Many of us are aware of the money the anti-reform folks are pouring into getting their arguments - such as they are - out to the public. There have been numerous suggestions about how to counter some of the lies and misstatements during town hall meetings. We can't afford the dollars to answer the ad campaign on equal time, but we can show support in other ways. Below the fold is a letter I sent to the local newspaper, and which I copied to my Congressman and Senators.
Mr. Kevin Hemstock, Editor
Kent County News
P. O. Box 30
Chestertown, MD 21620
Dear Mr. Hemstock,
Some observations about the health care debate. Republicans, who rail against reform leading to government-run health care, recently refused to vote against abolishing medicare. It appears to be a little known fact that medicare is a government-run health care program covering over 44 million of our citizens, many right here in Kent County. Such blatant hypocrisy would be comic were it not taken seriously by so many ill-informed folks.
Here are some other ways opponents of reform are muddying the waters. They say the government is going to make you give up your present insurance. This is just a flat out lie, as none of the measures being considered by Congress does that. They say we are going to have health services rationed. But our present system does exactly that to the poor, the uninsured, and sometimes the very ill who are dropped by their insurance company. Based on a provision that people be counseled on end-of-life issues, they claim old folks are going to be killed! They wave the red flag that bureaucrats like those who staff the DMV will be in charge of your colonoscopy as if we didn’t already have exactly such bureaucrats looking over your doctor’s shoulder at insurance companies. They are oh so very concerned about the costs, but (a) were complicit in running up huge debts waging an unnecessary war resulting in grevious harm on so many levels and (b) totally neglecting the larger financial and societal benefits systemic reform would produce.
Finally, it appears the insurance industry, big pharma and others with a vested interest in the current system are not content to merely lie and mislead. In the last week or so, we have seen our Congressman hanged in effigy, and numerous town hall meetings disrupted by yahoos wound up and set in motion by PR firms. This is nothing more, nor less, than political terrorism, intended to shut off any reasonable debate.
Real conservatives are sitting silent as their principles are discarded, allowing their very name to be stolen and used by the far right fringe of the Republican party to wreak havoc. I for one feel this goes beyond ugly politics into the realm of unadulterated evil.