me because you have made the effort to assess the truthfulness of what I have imparted to you. The test will be your ability to defend what you believe in your calmly and rationally in your own words this position when confronted by persons who are not of similar mind.
TOPIC 1 - NO DEATH PANELS?
The President represented last night their would be no death panels. For the sake of this argument, we are going to assume that President Obama meant that there would be no groups of persons who would meet to decide individually, or through policy, that any person or group of persons with similar conditions would be denied medical treatment which would cause or accelerate death. I think that the reader and I can agree this is what we think this concept is what President Obama refers to when he says persons, such as myself, say there will be death panels. And I believe it is our mutual perception of reality that when President Obama calls persons like me liars, he is saying there will be no groups of persons that deny treatment to individuals or groups of similarly affected persons, directly or by government policy in his Government Health care program. This is the perception of reality I am speaking to.
First Rule of Economics:
Whenever you have a desirable product or service perceived to free, the supply will face unlimited demand. Since the country does have unlimited resources, demand must be reduced. And since, by definition, we cannot increase the price to reduce demand the only way to balance health care supply and demand is by rationing. The only way you can ration is by denying treatment. Now, if you are an administrator, How do you decide who gets rationed out of health care? Inevitably the most hopeless cases are going to be where you withhold rationing. Does that fit our mutually agreed upon perception of what a death panel is?
Too abstract, read the VA Hospital, handbook "Your life, Your Choices" aka the VA Death Manual. See infamous page 21 <here> This publication is being used as the basis of a computer program in the VA hospitals right now! Here is the time line.
Now see Division A, Title I, Subtitle C, Section 123 of HR 3200
SEC 123. Health Benefits Advisory Committee Subsection (b) Duties
Can we all mutually agree that this Government gobblety-guk boils down "How we are going to ration Government Health Care?
Now back to the time line for this advance care planning:
Advance Care Planning and Your Life, Your Choices in VHA
July 2, 2009 VHA published an update to VHA Handbook 1004.02, Advance Care Planning and Management of Advance Directives, which continues to mention the anticipated on-line interactive module version Your Life, Your Choices on MyHealtheVet.
Are we able to agree that Obama was president on July 2, 2009? Are we able to agree that if President Obama did not like this line of logic continuing in the VA Hospitals, he could have stopped it with not much more than the snap of his fingers? And therefore, this be something he is not opposed to is a logical conclusion? Are we in agreement?
Instructions: This exercise will help you think about and express what really matters to you. For each row, check (?) one answer to express how you would feel if this factor by itself described you.
For each the following questions, the veteran is asked what he thinks his “life like this would be“:
- difficult but acceptable?
- worth living, but just barely?
- not worth living? [the word "not" is underlined in the handbook]
- can’t answer now?
Here are the questions:
a. I can no longer walk but get around in a wheelchair.
b. I can no longer get outside—I spend all day at home.
c. I can no longer contribute to my family’s well being.
d. I am in severe pain most of the time.
e. I have severe discomfort most of the time (such as nausea, diarrhea, or shortness of breath).
f. I rely on a feeding tube to keep me alive.
g. I rely on a kidney dialysis machine to keep me alive.
h. I rely on a breathing machine to keep me alive.
i. I need someone to help take care of me all of time.
j. I can no longer control my bladder.
k. I can no longer control my bowels.
l. I live in a nursing home.
m. I can no longer think clearly-I am confused all the time.
n. I can no longer recognize family/friends
o. I can no longer talk and be understood by others.
p. My situation causes severe emotional burden for my family (such as feeling worried or stressed all the time).
q. I am a severe financial burden on my family.
r. I cannot seem to “shake the blues.”
s. Other (write in):
At the bottom of the page is this:
Instructions: To help others make sense out of your answers, think about the following questions and be sure to explain your answers to your loved ones and health care providers.
If you checked “worth living, but just barely” for more than one factor, would a combination of these factors make your life “not worth living?” If so, which factors?
If you checked “not worth living,” does this mean that you would rather die than be kept alive?
If you checked “can’t answer now,” what information or people do you need to help you decide?
Can we agree that this language meets our mutually agreed perception of what a death panel would do? Based on the duties of the Sec. 123 Health Benefits Advisory Board, can we see where this is going? Do you think they will reinvent the wheel or adopt what is already government approved policy? Can we agree that based upon our mutually agreed perceptions, this constitutes a death panel? Can we then also agree that President Obama lied, or at least was duplicitous, when he told us that anyone who said there would be death panels in his proposed Government Health care were liars?
TOPIC 2 - THE GOVERNMENT SCREWS UP VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES
Now, while I am on the topic of VA Hospitals, let us speak to the incompetency of Government in general. Social Security, Medicare, the bank bailout, and the VA Hospitals. Can we all agree that these are examples of the Governments complete inability to manage anything? And it does not have anything to do with which political party was last in charge. This goes back over decades. Art imitates life. Please see Article 99 circa 1992.Where did those folks get their perception of VA Hospital reality?
