The Liberty Counsel, the political arm of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, has made a list of things that they say are in HR 3200 (pdf version here) that are going to cause Obama to track your every movement, look in your window at night, and smother your grandma with a pillow when he decides that she's gotten too old.
After seeing some of the items posted at a blog on The Oakland Press (I won't link to it or even give the name of a certain right-wing Iraq vet hating blogger who runs the blog), but in the comments section a guy showed everyone a bit of "HR 3200-A line by line analysis". I know this thing must've been making the rounds of the right-wing blogosphere, because all the conspiracy theory b.s. I've been hearing has been coming straight from that page.
Now I don't have the energy to go through every piece of b.s. being listed on that page, so I went through the better stuff. Besides, most of these points are just repeats of others. But when all is said and done you'll find that Liberty Counsel is a lying filthy sack of liquid crap. Here goes.....
The right-wing conspiracy b.s. is in blockquotes. The debunking is in standard text.
Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC Bill – YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED!!!
The section says you have co-pays and premiums. Just like every other insurance plan. If they have a problem with that, tell them to start advocating for a single-payer plan.
Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC Bill – THERE WILL BE A GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get
Oh horror upon horrors, the government run health care system is going to be run by.....the government. Just like Medicare and Medicaid. And upon doing some more research, I found that there's lots of departments that run government programs. For example, did you know that every branch of the military has its own department, and is consolidated into a larger Department of Defense? Did you know that The Post Office is run by a Postmaster General who decides where your mail goes? There's even a Department of Justice that regulates law enforcement agencies-they decide what crime gets fought you don't have a choice! There's even a Food and Drug administration that tells us which foods are safe to eat! We don't get to decide!
Pg 50 Section 152 in HC Bill – HC will be provided to ALL non-U.S. citizens, illegal or otherwise
Apparently the jokers at Liberty U didn't find this gem at page 143, section 246:
NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS
Moving on...
Pg 58 HC Bill – Government will have real-time access to individual’s finances and a National ID Health Care Card will be issued!
That's right. If you have the public option for insurance, they will give you a card. JUST LIKE EVERY INSURANCE COMPANY IN THE COUNTRY.
Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Government will have direct access to your banks accounts for electronic funds transfer.
If you read the section, you'll see that this is shown as a voluntary alternative to paper bill payments. Which makes them every bit as dangerous as EVERY BILL I PAY. I honestly can't remember the last time I wrote a check to pay a bill. Like everyone else under the age of 80 with an internet connection, I pay my bills online.
Besides, if the government really wanted to take all your cash, the IRS already has the authority to do it. You don't need public health care to do that.
And, as a veteran, the government already has my bank info, since they've been giving me direct deposit payments since I joined the military. And the state has that info since I used online payment to renew my vehicle registration. And I use direct deposit to get my income tax refund.
Pg 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in unions and community organizations (ACORN).
ACORN isn't mentioned once in the bill (but the line by line website sure brings them up a lot), and unions aren't mentioned for another 850 pages or so. This section says that if you get retiree health care, the government will make sure you keep it. Nothing about giveaways to "unions and community organizations". I don't even know if ACORN has a retiree health care system.
Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Government is creating a Health Care Exchange to bring private health care plans under government control.
The program has already been created. It's the private insurance pool that government employees use to get affordable, private insurance. Now everyone will be able to use it. And yes, the government negotiates to keep prices down and make sure you get a good deal. Anybody have a problem with getting low-cost, high quality, private insurance? Didn't think so. Moving on.
Pg 145 Line 15-17 An employer MUST auto enroll employees into public opt plan. NO CHOICE
Once again, the genius minds at Liberty U can't tell the difference between the public option and the private insurance pool. Businesses are not going to be required to buy the public option (in fact, I'm pretty sure that's not allowed). But they are going to have to provide insurance for their employees or face an increase in their taxes. This can also be waived.
Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for health care for part-time employees AND their families.
Page 126 doesn't even have 25 lines, and nothing in that page discusses anything described in the block quote.
Pg 195 Officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access to ALL Americans’ financial and personal records.
Page 195 has some stuff on tax records, but that's it. Nothing on ALL financial and personal records at all.
Pg 203 Line 14-15 HC – "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it says that.
That wasn't the whole sentence. The whole sentence reads:
"The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax imposed by this chapter for purposes of determining the amount of any credit under this chapter or for purposes of section 55." Yeah, it's a tax being treated as a different tax than the one described. Liberty U is definetely proving itself to be a bunch of grade A geniuses, that's for sure!
Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected.
.
There's no talk about cutting funding for Medicaid for anybody in here.
Pg 272 SEC. 1145. Treatment of certain cancer hospitals – Cancer patients – welcome to rationing!
The section says that a study will be done to determine if people can get the same care for cheaper in a regular hospital that they get at a cancer treatment hospital. A report is being done. Big whoop.
Pg 489 Sec 1308 The government will cover Marriage and Family therapy. They will insert government into your marriage.
I didn't bother reading this section to fact check it. I'll just say that THE GOVERNMENT IS ALREADY IN YOUR MARRIAGE! IT'S CALLED A MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE!
I could keep going with this and go through every lie and exaggeration they put up there, but you get the point. Either Liberty University deliberately lied and said that the bill said something that wasn't in there (such as saying the government will be requiring us to turn over all our financial and personal records), exaggerated their claims (such as saying a voluntary electronic pay system means that the government is going to force you to hand them your bank account information), or just trotted out the big government boogeyman.
Either way, Liberty Counsel is a bunch of lying liars with their lying pants on fire.