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The cover to the AMA album featuring Ronald Reagan. [Source: Larry DeWitt]The American Medical Association (AMA) releases an 11-minute spoken-word album (LP) featuring actor and promising conservative politician Ronald Reagan. Reagan speaks against what he and the AMA call the "socialized medicine" of Medicare, currently being considered in Congress as part of legislation proposed by Democrats Cecil King and Clinton Anderson; many refer to the legislation as the King-Anderson bill. The AMA, along with most Congressional Republicans and a good number of Democrats, has been fighting the idea of government-provided health care since 1945 (see 1962). Socialism Advancing under Cover of Liberal Policies - Reagan begins by warning that as far back as 1927, American socialists determined to advance their cause "under the name of liberalism." King-Anderson is a major component of the secret socialist agenda, Reagan says. "One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine," he says. "It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project." No real American wants socialized medicine, Reagan says, but Congress is attempting to fool the nation into adopting just such a program. It has already succeeded in imposing a socialist program on the country by creating and implementing Social Security, which was originally envisioned to bring "all people of Social Security age… under a program of compulsory health insurance." Reagan, following the AMA's position, says that the current "Eldercare" program, often called "Kerr-Mills" for its Congressional sponsors, is more than enough to cover elderly Americans' medical needs. (Author Larry DeWitt notes that in 1965, Kerr-Mills will be superseded by Medicaid, the medical program for the poor. He will write, "So Reagan—on behalf of the AMA—was suggesting that the nation should be content with welfare benefits under a Medicaid-type program as the only form of government-provided health care coverage.") King-Anderson is nothing more than "simply an excuse to bring about what [Democrats and liberals] wanted all the time: socialized medicine," Reagan says. And once the Medicare proposal of King-Anderson is in place, he argues, the government will begin constructing an entire raft of socialist programs, and that, he says, will lead to the destruction of American democracy. "The doctor begins to lose freedom," he warns. "First you decide that the doctor can have so many patients. They are equally divided among the various doctors by the government. But then doctors aren't equally divided geographically. So a doctor decides he wants to practice in one town and the government has to say to him, you can't live in that town. They already have enough doctors. You have to go someplace else. And from here it's only a short step to dictating where he will go.… All of us can see what happens once you establish the precedent that the government can determine a man's working place and his working methods, determine his employment. From here it's a short step to all the rest of socialism, to determining his pay. And pretty soon your son won't decide, when he's in school, where he will go or what he will do for a living. He will wait for the government to tell him where he will go to work and what he will do." DeWitt will note that this is far more extravagant than any of the Medicare proposals ever advanced by any lawmaker: "It was this more apocalyptic version of Medicare's potential effects on the practice of medicine that Reagan used to scare his listeners." Advocating Letter-Writing Campaign - Reagan tells his listeners that they can head off the incipient socialization of America by engaging in a nationwide letter-writing campaign to flood Congress with their letters opposing King-Anderson. "You and I can do this," he says. "The only way we can do it is by writing to our congressman even if we believe he's on our side to begin with. Write to strengthen his hand. Give him the ability to stand before his colleagues in Congress and say, 'I heard from my constituents and this is what they want.'" Apocalypse - If the effort fails, if Medicare passes into law, the consequences will be dire beyond imagining, Reagan tells his audience: "And if you don't do this and if I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free." Reagan is followed up by an unidentified male announcer who reiterates Reagan's points and gives "a little background on the subject of socialized medicine… that now threatens the free practice of medicine." Reagan then makes a brief closing statement, promising that if his listeners do not write those letters, "this program I promise you will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow. And behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country, until, one day… we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this, and if I don't do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free." [Larry DeWitt, 9/2004; TPMDC, 8/25/2009]
Entity Tags: Cecil King, Ronald Reagan, American Medical Association, Larry DeWitt, Clinton Anderson, Medicare
Timeline Tags: US Health Care
Category Tags: Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Media Pundits
American Medical Association logo. [Source: American Medical Association]The American Medical Association (AMA), in conjunction with many Congressional Republicans and some Democrats, attempts to beat back attempts to create a new government-run program to provide medical care for the elderly, to be called "Medicare." The AMA and its political allies have fought the idea of a government-provided health care program for senior citizens since 1945, when then-President Harry Truman first suggested universal health care for all Americans. Minimal 'Eldercare' Considered Too Much - Currently, a modest health care program for senior citizens, called "Eldercare," is the only government coverage American seniors have. It is based on a compromise proposal written by conservative Democratic Senator Robert Kerr (D-OK) and Representative Wilbur Mills (D-AR) and signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower. Eldercare provides government benefits only for senior citizens who can demonstrate economic need, and states that choose not to participate in the program can opt out entirely. However, the AMA considers even this truncated program far too invasive, and fiercely opposes the more sweeping "Medicare" proposal, called King-Anderson after its main authors, Senator Clinton Anderson (D-NM) and Representative Cecil King (D-CA). The legislation is mired in Congressional committees. [Time, 2/19/1965; Larry DeWitt, 9/2004] WHAM - The opposition to King-Anderson is led by the Women's Auxilary of the AMA, which is given the task of coordinating the WHAM program—Women Help American Medicine. WHAM is directly dedicated to defeating the King-Anderson bill in Congress, "a bill which would provide a system of socialized medicine for our senior citizens and seriously curtail the quality of medical care in the United States." The public campaign consists of the usual rallies and advertisements, most funded by corporate lobbyists working for the AMA and other health care firms. WHAM accuses King-Anderson proponents of being "socialists" and warns of federal bureaucrats violently invading "the privacy of the examination room." WHAM coordinates an extensive grassroots effort under the rubric of "Operation Hometown," enlisting local medical societies to speak out against King-Anderson, and providing pamphlets, reprints of press releases and articles, and talking points to local physicians. Operation Coffeecup - Operation Coffeecup is a less visible, but just as important, element of the WHAM campaign. It centers around a series of "coffee klatches," or "impromptu" get-togethers in kitchens and living rooms across America, hosted by WHAM members. WHAM members are told to downplay the significance of the events. One instruction tells them to portray the events as nothing more than "spontaneous" neighborhood get-togethers: "Drop a note—just say 'Come for coffee at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. I want to play the Ronald Reagan record for you.'" The attendees are shown how to write equally "spontaneous" letters to members of Congress opposing the King-Anderson bill. The letters are carefully constructed to give the appearance of real, unsolicited missives written by concerned Americans, not the product of an orchestrated lobbying effort. Each WHAM member uses a 10-point checklist to ensure that the letters cover the points needed to make the argument against King-Anderson, and are not full of boilerplate, obviously copied-over material. The program is deliberately kept quiet, for fear that the media will portray it as an attempt to manipulate public opinion. Reagan on Vinyl - The centerpiece of the Operation Coffeecup material is a vinyl LP entitled Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine (see 1962). The album is a 19-minute recording featuring an 11-minute address by Reagan, followed by an eight-minute follow-up by an announcer. WHAM members are assured that Reagan's work for the organization is unpaid and voluntary, though they are not told that his father is a top AMA executive. Instead, they are told Reagan is motivated entirely by his sincere political convictions. The hope is that Reagan's message will inspire legions of housewives to write letters demanding that King-Anderson be defeated. The AMA claims that Operation Coffeecup prompts a "legion" of responses. [Larry DeWitt, 9/2004] Exposed - In June 1962, investigative reporter Drew Pearson exposes Operation Coffeecup in his newspaper column. Pearson writes: "Ronald Reagan of Hollywood has pitted his mellifluous voice against President Kennedy in the battle for medical aid for the elderly. As a result it looks as if the old folks would lose out. He has caused such a deluge of mail to swamp Congress that congressmen want to postpone action on the medical bill until 1962. What they don't know, of course, is that Ron Reagan is behind the mail; also that the American Medical Association is paying for it.… Reagan is the handsome TV star for General Electric.… Just how this background qualifies him as an expert on medical care for the elderly remains a mystery. Nevertheless, thanks to a deal with the AMA, and the acquiescence of General Electric, Ronald may be able to outinfluence the president of the United States with Congress." [Larry DeWitt, 9/2004; TPMDC, 8/25/2009]