Is it unreasonable to ask President Obama to straighten out the VA Hospitals first, before he tries to take on Nationwide Socialized Health Care? Do you agree that our Veterans, people who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country and liberty should get the best care the nation has? If the government treats these real heroes like this, how will the Government treat us average citizens?
If this Socialized Health care thing is going to be so great, why are they trying to vote themselves exempt from the program? Instead of fixing the Social Security mess, the Politicians removed themselves from Social Security and left us average citizens to suffer from the mess. Do you agree with me that if Socialized Health care passes and tanks, that thee politicians will vote themselves out of it and leave us with yet another bureaucratic nightmare?
All that having been said, can we Now can we mutually agree that the Government screws up virtually everything it touches? Can we agree that the free market system has issues, but we must reform it without handing control over to the government?
TOPIC 3 - ILLEGAL ALIENS WON'T BE COVERED UNDER OBAMACARE?
Please see section H.R. 3200 - 242(a)(1) Affordable Credit Eligible Individual Definition & 242(a)(2) Treatment of Family. This is the path by which Illegal Immigrants get free Obamacare. Children of illegals born in the USA become Citizens and are therefore eligible for Obamacare. 242(a)(2) says that the family of the Affordable Credit Eligible Individual and the actual Affordable Credit Eligible Individual shall be treated as one entity. Put another way, children born to illegals immigrants while living in the USA are often referred to as "anchor children". Being born here, despite having illegal children, they are entitled to be citizens (talk to your congressman and ask why?) and can later sponsor the rest of their family into the USA. This section says that the anchor child's family are to be treated as one and the same. In other words, illegal immigrants become eligible for health care through there anchor child.
Now, did President Obama somehow mean that the family of anchor children are no longer illegal immigrants ? or did he forget that even though HR 3200 made illegal immigrants eligible for Obamacare through anchor children they were still illegal immigrants? or is did President Obama mean that he is drafting an entirely new piece of Obamacare legislation that won't have anchor children provisions? (Yes, I know. My head hurts too.)
Can we agree that at best President Obama has to clarify what he means and/or the reality he wants us to perceive on the issue of illegal immigrants getting Obamacare?
Can we agree that unless President Obama says he was writing his own version of health care that does not include the anchor child provision, North Carolina Representative Joe Wilson was correct in fact, if not decorum, in calling President Obama a liar with regards to the coverage of illegal immigrants? (If Representative Wilson acted because he believes the USA is on the brink of collapse and this might be the straw to break the camels back, decorum be damned; He did the right thing. What good is decorum, if the country is destroyed. If he was not so motivated, then it is important that decorum and respect be maintained to prevent an escalating quid pro quo from developing between the parties] If President Obama was not referring to referring to his own, yet unreleased version of health care, can we agree that President Obama was being duplicitous in misrepresenting what health care coverage illegal immigrants will recieve?
TOPIC 4 - THE POLITICIAN ENGLISH LANGUAGE GAME - What does "is" mean?
All of the above is subject to commonly accepted meanings of words, sentences, tenses and definitions in the English language. Much was written about former President Clinton offering advice to President Obama. This is the same President that debated the meaning of the word "IS" and the meaning of the phrase "Sexual Relations" in a deposition under oath. Since President Clinton offered advice to President Obama, it seems reasonable to expect that former President Clinton also advised President Obama on how to used semantics, etc. to dodge difficult topics, to spin, to rely on subtlety of the English language to avoid instinctive reflexive body gestures and facial gestures that betray anybody when they lie. For example, on one level it could be the truth to say there would be no death panels because they would be called, lets postulate "Medical Expense Review Boards" On one level he would be telling the truth, but in reality this would just be playing games with words. I hear you liberals, let me throw you a bone - Maybe Republican President Nixon was playing word games when he told America, "I am not a Crook". Perhaps he meant President Nixon was not a "bent or curved instrument"The point of all this is that you just can't take politicians at there word, you must parse what they say. All politicians will generally try to tell you what they think you want to hear. That is why I keep saying, "Question Authority"
CONCLUSION
For all the reasons above, I am against Socialized Medicine. That is why I am for Free Market Health care with appropriate tweeks from the Government to cure the real issues that do exist in the current Health care Free Market Marketplace. Just because I am against Government takeover of Health Care, does not mean I am against Health Care reform. No matter how bad you want socialized medicine, it won't change the fact that US Government screws up almost every large social program that it touches. To be in favor of more Government control of health care in face of this fact simply dooms you to harsh disappointment and our country to economic disaster.
Can I ask you in me in join me in resisting any Nationwide Socialized Health Care ? Will you join me in forcing the Government to fix the currently existing problems with free market with minimum government intervention? If we create a safety net through private charity and tax breaks for those who have legitimate reasons for being unable to fund their own health care, will that address some of your concerns? If we can agree that the Government cannot gain control of our Health Care Economy, I promise I will beat up on the Republicans as much as the Democrats if that is what it takes to gain your respect and trust.
What say you?
And now for the conclusion based on logical inference that I promised you at the beginning.
