Liberal Lies, Misconceptions, and Misunderstandings about Health Care Reform

The president is fond of correcting some of the most "egregious" lies and misconceptions that he sees coming from the other side: death panels, health care for illegals, tax payer funded abortions, etc. Well, I would say that you should take care of your own backyard before you worry about your neighbors'. So, here's some of the biggest lies, misconceptions, and misunderstandings from liberals on health care reform

1)Health care reform opponents are secretly racist, and they only oppose reform because the president is black.

I've known my fair share of racists in my life. None of them were shy about it. They didn't use code words to cover for their racism. They just come out and say it. One of the biggest things that bothers me about racists is that they are so proud of their racism. There are plenty of people that don't like the president because of the color of his skin, however those people aren't shy about it.

The media, and some of the president's supporters like Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, and Jim Clybourn, would have us believe that everyone is secretly racist, but that the racism comes out in some sort of cryptic language like the word socialists. The same people that couldn't get enough of eight years of demeaning President Bush now seem to think that any criticism of President Obama is racist code. That's just nonsense. Those that hate the president because of the color of his skin will just say so. Those that oppose his policies just don't like his policies.

2)The plan will/ will not do...

There is no plan. Don't say the plan will bend the cost curve, make sure that no one will be denied coverage, not add to the deficit, etc. when you know there is no plan. The House has a plan, but the President hasn't endorsed that. Max Baucus has a plan, but the president hasn't signed onto that either. You can't claim a plan will do something if THERE IS NO PLAN. No one knows what the plan will do since there is still no plan. We can all analyze and hyper analyze the House plan. We can do the same with the Baucus plan. The president isn't necessarily on board with either of them. We can speculate and theorize what a public option might do, but we don't know because there is no plan. The president is making a lot of promises but there's no way test any of those promises because there is no plan.

3)A government option will simply keep the insurance industry honest.

If it's that simple, let's also have a public gasoline company, retailer, software company, etc. If we just need to keep them honest, we should keep every industry honest. Why are some only insistent on keeping the insurance industry honest but not all industries? Government competition doesn't keep private industries honest. That's done with proper regulation. Governments don't compete with private industry. They takeover private industry. It's hard to compete when one side has the power to tax, make money, and carry debt for an indefinite future. So, let's not pretend as though the public option is simply meant to create competition. It's meant to take over.

4) We can insure more people, do it for less, and provide better health care all at once.

There's also the tooth fairy, Santa Clause, and unicorns. If you still think that's true, I would like to sell you some nice land in Mogadishu. If you want universal coverage because you believe everyone should get health care , that's one thing. If you want to provide free health care and claim that all of this will wind up costing less, then you're just lying.

5) Health care reform isn't moving forward because Republicans are obstructing in a desperate attempt to sabotage the Obama presidency.

First, the first job of the opposition is to oppose. Second, I seem to remember some heavy opposition to Social Security reform, Fannie/Freddie reform, Iraq, and the Bush tax cuts. What do we call that? Was there not a political element to the opposition? Were some not obstructing because passing sweeping Social Security reform would have been a big win for the President? More than that, when you have filibuster proof majorities in both chambers, it's a bit absurd to say it's the other side's fault that things aren't moving forward. In fact, the reason that health care reform isn't passing is because there's a political civil war within the Democratic party. It has almost nothing to do the with the Republicans. Sure the Republicans oppose health care reform. The Democrats' idea of compromise is co ops instead of the public option and an $850 billion bill instead of a trillion dollars. Still, the Democrats don't need the Republicans, and so that it hasn't passed yet is laid entirely on the Democratic party.