On my daily link, there's a fascinating post by Glenn Greenwald of Salon challenging the optimistic perspective on Iraq by Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution. It seems that O'Hanlon's recent trip to Iraq could best be described as a military dog and pony show -- and the OpEd piece he wrote for the NY Times that caused such a stir earlier this month which said the war could be won was based less on facts on the ground than ideals in the mind.
And now closer to primary home: It seems those ever imaginative folks sending out GOP talking points across the Republican universe have hit upon an oldie but goodie theme -- when it comes to health care, scream “Socialized Medicine” (like those annoying French, who spend less than we do and offer more services to more people, and the obviously hapless Canadians who haven’t gotten the message about the overall utopia of our current system) and never clarify or apologize.
It’s like deja vu, a replay of the onslaught launched against President Clinton’s health care reform attempt in 1993-94.
Cases in point: Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have taken pot shots at Dem reform plans by boiling them all down to a centralized system that will ignore most and kill the rest. Romney even seems determined to distance himself from himself (or at least the universal health care legislation he signed as Governor of Massachusetts).
And then you see it up close like I did last week when John McCain said all the Dems were advocating single-payer, government run (which wills end you running to the hills) health care plan during a campaign stop in Portsmouth.
Well, John -- it ain’t true and you can look it up and save yourself the embarrassment of spreading dubious accusations unworthy of your “Straight-Talking” reputation. Actually there is only one single-payer advocate (Dennis Kucinich) who proposes a ‘Medicare for all’ plan. John Edwards has offered public and private alternatives and the rest are all about universal coverage by retooling the current system.
Now I happen to think the retooling option is highly dubious, especially because the insurance companies will still be running most of the show, but under no stretch can you call all of these proposals “Single-payer.”
But the word must be out that the public can be fooled again and again — especially when it comes to scaring GOP primary voters. At the Herald we received a letter from Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire who talks about health care legislation he’s proposing — an alternative to “the path offered by the leading Democratic candidates -- a nationalized, single-payer health care system run by the federal government -- is not the answer.”
If Sens. Gregg and McCain can’t get the basic facts right, one wonders if they have a clue about the real debate taking place.
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