Entity Tags: American Medical Association, Cecil King, Clinton Anderson, Operation Coffeecup, Drew Pearson, Women's Auxilary of the AMA, Operation Hometown, Ronald Reagan, Women Help American Medicine, Medicare
Category Tags: Health Care Reform Controversy
Betsy McCaughey. [Source: Newsday / Gawker (.com)]Elizabeth "Betsy" McCaughey (R-NY), a lawyer and future lieutenant governor of New York, writes a scathing analysis of the Clinton administration's health care reform plan. The article, "No Exit," is published in the New Republic, and sparks not only a detailed rebuttal from the Clinton administration, but numerous editorials and responses praising the article and joining in the attack. Echoing McCaughey's arguments, Newsweek writes, "The plan would reduce the quantity and quality of health care and medical technologies by vastly expanding government's coercive role." McCaughey and Newsweek question the proposed creation of a seven-member "National Health Board" which will, she claims, "guess the nation's health care needs and decree how much the nation may spend meeting them." According to Newsweek: "Everyone would be locked into one system of low-budget health plans picked by the government. Fifteen presidential appointees, the National Quality Management Council, not you and your doctor, would define the 'medically necessary' and 'appropriate' care a doctor could give you. Escaping government control to choose your doctor or buy other care would be virtually impossible. Doctors could be paid only by the government-approved plans, at rates set by the government. It would be illegal for doctors to accept money directly from patients, and there would be 15-year jail terms for people driven to bribery for care they feel they need but the government does not deem 'necessary.' Government would define a minimum level of care and herd people in particular regions into dependence on the lowest-cost organization able to deliver that level. Doctors would be driven into organizations in which they would be punished financially for giving more treatment than the organizations' budget targets permit. The primary care physician assigned to you would be, McCaughey notes, a gatekeeper with an incentive to limit your access to specialists and high-tech medicine. The premise of the Clintons' plan is not just that government knows best, but that government knows everything relevant, including how many specialists there should be no more than 45 percent of all doctors [sic]. McCaughey says many medical students will be told that the specialties they prefer are closed, or closed to them because they are not the right race or ethnicity. Yes, the plan subordinates medical values to 'diversity.'" Prescription drug prices would be controlled through the Department of Health and Human Services, and, McCaughey and Newsweek claim, would "certainly suppress research" that might benefit patients of incurable diseases and disorders. [Newsweek, 2/7/1994] Refuting McCaughey - The Clinton administration details the "numerous factual inaccuracies and misleading statements" contained in McCaughey's article. The administration's response says that doctors and patients, not "government bureaucrats" or a board of governors, will decide what treatments are "necessary and appropriate." The government will not decide what treatments are, and are not, provided: "If anything, the 'necessary and appropriate' care provision in the bill delegates authority to the medical profession—rather than imposing further government bureaucracy between the patient and the doctor." The plan will not block Americans from opting into private health care plans just as they do now, nor will it block doctors and hospitals from accepting payments from "non-approved" health care plans. Nor does the plan require doctors and hospitals "to report your visit to a national data bank containing the medical histories of all Americans," as McCaughey writes. And the so-called "National Health Board" will not "decide how much the nation can spend on health care beginning in 1996," as McCaughey claims. The plan will not seek to reduce quality of care in the interest of saving money, and it does not contain price controls. [White House, 1/31/1994] A year later, author and columnist James Fallows will call the article "a triumph of misinformation," and refutes McCaughey's (and others') claims point by point. [Atlantic Monthly, 1/1995] Instrumental in Derailing Reform - The article will later be cited by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) as "the first decisive breaking point" in the plan's initial support; the plan will never be implemented. The article itself will spark tremendous controversy, winning the National Magazine Award while being attacked for being fundamentally inaccurate. (In 2006, the new editor of the New Republic, Franklin Foer, will apologize for his magazine having run the article.) In 2009 McCaughey will be a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and will soon join the equally conservative Hudson Institute. Both are heavily funded by health care corporations. [Daily Beast, 5/15/2009]
Entity Tags: Newt Gingrich, Franklin Foer, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, Clinton administration, James Fallows, US Department of Health and Human Services, Hudson Institute, Manhattan Institute
The Family Research Council, an organization of religious and social conservatives, sends a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) protesting a department Web site that for six years has provided the public with information about gay-related health issues. Two weeks later, the entire Web site disappears. [Savage, 2007, pp. 106]
Entity Tags: US Department of Health and Human Services, Family Research Council
Timeline Tags: US Health Care, Civil Liberties
The conservative Washington Times, a staunch opponent of President-elect Barack Obama, publishes an editorial predicting that the incoming Obama administration will, in some form or fashion, move to "exterminate" babies with disabilities and other "useless" Americans through its promised reform of the US health care system, similar to actions taken by the Nazis before World War II. The Times provides a brief synopsis of Adolf Hitler's "T4 Aktion" program designed, in the words of the Times, "to exterminate 'useless eaters,' babies born with disabilities. When any baby was born in Germany, the attending nurse had to note any indication of disability and immediately notify T4 officials—a team of physicians, politicians, and military leaders. In October 1939 Hitler issued a directive allowing physicians to grant a 'mercy death' to 'patients considered incurable according to the best available human judgment of their state of health.' Thereafter, the program expanded to include older children and adults with disabilities, and anyone anywhere in the Third Reich was subject to execution who was blind, deaf, senile, retarded, or had any significant neurological condition, encephalitis, epilepsy, muscular spasticity, or paralysis. Six killing centers were eventually established, and an estimated quarter-million people with disabilities were executed." The Times draws a parallel between the Nazis and the Obama administration's support for legal abortion and for physician-assisted suicide, which it equates with "euthanasia." The incoming administration will, the Times fears, begin "selecting" babies with disabilities for what apparently will be "selective abortions." It quotes the Reverend Briane K. Turley as saying: "Were God's design for us left unhindered, we could naturally expect to welcome 40,000 or more newborn infants with Down syndrome each year in the US. And yet we have reduced that number to just under 5,500. These data strongly indicate that, in North America, we have already discovered a new, 'final solution' for these unusual children and need only to adapt our public policies to, as it were, 'cure' all Down syndrome cases." Turley, the Times notes, claims that "there is growing evidence suggesting that, among health care practitioners and systems, the central motivation behind legally enforced or high pressure screenings is economics." The Times then adds: "[A]nd the results seem to bear him out. America's T4 program—trivialization of abortion, acceptance of euthanasia, and the normalization of physician assisted suicide—is highly unlikely to be stopped at the judicial, administrative, or legislative levels anytime soon, given the Supreme Court's current and probable future makeup during the Obama administration, the administrative predilections that are likely from that incoming administration, and the makeup of the new Congress." The Times predicts a new "final solution" of "extermination" that will start with disabled infants and will progress "from prenatal to postnatal to child to adult." [Washington Times, 11/23/2008] The editorial anticipates the "deather" claims that many conservatives will make in the summer of 2009 (see January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23-24, 2009, July 24, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 31, 2009 - August 12, 2009, August 6, 2009, August 7, 2009, August 10, 2009, August 10, 2009, Shortly Before August 10, 2009, August 11, 2009, August 11, 2009, August 12, 2009, August 12, 2009, and August 13, 2009).
