The Right Weighs In On Healthcare

People across the nation are protesting against healthcare reform. Are their concerns legitimate?  Photo: Urban News

By Michael Ackley

The first line of Wilfred Owen’s poem, “Song for the Doomed Youth,” best establishes the fear many people have in the health care bill being passed:

“What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”

The sentiment expressed by the right in this country, by the Tea Party movement, Rush Limbaugh and the like, is that the American people are in danger of becoming cattle, that medical care will suffer in the years to come, that there will be less care overall and less ingenuity from drug companies who concern themselves with finding cures for diseases. The right has been steadfast in its view of the bill: last summer Sarah Palin famously described one of its features as a “death panel.”1
More recently the subject being discussed most by the right is, “Can we afford this?” Glenn Beck routinely asks on his program what this bill will due to our children’s futures.

“It’s a legitimate concern,” said Joe Sulock, PhD and professor of
economics at UNC Asheville. “It concerns me to think of the government
tinkering around with 17 percent of the economy. I think, though it is
hard to say, that most of my students are insured by their parents. I
can’t say how much they know about what is going on.”

According to the National Review Online, in the next ten years, every
red cent that we are taxed will go entirely to the health care bill.2

“The government has done this before,” said Sulock. “With Social
Security and Medicare, they dreamed up figures that were entirely
inaccurate to what we are actually paying for them now.”3

Another question being asked by the right: “Do you trust your government
with health care, when Social Security has gone bankrupt?”4

This nation is split down the middle about what to do with the bill;
according to the Rasmussen Poll from March 25, 51 percent of people are
for a repeal of the health care initiative.5 Not a single Republican
voted for this bill to become law.6

Congressman Heath Shuler, a Democrat representing North Carolina’s 11th
district, issued a press release saying:

“I voted against the bill because I felt that we could do better. Now
that it has passed and will become law, I look forward to working with
my colleagues to address specific areas that need improvement. I assure
you that I will continue to work as hard as I can to fix our nation’s
health care system in a fiscally responsible and compassionate way.”

However, whether the right can work to fix something they see as already
fiscally irresponsible without repealing it will be up to fate. As of
now, officials in 14 states are suing the federal government over the
bill’s constitutionality.7

The Urban News strives to report accurate, verifiable information in its
news reporting and analysis.  Misinformation blankets broadcast and
print media and internet sites; in the interest of accuracy, we provide
these clarifications for our readers.

1 Palin was referring to the inclusion of funds to pay for
patient-doctor consultations about end-of-life care, medical powers of
attorney, and other advance directives to ensure that the patient’s
wishes – rather than those of insurance agents, hospital or government
bureaucrats, or distraught family members – are carried out.

2 Individual and corporate income taxes, excise taxes, and other fees
and revenues pay for a wide range of government services; the amounts
collected are spent on military expenditures, Homeland Security,
education, transportation, agriculture, and countless other programs.
Because all money is fungible, the National Review’s assertion is
meaningless.

3 Taxes withheld specifically for Social Security, Medicare, and
disability are supposed to be kept sacrosanct in Trust Funds, but that
money has been added to the general fund since the Reagan era to
disguise actual deficits.

4 None of the funds is bankrupt; after generations of bringing in more
than it paid out, this year Social Security will pay out more than it
takes in.

5 The Rasmussen organization is not considered a legitimate polling
organization by most news sources. It has a documented history of
excluding certain groups from those it polls, using partisan talking
points in its questions, and incomplete reporting of results; and it
frequently shows results that are far more conservative than any other
major polling organization – reflecting the preferences of those who pay
for the polls – and that are often proved incorrect by actual voting
returns.

6 The Republican Senate and House leaders, Mitch McConnell and John
Boehner, made clear months in advance of the voting on healthcare that
they expected their membership to unanimously oppose both that bill and
other initiatives of the Obama administration. Sen. Jim DeMint announced
in September that defeating healthcare reform would be Obama’s
“Waterloo” and was the Republicans’ highest priority as it would destroy
the Obama administration.

7 In several states, Republican attorneys general are suing despite
objections from Democratic governors.