For a preview of coming attractions, simply turn onthe FOX News Channel or any right-wing radio talker, where the falsehoods ofthe 2010 midterm campaign are being field-tested today.
You can watch Dick Morris blather about the"death panels" that will terminate your mother and father whileillegal immigrants are provided lavish care, and about how you will be put injail for failing to purchase health insurance. You can hear Karl Rove complainthat we will "beggar ourselves" by adding more than $1.4 trillion tothe federal debt. You can listen to Frank Luntz claim that voters disdainreform because of "the cost to the deficit."
These gentlemen have little expertise in health oreconomics, but much experience in distracting, misinforming and sometimesfrightening the public. Aside from talking on television, that is their job.How little do they knowand how much do they simply fabricate?
It is safe to assume that Morris knows very wellthere are no death panels in any of the health reform bills; that those billsexpressly forbid coverage of illegal immigrants; and that none of them includesany provision to incarcerate citizens who lack insurance coverage. It is alsoreasonable to assume, based solely on the fiscal record of the Bushadministration in which he served, that Rove never worries about budgetdeficits, government waste or gross corruption unless Democrats are in charge.
As for Luntz, he specializes in political propheciesthat are self-fulfilling. When he says voters are infuriated by the cost ofhealth care reform, for instance, that merely indicates he is trying to makethem feel that way. He will succeedall three will succeedonly by drawingattention away from actual facts and figures.
The Democrats’ Bills Would Actually Cut theDeficit
So perhaps voters ought to listen instead to theCongressional Budget Office (CBO), which by contrast has earned a reputationfor candor, accuracy and nonpartisan truthfulness. After painstaking analysis,the CBO estimated that the House health care reform bill, known as theAffordable Health Care for America Act, would reduce the federal deficit byabout $109 billion during the first 10 years after it takes effect. To repeat:The bill passed by the House Democrats on the evening of Saturday, Nov. 7,"would yield a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $109 billionover the 2010-2019 period."
The CBO experts also costed out the Senate FinanceCommittee bill and found that it would cut federal deficits by more than $80billion during that first decade.
Those reassuring conclusions derive from other basicfacts about reform that tend to be ignored or concealed. Reform will reducewasteful spending by hundreds of billions of dollars annually and will dependfor financing on excise taxes imposed on the wealthiest 1% of the population.
Much of the misinformation about the costs of reformcomes from the belieffostered by conservativesthat the government-run healthplan known as the "public option" would impose a huge burden on thefederal budget. So says Joseph Lieberman, the independent senator from Connecticut who hasthreatened to filibuster the bill.
Section 322 of the Affordable Health Care forAmerica Act says clearly and concisely that people insured under the publicoption will pay premium rates "at a level sufficient to fully finance thecosts of health benefits provided by the public health insurance option; andadministrative costs related to operating the public health insuranceoption." In short, the public option will involve no new federalexpenditure.
Any bill that reaches the president's desk willleave much to be desired, especially with respect to cost containment,preventive care and new systems of compensation to encourage improved results.But it should be judged according to real merits and defectsnot the delusionsand distortions that now dominate the debate.
%uFFFD 2009Creators.com.