Entity Tags: Washington Times, Barack Obama, Obama administration, Briane K. Turley, T4 Aktion
Timeline Tags: 2010 Elections
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Media Complicity
Media critic and columnist George Neumayr writes that the Democrats' economic stimulus plan will include enforced abortions and euthanasia for less productive citizens. Neumayr calls this claim a once "astonishingly chilly and incomprehensible stretch [that] is now blandly stated liberal policy," basing it on the Democrats' plan to provide money to the states for "family planning." Neumayr equates the funding, which would go for such initiatives as teaching teenagers about the use of condoms and measures to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, to the famous Jonathan Swift essay of 1729, "A Modest Proposal," which satirically suggested that impoverished Irish families might sell their children to rich Englishmen for food. "Change a few of the words and it could be a Democratic Party policy paper," Neumayr writes. "Swift suggested that 18th-century Ireland stimulate its economy by turning children into food for the wealthy. [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi [D-CA] proposes stimulating the US economy by eliminating them. Other slumping countries, such as Russia and France, pay parents to have children; it looks like Obama's America will pay parents to contracept or kill them. Perhaps the Freedom of Choice Act can also fall under the Pelosi 'stimulus' rationale. Why not? An America of shovels and scalpels will barrel into the future. Euthanasia is another shovel-ready job for Pelosi to assign to the states. Reducing health care costs under Obama's plan, after all, counts as economic stimulus too. Controlling life, controlling death, controlling costs. It's all stimulus in the Brave New World utopia to come." Like a Washington Times editorial from months earlier (see November 23, 2008), Neumayr uses the term "final solution" for the Democrats' economic proposal, the term for the Nazis' World War II-era extermination of millions of Jews and other "undesirables." He writes: "'Unwanted' children are immediately seen as an unspeakable burden. Pregnancy is a punishment, and fertility is little more than a disease. Pelosi's gaffe illustrates the extent to which eugenics and economics merge in the liberal utilitarian mind." "Malthus lives," he says, referring to the 19th century scholar Thomas Robert Malthus, whose theories of ruthless natural selection predated Charles Darwin's theories of evolution. Neumayr goes on to accuse "Hillary Clinton's State Department" of preparing to set up programs of "people-elimination," predicated on what he calls "UN-style population control ideology" and "third-world abortions." [American Spectator, 1/27/2009]
Entity Tags: US Department of State, George Neumayr, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Darwin
Timeline Tags: US Health Care, 2010 Elections
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy
Betsy McCaughey (R-NY), the former lieutenant governor of New York and a fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute, writes that health care provisions in the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan will affect "every individual in the United States." McCaughey writes: "Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors. But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and 'guide' your doctor's decisions." McCaughey says the provisions are similar to suggestions in the book Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis, by former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), until recently Obama's pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services. McCaughey writes that hospitals and doctors who do not use the system will be punished, by a federal oversight board to be called the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. Perhaps most worrisome is McCaughey's claim that elderly Americans will be given reduced health care based on their age and expected productivity. "Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost-effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council," she writes. "The Federal Council is modeled after a UK board discussed in Daschle's book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis. In 2006, a UK health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.… If the Obama administration's economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the US will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later. The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined." [Bloomberg News, 2/9/2009] McCaughey's claims are very similar to the ones she made against the Clinton administration's attempt to reform health care in 1994 (see Mid-January - February 4, 1994). They will be proven false (see July 23, 2009).
Entity Tags: Hudson Institute, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, US Department of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, Obama administration
Fox News graphic making disproven claims about Congressional health care reform proposals. [Source: Media Matters]The Wall Street Journal, Fox News anchors, conservative Web news purveyor Matt Drudge, and conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh promulgate a discredited claim by health care lobbyist Betsy McCaughey that the economic recovery bill pending in Congress includes a provision that would have the government "essentially dictate treatments" for sick Americans. McCaughey wrote a commentary for Bloomberg News on February 9 that makes the claim (see February 9, 2009); Drudge and Limbaugh echo and add to the claim the same day. The next day, the Wall Street Journal's senior economic writer, Stephen Moore, appearing on Fox News's flagship morning news broadcast America's Newsroom, joins news anchors Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly in promoting the same claim (see October 13, 2009), with Moore saying that the provision would "hav[e] the government essentially dictate treatments." Moore credits Limbaugh with informing him of the claim, saying: "I just learned of this myself yesterday. In fact, Rush Limbaugh made a big deal out of it on his radio show and it just—it caused all sorts of calls into congressional offices." On February 10, Limbaugh takes credit for spreading the claim, telling listeners: "Betsy McCaughey writing at Bloomberg, I found it. I detailed it for you, and now it's all over mainstream media. Well, it's—it headlined Drudge for a while last night and today. Fox News is talking about it." McCaughey is wrong in the claim: according to an analysis of the legislative language by progressive media watchdog Media Matters, "the language in the House bill that McCaughey referenced does not establish authority to 'monitor treatments' or restrict what 'your doctor is doing' with regard to patient care but, rather, addresses establishing an electronic records system such that doctors would have complete, accurate information about their patients 'to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care.'" Moore says: "[T]his news story really has exploded on the public scene in just the last 24 hours, Bill. We've been just inundated with complaints from people about the implications of having the government essentially dictate treatments." Moore later goes on to add that the bill "especially will affect elderly people, because one of the ways, if we move more towards a nationalized health care system, as this bill would move us one step towards that, what you have to do to restrain costs—what many other countries do, like Canada and Britain, is they essentially, Bill, ration care. And they tell patients you are eligible for this kind of care, but this is too expensive. And so what this bill would essentially do is set up a kind of pricing mechanism to tell people, yes, we can afford to treat you for this, but not that." Moore encourages viewers to "express their outrage over this" before Congress takes the issue up. Kelly adds another false claim: that the bill discourages doctors to act on their own judgment and promotes medical decisions "in the spirit of uniform health care." Kelly notes, "That sounds dangerously like socialized medicine." Hemmer also makes the false claim that the legislation contains "rules [that] appear to set the stage for health care rationing for seniors, new limits on medical research, and new rules guiding decisions your doctor can make about your health care." Hemmer calls the provision a "midnight health care insertion" into the Senate spending bill. [Media Matters, 2/10/2009]
Entity Tags: Stephen Moore, Wall Street Journal, Megyn Kelly, Bill Hemmer, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, Fox News, Matt Drudge, Media Matters, Rush Limbaugh
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Media Pundits, Fox News
The Washington Times spins off a recent op-ed by health industry lobbyist Betsy McCaughey (see February 9, 2009) to claim that the Obama administration will attempt to save money by euthanizing old people, disabled people, and sickly infants. The editorial begins with the "chilling" idea of a national medical information database that will allow the government to "track… your every visit to a health care provider—where you went, who you saw, what was diagnosed, and what care was provided." The Obama administration, the Times claims, will use that information to decide which people deserve the more expensive lifesaving treatments and which ones must be denied in the interest of cost efficiency. "If it costs too much to treat you, and you are nearing the end of your life anyway, you may have to do with less, or with nothing," the Times writes. "You just aren't worth the cost.… What nondescript GS-11 will be cutting care from Aunt Sophie after her sudden relapse before he or she heads to the food court for some stir fry?" The elderly, the physically and mentally disabled, all "whose health costs are great and whose ability to work productively in the future" will, the Times writes, be allowed to die or even exterminated. So will premature babies, badly wounded soldiers, and others as yet to be determined. The Times again cites Nazi Germany's "T4 Aktion" program of forcibly euthanizing less productive citizens (see November 23, 2008) as a likely template for the Obama program. [Washington Times, 2/11/2009]