I don't think that anyone knows what really motivates a political leader. Can we agree that we hope that our political leaders should be motivated to stay in power by making their constituents happy? Can we agree that any leader that has the best interests of his constituents at heart would be honest with them? And certainly not lie to them about anything that would adversely affect their well-being and the well-being of the country?
Can we agree that if health care is really about health care, there is no need for lying? If you have followed my logic then you should make the next logical deduction yourself?
If a President wants health care for his constituents because he believes it is in the best interests of his constituents, then their should be no reason to lie, misrepresent or be duplicitous about any aspect of it. I hope it is intuitive to you that if the President believes the people won't like the truth and reacts by attempting to obsure the truth, you know whose interests is he more concerned with? Which is it? You, his constituent, or his own?
I encourage you to reflect on what I have just written, and determine your direction by using your own common sense. Please ask yourself:
Is Health Care really about Health Care or is Health Care really about acquiring power?
Thank you for your time, my fellow citizens.
May fortune find you in good health.
Respectfully submitted,
Don Mashak
The Cynical Patriot
Comments
"the true battle lines are WE THE PEOPLE vs Corrupt politicians"
"'Words mean things' ... Get some liberal to say something similar in a meaningful way, and I will quote them in the future."
For a guy who's asking us to take off our "party hats," you use some fairly didactic language. Saying that "the government screws up virtually everything it touches" is quite an overstatement if you consider how large and complex this nation is, and how much infrastructure is required to make things run smoothly and safely.
So, "Is Health Care really about Health Care or is Health Care really about acquiring power?" Is your question really about what's good for the general public, or just more rhetoric for inspiring knee-jerk responses to serious issues?
What I fear most is that this latest effort to reform healthcare in America will just be another ineffective bill that never addresses the real issues. I'd take Medicare over the current "system" anyday.
Would you rather have your health decided by an elected rep or a profit driven board?
The government should not be in charge of health care. It just cannot work. And if you think about how Pres. Obama says it will be paid for, it is just not possible. His own accountants said it won't work. What needs to happen is this: Citizens need to be able to shop the country for the isurance provider that suits them best rather than finding one in their own state or who their employer provides. This will create great competition among the insur. agencies, which will cause prices to drop. Those that have difficulty affording insurance will be able to because of low prices. And those that still cannot afford insurance, which will be a low number, like it is now (tho lower than now) relative to the insured population, will CONTINUE to go to the emergancy room for care, which is and always has been paid for with tax dollars. We just cannot leave it up to the government to take care of this. The people are better at creating competition. Let us do it. The people will pull through.
We have to have faith in ourselves. We may need the government make a rule that allows individuals to shop for insurance outside of state lines and requires employers to match or pay for the insurance that an employee finds other than what they offer, but for the most part, we need to rely on ourselves to bring this country back. What is wrong with us today? Why do we feel we need to just give the problems up to the government? We say, "they will fix it for us." Our country became great because of determination and the "persuit of happiness."
Way to go!
Finally some one shows how the VA is run poorly and the same group wants to run US health care.
Hello Jim Benz:
I am at a loss for words. I reach out to you and ask you to give me a liberal that said something same or similar to the conservatives I quoted, and instead of doing so "you try to hand me my butt" by saying I am being political.
It is not my fault that Rush Limbaugh said "Words Mean things" meaning we are tired of double speak from anyone. That is not political, that is fact. Am I not allowed to quote people if they are conservative. Please, instead of wasting time trying to continue that anymosity, provide me with a liberal who said something that means about the same thing and I will quote them instead. How do you get upset over that offer?
If you say to me that Richard Nixon, a Republican President responsible for Watergate, said "I am not a crook" is that a fact or political.
Please get your head in the game. The politicians of both parties want us bickering with each other so we don't notice them stealing us blind. Don't let them manipulate us.
Hello Jordan:
I like a lot of what you said. Americans need to get back to the pioneering spirit of the Founding Fathers & early settlers. They need to take pride in the struggles it presents rather than measuring their self worth in terms of material things they have.
An attitude of self-sufficiency,I am just going to make things happen without help from anyone & measured & executed risk and reward ventures is what made this country great. Sitting at home waiting for a government check isn't going to restore America's position as the leader of the world.
We need to be industrious. As a man who defines himself in the politically incorrect old way of taking pride in my accomplishments, taking care of me and my own & being embarrassed to accept charity I don't understand how others just mooch off government. Wouldn't you rather build something from scratch with your own sweat, blood, tears & ingenuity.
Women don't you prefer men with a "can do attitude" to those groveling for
I can say that I am an Independent that has always voted Democrat, I have come to be believe that there is no such thing as an honest politician. Recently there have been two different amendments put forward in Congress that would prevent Illegal Aliens from using ObamaCare and both times they were vetoed by Democrats. There can only be two explanations for these vetoes either Democrats are stupid or they think we are or they are lying to us. I am not Republican, racist, bigot or a right ring radical. In fact I voted for Obama. It has become a full-time job trying to sift through the lies our elected officials tell us. I am so proud of Representative Joe Wilson.
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