{"id":213,"date":"2009-08-18T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-18T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/health-care-disinformation.html"},"modified":"2009-08-18T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-18T17:00:00","slug":"health-care-disinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/health-care-disinformation.html","title":{"rendered":"Health Care Disinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White House flagging program was both less useful and less sinister than its advocates and opponents, respectively, believed.  One can understand the frustration that the White House has about the astonishing level of lies, misinformation and nonsense being promoted by the opponents of health care reform. <\/p>\n

However, most of the criticism is the result of well-orchestrated (and easy to locate the source of) campaigns by right-wing groups<\/a>, talk radio hosts<\/a>, a former Vice Presidential candidate<\/a> and the insurance industry.  White House staffers probably didn’t need to get an e-mail from some guy living in Des Moines to know that Sarah Palin wants us to believe that “death panels” would soon be arriving to murder her son if the Obama plan passed. Indeed, CNN used a crawl message to that effect for over 24 hours two weekends ago.  <\/p>\n

Similarly, I doubt that Rahm Emanuel was planning to send the FBI to the Jones residence at 1234 Main Street, Oshkosh, Wisconsin if Jones’ neighbor had sent an e-mail to the White House noting that Jones had criticized the cost of health care reform while eating egg salad at the neighborhood picnic.<\/p>\n


\nI believe that our current health care system is inefficient, “rations”
\nhealth care in particularly pernicious ways, often pays for useless and
\npatient-unwanted medical interventions, and should be changed. 
\nAlthough this blog is not really about health care reform, some sub-
\nissues, such as end of life care and reproductive health, impinge on
\nimportant constitutional issues and I hope we can discuss them.<\/p>\n

My
\nbiggest problem with the way the debate is going on the overall package
\nis that the representations of what the President originally wanted
\n(I’m not sure what he wants right now) are so disingenuous.  How would
\nconservative politicians feel about these ads if they ran in their
\nstates or districts?<\/p>\n

ORRIN HATCH NEVER SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES. MAYBE THAT’S WHY HE HATES MILITARY FAMILIES AND VETERANS.  Sen.Hatch is on record<\/a>
\nopposing government health care.  This means that he wants to eliminate
\nall the government-provided medical care for the dependents of
\nservicemembers at bases around the United States.  Since the entire
\nVeterans Administration hospital system is government-run, that will be
\nclosed down too, leaving the men and women who protected America unable
\nto obtain any assistance unless they can afford it out of their own
\npockets.<\/p>\n

MITCH MCCONNELL PROPOSES  UNLIMITED HEALTH EXPENDITURES TO PREVENT RATIONING.  Sen. McConnell opposes rationing<\/a>
\nof health care.  This means that every American should be able to
\nobtain every drug, every procedure and every treatment that he or she
\nwants — without limits!  Our government will not be able to deny a
\ndrug because it does not work, a procedure that at best helps a small
\npercentage of those who obtain it live an extra week, or
\nimmediate treatment by any and all specialists demanded by a patient.
\nSince rationing will  be outlawed, people will soon be able to call for
\nan ambulance any time they have an ache and get tests every day if they
\nchoose.  This end to all rationing will bankrupt our country!<\/p>\n

Obviously,
\nthese are not the positions of Senators McConnell or Hatch.  However,
\nit is the kind of deceitful commentary that is rampant on the Right
\nthese days about the Obama effort.  It is time we had a debate about
\nspecifics; not a generalized attack on “socialized medicine” or
\n“euthanizing the disabled.”  Right?<\/p>\n

To subscribe to “Lynn v. Sekulow” click <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span>  <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House flagging program was both less useful and less sinister than its advocates and opponents, respectively, believed.  One can understand the frustration that the White House has about the astonishing level of lies, misinformation and nonsense being promoted by the opponents of health care reform. However, most of the criticism is the result of well-orchestrated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[219,208,51,206,67,236,235],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","tag-health-care-reform","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-news","tag-orrin-hatch","tag-politics","tag-rahm-emanual","tag-sarah-palin"],"yoast_head":"\nHealth Care Disinformation - Lynn v. 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Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}