Entity Tags: Washington Times, Obama administration, T4 Aktion, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey
Conservative syndicated columnist Cal Thomas uses a recent editorial by health care industry lobbyist Betsy McCaughey (see February 9, 2009) to accuse the Obama administration of planning a "euthanasia" program to exterminate hapless Americans. President Obama's economic stimulus plan, Thomas writes, "means the government will decide who gets life-saving treatment and who doesn't. It is survival of the fittest in practice." Thomas then writes that the Obama administration's support of legal abortions will inevitably lead to "euthanasia" of older and less productive citizens. He quotes a 1979 book by theologian Francis Schaeffer and future Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, Whatever Happened to the Human Race? as saying, "Will a society which has assumed the right to kill infants in the womb—because they are unwanted, imperfect, or merely inconvenient—have difficulty in assuming the right to kill other human beings, especially older adults who are judged unwanted, deemed imperfect physically or mentally, or considered a possible social nuisance?" Thomas then writes, "No one should be surprised at the coming embrace of euthanasia." Schaeffer and Koop's prediction that "the next candidates for arbitrary reclassification as nonpersons are the elderly" now "seems to be coming true," Thomas writes. He also repeats a claim from the 92-year-old Koop that in 1988, he had suffered from an ailment that temporarily paralyzed him. Under Britain's government-run health care, Koop claims, "I would have been nine years too old to have the surgery that saved my life and gave me another 21 years." Soon, Thomas writes, "dying will become a patriotic duty when the patient's balance sheet shows a deficit." [Tribune Media Services, 2/18/2009]
Entity Tags: Obama administration, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, Francis Schaeffer, C. Everett Koop, Cal Thomas
Timeline Tags: US Health Care, Global Economic Crises, 2010 Elections
FreedomWorks logo. [Source: FreedomWorks]The progressive news and advocacy site Think Progress profiles FreedomWorks, a conservative lobbying firm that uses the practice of "astroturfing" to press its agenda home. FreedomWorks is one of the organizations behind the anti-tax "tea party" movement (see April 8, 2009). The organization denies that it is "astroturfing"—creating fake "citizens groups" that purport to be spontaneously organized grassroots organizations—and compares its work to that of liberal activism group MoveOn.org. However, Think Progress notes that MoveOn is a citizen-organized group, while FreedomWorks is headed by former Republican activists and corporate officials, and is funded by oil, energy, and tobacco companies. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and current Washington lobbyist (R-TX) leads FreedomWorks. [Think Progress, 4/14/2009] 'Amateur-Looking' Astroturfing Sites - Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed FreedomWorks' use of "amateur-looking" Web sites for its "astroturf" groups to bolster their credibility as purported "citizen groups" pushing for corporate interests (see May 16, 2008). [Think Progress, 4/14/2009] Represented by PR Firm with GOP Links - FreedomWorks is represented by the Washington public relations firm Shirley & Banister Public Affairs. Shirley & Banister also represents conservative organizations such as the National Rifle Association, Citizens United, news outlet Human Events, and organizer Richard Viguerie's direct-mail firm. (It also represents the Bradley Foundation, a conservative funding organization that in 2008 gave $25,000 to both FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity [AFP], gave FreedomWorks $75,000 in 2009, and is considering a grant request from AFP.) One of Shirley & Banister's partners is Craig Shirley, a veteran Republican PR operative who helped develop the overtly racist 1988 "Willie Horton" political ad (see September 21 - October 4, 1988). Progressive MSNBC host Rachel Maddow tells her audience: "This is a perfect system for the Republican Party. It's a constant feedback loop. The Republican Party activists stir up fear and anger on the Internet… Fearful, angry people go to town hall events and then Republican Party officials say they are just responding to that anger and they have no idea where it came from. It's [a] perfect cycle. Rile them up with made-up stuff and then sympathize with them that are so riled." [MSNBC, 8/14/2009; MSNBC, 8/17/2009] Led by Millionaires - Three of FreedomWorks' most prominent senior officials are millionaires. Armey makes over $500,000 a year working for the organization, and lives in a Texas home valued at $1.7 million. FreedomWorks president Matthew Kibbe lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, in a home valued at $1.17 million. Board member Steve Forbes, the billionaire publisher of Forbes magazine, lives in a New Jersey home valued at $2.78 million, owns a chateau in France, and recently sold a private island in Fiji and a palace in Morocco. [Wall Street Journal, 5/16/2008] FreedomWorks Supports Armey's Lobbying Efforts - Armey's lobbying firm, DLA Piper, represents pharmaceutical firms such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, medical device supplier SleepMed, health care provider Metropolitan Health Networks, and another pharmaceutical firm, Medicines Company. One member of FreedomWorks's board of directors is Richard Stephenson, the founder and chairman of Cancer Treatment Centers of America. He is also the president of International Capital and Management Company, which runs a hospital consulting company. The president of FreedomWorks is Matt Kibbe, the former senior economist for the Republican National Committee and the former chief of staff for Representative Dan Miller (R-FL). FreedomWorks is organizing protests against health care reform that would cut into pharmaceutical firms' profits. DLA Piper represents a number of life insurance firms; FreedomWorks has organized support for the deregulation of the insurance industry. DLA Piper represents not only several American oil firms, but also Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on energy related issues such as maintaining the close ties between the US and the UAE. US oil firms are deeply involved in the UAE's oil industry. [Center for Responsive Politics, 2009; Think Progress, 4/14/2009; MSNBC, 8/12/2009] In August 2009, after reporting on FreedomWorks, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow will tell her audience: "Washington lobbyists and health care executives and former Republican Party officials have just as much a right to shout down the policy debate about health care reform as anyone else does. These folks have just as much a right to try to derail this entire process as anyone else does. But we have a right to know who they are and who is paying them for their efforts. These guys are pros. This is an industry. This is beltway politics being organized and played out in town halls across the country." [MSNBC, 8/12/2009] DLA Piper has also received $830,000 this year, so far, from the pharmaceutical firm Medicines Company; the same firm paid DLA Piper $1.5 million in 2008. [MSNBC, 8/7/2009] FreedomWorks Lobbying on Behalf of DLA Piper? - In August 2009, Maddow will ask, "[W]hy are DLA Piper's clients relevant?" She answers herself, "There appears to be some pretty good evidence that when you pay Dick Armey's lobbying firm, DLA Piper, you get what Dick Armey's grassroots organization FreedomWorks does." In the first half of 2007, the American Council of Life Insurers paid DLA Piper $100,000 to lobby on its behalf. During that time span, FreedomWorks began lobbying Congress on a "grassroots" basis to deregulate the life insurance industry. Maddow will sarcastically ask: "And, of course, perhaps it is just mere coincidence that FreedomWorks happened to have a newfound, ideological, purist grassroots commitment to life insurance deregulation at the same time the American Council of Life Insurers hired Dick Armey's lobbying firm. It could just be a coincidence. Could be, right?" In 2006, DLA Piper began lobbying for the Senado de Republica, the Mexican Senate, for the purpose of "enhancing US-Mexico relations." At the same time, FreedomWorks began promoting itself as "one of the few organizations willing to aggressively promote meaningful immigration reform." In 2004, during the Bush administration's push to privatize Social Security, a single mom from Iowa was introduced at a White House economic conference as a supporter of privatization. That mom was a FreedomWorks employee. Maddow will say: "This is how FreedomWorks does their work. They try to create the impression that their just regular grassroots Americans without any financial or political interests in the outcome of these policy fights." [MSNBC, 8/12/2009]
Entity Tags: MoveOn (.org), Steve Forbes, Think Progress (.org), Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Wall Street Journal, Matt Kibbe, Bristol-Myers Squibb, DLA Piper, Medicines Company, FreedomWorks, Dick Armey
Category Tags: 'Tea Party' Movement, Health Care Reform Controversy, Political Front Groups, Marketing and Public Relations
The Center for American Progress (CAP), a progressive think tank and lobbying organization, releases a report that says the "tea party" movement protesting the various policies of the Obama administration (see April 8, 2009) is not, as purported, entirely a grassroots movement of ordinary citizens, but an "astroturf" movement created, organized, and funded by powerful conservative and industry firms and organizations. (CAP notes that the anti-tax "tea parties," with "tea" standing for "Taxed Enough Already," fail to note that President Obama's recent legislation actually has cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans.) Two of the most prominent organizations behind the "tea parties" are FreedomWorks and Americans for Progress (AFP). FreedomWorks (see April 14, 2009) is a corporate lobbying firm run by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), and organized the first "tea party," held in Tampa, Florida, on February 27. It then began planning and organizing "tea parties" on a national scale; officials coordinated logistics, called conservative activists, and provided activists with sign ideas and slogans and talking points to use during protests. AFP has coordinated with FreedomWorks. AFP is a corporate lobbying firm run by Tim Phillips, a former lobbying partner of conservative activist Ralph Reed, and funded in part by Koch Industries, the largest private oil corporation in America (see May 29, 2009). Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is also involved, through his lobbying form American Solutions for Winning the Future, which is supported by oil companies. Support, Promotion from Fox News - On cable news channels, Fox News and Fox Business have run promotions for the "tea parties" in conjunction with enthusiastic reports promoting the affairs (see April 13-15, 2009, April 15, 2009, April 15, 2009, and April 6-13, 2009); in return, the organizers use the Fox broadcasts to promote the events. Fox hosts Glenn Beck, Neil Cavuto, and Sean Hannity all plan to broadcast live reports from the events. Fox also warns its viewers that the Obama administration may send "spies" to the events. (Fox justifies its depth of coverage by saying that it provided similar coverage for the 1995 Million Man March. However, Fox did not begin broadcasting until 1996—see October 7, 1996.) Republican Support - Congressional Republicans have embraced the "tea parties" as ways to oppose the Obama administration. Many leading Republicans, such as Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), Paul Ryan (R-WI), and some 35 others, will speak at AFP-funded "tea parties." Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has moved the RNC to officially support the protests. And Senator David Vitter (R-LA) has introduced legislation formally honoring April 15 as "National Tea Party Day." "It's going to be more directed at Obama," says reporter and commentator Ana Marie Cox. "This is very much, I think, part of the midterm strategy" to win elections in 2010. Fringe Elements - According to CAP, many "fringe" elements of the conservative movement—including "gun rights militias, secessionists, radical anti-immigrant organizations, and neo-Nazi groups"—are involved in the "tea parties." [Think Progress, 4/15/2009; Think Progress, 5/29/2009]
Entity Tags: Ralph Reed, Republican National Committee, Paul Ryan, Tim Phillips, Obama administration, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, John Boehner, Michael Steele, Barack Obama, Neil Cavuto, Center for American Progress, Ana Marie Cox, Americans for Progress, Fox Business Channel, Fox News, Koch Industries, David Vitter, American Solutions for Winning the Future, FreedomWorks, Glenn Beck, Dick Armey
Category Tags: 'Tea Party' Movement, Gun/Second Amendment Rhetoric, Health Care Reform Controversy, Marketing and Public Relations, Political Front Groups, Conservative Media Pundits, Fox News, Media Complicity
The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), holds a series of hearings about health care reform, on April 21, May 5, and May 12. In all, 41 experts testify, but none of them advocate the so-called "single-payer" form of health care, a system which essentially has the government providing health care insurance instead of private insurers—"Medicare for all Americans," as some characterize it. [Politico, 5/5/2009; Single Payer Action, 5/21/2009] The experts are from organizations like America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the health industry's largest lobbying firm, and health insurers Blue Cross and Aetna. Some of the invited organizations employ former Baucus staff members. [Rolling Stone, 9/3/2009] Baucus says that single-payer is "off the table," and will not be considered. [TPM Cafe, 5/5/2009] Health Industry Heavy Donors to Baucus - The nonpartisan organization Consumer Watchdog has reported that Baucus, one of the Senate's most important architects of Congressional health reform, has accepted more campaign contributions from the health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations than any other current Democratic member of the House or Senate. During the last two election cycles, he received $183,750 from health insurance companies and $229,020 from drug companies. [Single Payer Action, 5/21/2009] Protesters Disrupt Hearings - Protesters disrupt the hearings by standing up and shouting criticisms of the committee over its failure to bring single-payer into the discussion. Eight protesters are led out of the hearing room and later arrested. At one point, Baucus asks for more police officers to enforce security. The protests are organized by Healthcare Now, Physicians for a National Health Program, and Single Payer Action, all of whom support a single-payer, government-run health care system. One protester calls the hearings nothing more than "political theater." For his part, Baucus assures the audience, "I want you to know I care deeply about your views." [Politico, 5/5/2009] The eight protesters spend around seven hours in jail. One, Dr. Margaret Flowers, later recalls: "It's funny, the policemen were all telling us their horror stories about health care. One was telling us about his mother who was 62 and lost her job and was uninsured, waiting to get Medicare when she was 65." The protesters are sentenced to six months' probation. Baucus later admits that not allowing single-payer advocates to participate in the hearings was a mistake; he will eventually agree to meet with a group of those advocates (see June 3, 2009). Single-Payer Never Considered - In September, Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi will note that Baucus, like President Obama and other prominent Democrats, has supported single-payer insurance in theory, but asserts such a proposal would never get through Congress. Journalist Russell Mokhiber, who advocates for single-payer as a member of Single Payer Action, later says that the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats made an agreement with health industry leaders months before considering legislation for health care reform that single-payer would not be part of their proposals. In return, Mokhiber will say, they asked the industry not to oppose their reform efforts, a request that the industry has generally not honored. [Rolling Stone, 9/3/2009]
Entity Tags: Aetna, Healthcare Now, Consumer Watchdog, Barack Obama, America's Health Insurance Plans, Single Payer Action, Blue Cross, Russell Mokhiber, Margaret Flowers, Matt Taibbi, Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, Obama administration, Physicians for a National Health Program
On his radio show, conservative host Glenn Beck warns that the Democrats' "socialistic" health care reform proposal will lead to "eugenics" as envisioned by leaders of the Nazi Third Reich. Beck tells his listeners that the reform package will not only result in senior citizens being forced to die before their time in order to save on medical costs (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, and February 18, 2009), but also says: "This is Nazi Germany stuff. This is the kind of stuff that is progressive in its nature. It is eugenics. It is survival of the fittest. It is the reason why the abortion argument makes so much difference. You can't devalue life at either end because these people are waiting to swoop in and say it's just not worth doing these things. Don't waste the money on old people. They're not going to live long anyway. Spend it on someone who meets the requirements of our cost-benefit analysis. So old people, thanks for all the contributions you made to society during your better years but now we're sorry to say it's time to send you to a better place, heaven." [Glenn Beck, 5/13/2009]
Entity Tags: Glenn Beck
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Media Pundits
Progressive news and advocacy Web site Think Progress profiles Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the conservative Washington lobbying organization that is planning to coordinate anti-tax "tea party" protests (see April 8, 2009 and April 15, 2009) with a summer push against the White House's health care reform proposals. AFP is largely funded by Koch Industries, the largest private oil corporation in the US; AFP has long advocated positions favorable to the energy and health care industries. AFP also uses the technique of "astroturfing," the creation of ostensibly citizen-driven "grassroots" advocacy groups that are actually funded and driven by corporate and lobbying interests. AFP's most recent creation is a "front group" called "Patients United Now" (PUN), a group explicitly designed to thwart health care reform. PUN's Web site declares, "We are people just like you," and actively solicits participation and donations from ordinary Americans without revealing its corporate roots. AFP employs close to 70 Republican operatives and former oil industry officials. Other 'Astroturf' Campaigns - Think Progress notes that other AFP "Astroturf" groups have organized events such as the "Hot Air Tour" attacking environmental regulation, the "Free Our Energy" movement to promote domestic oil drilling, the "Save My Ballot Tour" which sent conservative activist "Joe the Plumber" (see October 10, 2008) around the country attacking the Employee Free Choice Act, the "No Climate Tax" group aimed at defeating the Clean Energy Economy legislation, and the "No Stimulus" organization, which opposes the Obama administration's economic policies. Headed by Former Abramoff Colleague - AFP's president is Tim Phillips, a veteran conservative lobbyist and "astroturfer." In 1997, Phillips, then a Republican campaign strategist, joined Christian conservative activists in a new lobbying firm, Century Strategies. The firm promised to mount "grassroots lobbying drives" and explained its strategy as "it matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard—and by whom." Century Strategies was given a boost by Texas GOP political operative Karl Rove, and began its career representing the Texas oil giant Enron. The firm was paid $380,000 to mobilize "religious leaders and pro-family groups" to push energy deregulation on the federal and state level, an effort which helped lead, says Think Progress, "to the energy crisis and economic meltdown of 2001." As part of their efforts, Phillips and his partner, former Christian Coalition official Ralph Reed, used their congressional connections and "placed" purported "news" articles in the New York Times and other prominent newspapers. Phillips managed the firm's direct mail subsidiary, Millennium Marketing, which was hired by then-GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff to pressure members of Congress to oppose federal wage and worker safety legislation. Phillips and Reed also worked with Abramoff in the lobbyists' efforts to fraudulently charge Native American tribes millions of dollars in lobbying fees over their efforts to build casinos on tribal lands. And they helped Abramoff launder gambling money. Phillips and Reed are responsible for the ads that helped Republicans win election victories by comparing Democratic candidates to Osama bin Laden, and helped George W. Bush (R-TX) defeat Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in 2000 by accusing McCain of fathering an illegitimate black child. They were unsuccessful in preventing the 2000 election of Republican Eric Cantor (R-VA) to the House by attacking his Jewish heritage. [Think Progress, 5/29/2009] Headed by Oil Billionaire, Republican Party Funder - MSNBC's Rachel Maddow will later note that AFP's director is Art Pope, a multi-millionaire who has given so much money to the North Carolina Republican Party that it named its headquarters after him. The national chairman of AFP is David Koch, who with his brother runs Koch Industries, the largest privately held oil company in the US and a longtime supporter of right-wing causes. Koch is the 19th richest man in the world. [MSNBC, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Tim Phillips, Think Progress (.org), Ralph Reed, Patients United Now, Millennium Marketing, Century Strategies, David Koch, Art Pope, Koch Industries, Americans for Prosperity, Jack Abramoff
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Political Front Groups
Representative Tim Bishop (D-NY) holds a "town hall" meeting in Setauket, New York, to attempt to discuss the White House's health care reform package. However, the town hall is disrupted by a large number of angrily shouting conservatives, there to protest the reform proposals. The protesters hound Bishop throughout the meeting, shouting him down when he attempts to speak, and accusing him of "selling out" the country through his positions on the White House's energy, economic, and health care policies. The mob becomes so threatening that five police officers are forced to escort Bishop to his car for his own safety. In part because of the incident, Bishop will suspend further town hall meetings until August 2009. Bishop has held over 100 such meetings since his election to Congress in 2002. [Politico, 7/31/2009; MSNBC, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: Tim Bishop, Obama administration
Timeline Tags: US Health Care, US Domestic Terrorism, 2010 Elections
Category Tags: Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Opposition to Obama
President Obama, in a televised "town hall" event held in the White House to discuss health care reform, suggests that one way to trim medical costs might be to cease performing expensive and futile treatments—"extraordinary measures"—on terminally ill patients who do not want such interventions and would not benefit from them. Currently, doctors who have no particular instructions will perform "extraordinary measures" to stave off a terminally ill patient's death, even for a matter of hours, no matter how intrusive or expensive the procedure. Obama tells his listeners that families need better information so they don't unthinkingly approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care." In some instances, he says, "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller." He notes the experience of his recently deceased grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given less than nine months to live. When she broke her hip, she and her family had to decide whether to put her through a long, expensive, and painful hip-replacement procedure. "[A]nd the question was, does she get hip replacement surgery, even though she was fragile enough they were not sure how long she would last?" he says. [Los Angeles Times, 6/25/2009] Obama is not advocating that life-extending treatments be forcibly denied to terminally ill or elderly patients (see July 23, 2009 and July 23, 2009), but his remarks will be misconstrued as advocating just such a position (see June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23-24, 2009, and July 24, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 31, 2009 - August 12, 2009, August 7, 2009, August 10, 2009, Shortly Before August 10, 2009, August 11, 2009, and August 12, 2009).
Entity Tags: Madelyn Dunham, Barack Obama
Capital Research Center senior editor Matthew Vadum writes an op-ed for the conservative American Spectator magazine claiming that President Obama is sending a message to America's elderly in his health care reform proposals: "Screw you." Referring to a statement made by Obama at a "town hall" forum on health care reform, where the president noted that money could be saved by trimming unwanted and unneeded "extraordinary measures" carried out on terminally ill patients (see June 24, 2009), Vadum writes: "So, old people: screw you. In the future Uncle Sam will put you on an ice floe and let you float away to your heavenly reward. It gives new meaning to the Latin phrase 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.' (In English, How sweet and glorious it is to die for one's country.) Medical decisions should be made by patients, their families, and their doctors, not by government bureaucrats, but that's ObamaCare for you." [American Spectator, 6/25/2009]
Entity Tags: Capital Research Center, Matthew Vadum, Barack Obama
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Media Opposition
Fake 'ObamaCare' card distributed by FreedomWorks. [Source: FreedomWorks]The corporate lobbying firm FreedomWorks (see April 14, 2009) sends out a detailed memo, written in part by founder Dick Armey (R-TX), laying out strategies for protesting the Obama administration's health care reform proposals. The memo claims that the White House intends to supplant the current privately owned and operated health care system with a "government-run" system "that would cost taxpayers trillions of dollars in new taxes" and feature "government bureaucrats," not doctors and patients, deciding who received what health care. "This takeover of the health care system would be costly in terms of our money, our freedom, and even our lives," the memo states. Members and sympathizers should descend on the "town hall" meetings and other venues hosted by their Congressional representatives and demand that they oppose the proposals. The memo states that its "action kit" should be used at the "tea parties" being sponsored by FreedomWorks and other right-wing organizations (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, and May 29, 2009). The memo contains talking points, slogans, sample questions, a "sample" letter to the editor that members can copy and sign, a petition, and a satirical "Obamacare Card" issued to "Nancy P. Pelosi," the Democratic Speaker of the House, saying that the bearer is entitled to "rationed health care, long waits, less choice and control, poorer care, fewer doctors and drugs, massive government, higher taxes, growing debt, zero innovation, rising costs, waste, fraud, and abuse, [and] anxiety, pain, [and] fear of death." [Dick Armey, 6/26/2009 ]
Entity Tags: Dick Armey, Nancy Pelosi, Obama administration, FreedomWorks
Moderate Republican House member Mike Castle (R-DE) faces a raucous band of angry conservative protesters at one of his "health care listening tour" meetings. Castle, who is one of eight Republicans to join the Democratic majority in voting for the American Clean Energy and Security Act, is challenged by a full range of accusations and conspiracy theories, some ranging far afield from health care reform and energy policy. 'Socialized Medicine' Worse than 9/11 - Some audience members accuse Castle of supporting "socialized medicine." One member shouts, "I don't have the answers for how to fix the broken pieces of our health care system, but I know darn well if we let the government bring in socialized medicine, it will destroy this thing faster than the twin towers came down." 'Cap and Trade' Tax Will Destroy Economy - One audience member shouts that the proposed "cap and trade" tax on pollutants will destroy the US economy. "Do you have any idea what that cap and trade tax thing, bill that you passed is going to do to the Suffolk County poultry industry?" the member says. "That's how chicken houses are heated, with propane. It outputs CO2. I mean, I'm outputting CO2 right now as I speak. Trees need CO2 to make oxygen! You can't tax that!" Global Warming a 'Hoax' - Many audience members respond with cheers and chants to expressions that global warming is a hoax. "I'm actually hopeful that this vote that you made was a vote to put you out of office," one says to a barrage of applause and cheers. "You know, on this energy thing, I showed you, I had in my email to you numerous times there are petitions signed by 31,000 scientists that that know and have facts that CO2 emissions have nothing to do and the greenhouse effect has nothing to do with global warming. It's all a hoax! [Applause.] First of all, I cannot for the life of me understand how you could have been one of the eight Republican traitors!" Another audience member says that global warming is "still a theory, so is Darwin's theory of evolution! And yet we have the audacity to say global warming is accurate, it's more than a theory? How about how cold it's been this spring. Personal data, data shows that since 1998 average temperatures have been cooling!" 'Dead Baby Juice' Used to Create AIDS, Swine Flu - Some audience members believe that AIDS and the H1N1 "swine flu" epidemic are part of a conspiracy to kill Americans, using "dead baby juice." "The virus was built and created in Fort Dix, a small bioweapons plant outside of Fort Dix," one audience member asserts. "This was engineered. This thing didn't just crop up in a cave or a swine farm. This thing was engineered, the virus. Pasteur International, one of the big vaccine companies in Chicago, has been caught sending AIDS-infected vaccines to Africa. Do you think I trust—I don't trust you with anything. You think I'm going to trust you to put a needle full of dead baby juice and monkey kidneys? Cause that's what this stuff is grown on, dead babies!" Obama a Kenyan - One audience members wins a round of applause by asserting that President Obama is not an American citizen. "Congressman Castle, I want to know," she shouts. "I have a birth certificate here from the United States of America saying I'm an American citizen, with a seal on it. Signed by a doctor, with a hospital administrator's name, my parents, the date of birth, the time, the date. I want to go back to January 20th and I want to know why are you people ignoring his birth certificate? He is not an American citizen! He is a citizen of Kenya!" Protests Organized by Conservative Lobbying Organizations - According to liberal news and advocacy site Think Progress, Castle and other moderate Republicans are facing orchestrated attacks on their energy and health care policies by conservative lobbying firms and right-wing talk show hosts. Lobbying organizations such as Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see May 29, 2009) have tarred Castle and other moderate Republicans as "cap and traitors," joined by members of Fox News host Glenn Beck's "9-12" organization (see March 13, 2009 and After) and exhorted by pronouncements from Beck, fellow talk show host Rush Limbaugh, the Web site Prison Planet, and others. [Think Progress, 7/21/2009]
Entity Tags: 9/12 Project, American Clean Energy and Security Act, Fox News, Glenn Beck, Barack Obama, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Castle, Pasteur International, Prison Planet (.com), Americans for Prosperity
Category Tags: Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Opposition to Obama, 'Tea Party' Movement, Obama 'Birther' Controversy, Fox News
A Syracuse "town hall" meeting hosted by Democratic House member Dan Maffei (D-NY) turns ugly after police are forced to intervene to restore order. During the meeting, held at Lincoln Middle School and focusing on health care reform, conservative anti-reform protesters cause disruption with shouts, curses, and screams that repeatedly drown out both Maffei's remarks and the questions and comments from the audience, which numbers around 400. Many of the protesters are members of one or another "tea party" groups (see April 8, 2009), which have long opposed the policies of the Obama administration. The worst of the attempts to shout down discussion comes when Maffei or audience members bring up the idea of the "public option," the idea of a government-run alternative health care plan similar to Medicare or Medicaid. Some pro-reform audience members bicker with the anti-reformists, adding to the cacophany. Maffei will later say he believes many of the loudest and most discourteous anti-reform protesters were not from the district, but had been brought in by special interest groups (see July 23, 2009 and August 4, 2009). "Many of them are not even from the Congressional district," Maffei says. "But we're not going to check driver's licenses and ask people if they live in the district. It's very, very unfortunate." After the meeting, Maffei says he is considering other formats for such meetings; he says any such format should allow everyone to speak and discuss ideas in a respectful fashion. "This has been a problem going on a little bit with our public meetings," he says. "It just makes me think we can do a better job with the format." [Syracuse Post-Standard, 7/12/2009; TPMDC, 8/3/2009]
Entity Tags: Dan Maffei
House Representative Paul Broun (R-GA—see November 11, 2008) says that the Obama health care reform proposals will kill Americans. On the floor of the House, Broun attacks the idea of a "public option," described by Congressional Democrats as a government-funded alternative to private health care. Broun says, "[T]his program of 'government option' is being touted as being the panacea, the savior of allowing people to have quality health care at an affordable price is gonna kill people." Broun says that Canada and the United Kingdom, both countries that rely on public health care, "don't have the appreciation of life as we do in our society." Progressive news and advocacy site Think Progress notes that both Canada and the UK have both a lower infant mortality rate and longer life expectancy than the US. [Think Progress, 7/10/2009] Liberal media watchdog site Media Matters notes that neither the Canadian nor British health care systems serve as models for President Obama's health care reform proposals. [Media Matters, 7/10/2009] Broun's claims are based in part on health insurance advocate Betsy McCaughey's warnings that the health care reform proposal will encourage senior citizens to die sooner (see February 9, 2009 and July 23-24, 2009), warnings that are debunked by the St. Petersburg Times (see July 23, 2009).
Entity Tags: Paul Broun, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, Think Progress (.org), Media Matters, Obama administration, St. Petersburg Times
Betsy McCaughey, the chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, a former Republican lieutenant governor of New York, and a conservative opponent of health care reform, says that under the Obama administration's reform proposal, elderly Americans would be encouraged to die earlier to save money (see February 9, 2009 and July 23-24, 2009). On conservative radio host Fred Thompson's show, she says, "Congress would make it mandatory—absolutely require—that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner." These sessions will help elderly patients learn how to "decline nutrition, how to decline being hydrated, how to go in to hospice care… all to do what's in society's best interest or in your family's best interest and cut your life short." [St. Petersburg Times, 7/23/2009] "These are such sacred issues of life and death. Government should have nothing to do with it." Thompson calls McCaughey's claim the "dirty little secret" of the health care reform proposal. [St. Petersburg Times, 7/23/2009; Politico, 7/28/2009] In August, progressive MSNBC host Rachel Maddow will tell her listeners: "That is not true at all, not a word of it. Not mandatory, not require, not every five years, not counseling, not tell them, not how to, not end their life. None of the words in that claim are true except maybe the two 'that's' and the word 'in.' It's not true, but it is convenient, and so it survives. And it is in fact being promoted more than ever. It's convenient for the interests [that oppose] health care reform to scare old people about reform." [MSNBC, 8/12/2009] The next day, McCaughey publishes an op-ed in the New York Post advancing the same arguments. "One troubling provision" of the bill, she writes, "compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years… about alternatives for end-of-life care.… [The] mandate invites abuse, and seniors could easily be pushed to refuse care." [New York Post, 7/17/2009] Availability of Discussions Mandated Since 1990 - The provision in question states that as part of an advanced care consultation, an individual and practitioner will have a consultation that includes "an explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title." Such explanations and consultations have been part of government-provided senior care since 1990; in 2003, the Bush administration issued guidelines for physicians' discussion of end-of-life care with seniors. Claims Contradicted - John Rother of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) counters with a statement: "This measure would not only help people make the best decisions for themselves but also better ensure that their wishes are followed. To suggest otherwise is a gross, and even cruel, distortion—especially for any family that has been forced to make the difficult decisions on care for loved ones approaching the end of their lives." Jon Keyserling of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization adds: "I was surprised that any responsible legislative analyst would indicate this is a mandatory provision. That is just a misreading of the language and, certainly, of the intent." McCaughey later responds to those statements by repeating her assertions, saying that doctors would "pressure" seniors to accept less costly services that would lead to quicker deaths. [St. Petersburg Times, 7/23/2009; Politico, 7/28/2009] Debunked - McCaughey's claims will soon be disproven (see July 23, 2009).
Entity Tags: Bush administration (43), Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, Fred Thompson, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, American Association of Retired Persons, John Rother, Medicare, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, New York Post, Obama administration, Rachel Maddow, Jon Keyserling
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), speaking on the Washington Times's America's Morning News television broadcast, says the Democrats' proposed government-run health care system—the so-called "public option"—will "absolutely" kill more people than it will save. Will "government-run health care… end up killing more people than it saves?" the interviewer asks Coburn. He responds, "Absolutely." Coburn's comments are echoed on the floor of the House by two Republicans. Steve King (R-IA) tells members that the government is "going to save money by rationing care, getting you in a long line. Places like Canada, United Kingdom, and Europe. People die when they're in line." And Louis Gohmert (R-TX) states: "One in five people have to die because they went to socialized medicine!… I would hate to think that among five women, one of 'em is gonna die because we go to socialized care." [Real Clear Politics, 7/16/2009; Think Progress, 7/16/2009]
Entity Tags: Steve King, Tom Coburn, Louis Gohmert
Laura Ingraham. [Source: Pat Dollard]Fox News and radio talk show host Sean Hannity tells his radio audience of the op-ed published in the morning's New York Post by health industry lobbyist Betsy McCaughey, claiming that the Democrats' health care reform proposal would result in senior citizens being advised to end their lives prematurely (see July 16, 2009). Hannity says: "[I]t sounds to me like they're actually encouraging seniors in the end, 'Well, you may just want to consider packing it all in here, this is—' what other way is there to describe this?… So that they don't become a financial burden on the Obamacare system? I mean that's how they intend to cut cost, by cutting down on the health care we can give and get at the end of our lives and dramatically cutting it down for senior citizens? You know, welcome to the brave new world of Obamacare. We're going to encourage, you know, inconvenient people to consider 'alternatives to living.'" The same day, conservative radio host Laura Ingraham tells her listeners: "Can you imagine—if I were doing Saturday Night Live, like, if I were producing it this weekend, and I was going to be fair about political humor, I would have a hospice chute—like a door, a trap door that goes into a chute where the elderly would just walk up—'Oh, my hip hurts.' And all of a sudden you see this leg kicking granny down the chute, and that's Obamacare." She continues by making a veiled reference to Nazi concentration camps: "[S]ome will call them death camps, but this is the way Obamacare is gonna go for America." And on the same day, conservative radio hosts Jim Quinn and Rose Tennent echo Hannity and Ingraham's claims. Quinn says, "[T]here's a drop dead date, you should pardon the expression but a lot of us are going to—" Tennent interjects, "Are going to drop dead, yeah." Quinn then adds, "For heaven's sakes, this is the death-to-old-people plan." [Media Matters, 7/17/2009]
Entity Tags: Laura Ingraham, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, Fox News, Jim Quinn, Sean Hannity, New York Post, Rose Tennent
The national tea party organization Tea Party Patriots (see August 24, 2010) holds a series of rallies and protests in locations throughout the nation to protest the Obama administration's push to reform the nation's health care system. Most of the protests take place outside the offices of US Congressional members. Don Mashak, a tea party activist writing for the Minnesota Examiner, accuses the national media and both the Democratic and Republican Parties of working together to deny media coverage to the protests, even lumping Fox News into the "conspiracy." Mashak writes, "Apparently American News Reporters are a bunch of Political Cuckolds who prefer to nurse at the bitter teat of Tyranny." Mashak estimates, "Hundreds, if not thousands,of protests like this occurred across the USA simultaneously"; a reporter in Atlanta notes definitively that 254 protests under the Tea Party Patriots banner take place. One protester in Atlanta tells the reporter that Canadian citizens routinely come to America to "pay regular prices" for health care "[b]ecause they cannot get that free stuff in Canada." [WXIA-TV, 7/17/2009; Minneapolis Examiner, 7/18/2009]
Entity Tags: Tea Party Patriots, Obama administration, Don Mashak
Category Tags: 'Tea Party' Movement, Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy
Republicans intend to use the fight over health care reform to "break" President Obama, says at least one Republican senator. Jim DeMint (R-SC) joins other Republican lawmakers in a conference call with so-called "tea party" organizers (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, and Before August 6, 2009) to plan how to use town hall confrontations with Democratic lawmakers to help stall any health care reform bill from being voted on in Congress until at least after the August recess. The call was organized by the lobbying organization Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR). "I can almost guarantee you this thing won't pass before August, and if we can hold it back until we go home for a month's break in August," members of Congress will hear from "outraged" constituents, DeMint says. "Senators and Congressmen will come back in September afraid to vote against the American people.… [T]his health care issue is D-Day for freedom in America. If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." One of the talking points from CPR is to characterize the reform package as a "government takeover" of health care. [Politico, 7/17/2009] When Obama says on PBS that "[w]hat they [DeMint and other Republicans] don't recognize is, this isn't about me; it's about the American people… [a]nd things have gotten worse since 1993," DeMint takes to Fox News to say the argument is about "socialism versus freedom," and challenge Obama to a debate. "So, I'm glad to have the debate with him," DeMint says, "but frankly, I've been working on health care for over 10 years. I think I know a lot more about how it works than he does. So I'm ready." [Think Progress, 7/22/2009]
Entity Tags: Conservatives for Patients Rights, Jim DeMint, Barack Obama
Timeline Tags: US Health Care, 2012 Elections, 2010 Elections
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Fox News
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele gives a very direct answer when asked if President Obama's health care proposal constitutes socialism. During a presentation at the National Press Club, Steele is asked, "Does President Obama's health care plan represent socialism?" He replies: "Yes. Next question." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow notes that Steele is "very sure that reforming health care is socialism even if he's not actually all that sure what health care policy is," and plays a video clip of Steele saying at a recent press conference: "I don't do policy. I'm not—I'm not a legislator." Steele acknowledges that Republicans made similar assessments of Medicare when it was proposed in 1965, and says: "I think that there's a legitimate debate there about the impact that Medicare and Medicaid are having on the overall fabric of our economy. I think, though, in this case, unlike 1965, the level of spending, the level of government control and intrusion is far greater and much more expansive than anything we've ever seen.… So I think that what we're talking about here is something far beyond anything we've seen in 1965 or since 1965. This is unprecedented government intrusion into the private sector, period. And you can sweeten that any way you want, but it still tastes bitter. And I think the American people know that." According to Steele, Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and other Democrats are part of a "cabal" that wants to implement government-run health care. "Obama-Pelosi want to start building a colossal, closed health care system where Washington decides. Republicans want and support an open health care system where patients and doctors make the decisions," he says. Adding Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) into his statement, Steele continues: "Many Democrats outside of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid-Waxman cabal know that voters won't stand for these kinds of foolish prescriptions for our health care. We do too. That's why Republicans will stop at nothing to remind voters about the risky experimentation going on in Washington." Obama and Congressional Democrats are moving too fast to try to enact health care reform, Steele says. "So slow down, Mr. President. We can't afford to get health care wrong. Your experiment proposes too much, too soon, too fast. Your experiment with our health care could change everything we like about our health care, and our economy as well." When asked why Republicans are not advancing their own health care proposals, Steele responds: "Now, you know, the Republicans can get up tomorrow and introduce its own bill, but you and I know how Washington works. The bill that matters is the one that the leadership puts in place. The Democrats have the leadership." [Wall Street Journal, 7/20/2009; Associated Press, 7/20/2009; MSNBC, 7/27/2009]
Entity Tags: Michael Steele, Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Henry A. Waxman, Medicare, Rachel Maddow, Medicaid, Nancy Pelosi, Republican National Committee
The American Thinker's Don Parker makes the false claim that the Democrats' health care reform proposal will mandate end of life, or advance planning, counseling for every American senior citizen "at a minimum of every five years, more often if the senior is sick or in a nursing home" (see July 21, 2009). Parker cites the provision as being on pages 425-430 of HR 3200, the current version of the health care legislation now pending in the House of Representatives. Parker asks: "Just how many government trained counselors will that put into the work force? With an over 65 population of 38,000,000 US (Census, 2007), four counseling sessions daily, over 37,000, at a minimum, that's how many. Plus their supervisors, plus the report readers, plus the oversight agency. Don't even think that anyone should receive mandatory counseling regarding the end of life issues surrounding abortion; that's a invasion of the right of privacy! 'Counsel' a senior about their end of life 'choices' under Obama Care? Somehow that's not the same, so just keep your mouth shut." [American Thinker, 7/21/2009] As many sources note (see July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, and Late July, 2009), Parker's claims are false. Such advance planning counseling sessions would be entirely voluntary, and would not encourage seniors to "die early."
Entity Tags: Don Parker, American Thinker
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, following up on claims that the Obama health care reform proposal would encourage elderly Americans to die sooner (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, and July 17, 2009), tells his listeners that the reform proposal includes "[m]andatory counseling for all seniors at a minimum of every five years, more often if the seasoned citizen is sick or in a nursing home.… That's an invasion of the right to privacy. We can't have counseling for mothers who are thinking of terminating their pregnancy, but we can go in there and counsel people about to die." The claim will soon be debunked (see July 23, 2009). [St. Petersburg Times, 7/23/2009]
Entity Tags: Rush Limbaugh, Obama administration
Category Tags: Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Opposition to Obama, Conservative Media Pundits
Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) says that the Republican Party must ensure the total failure of the Obama administration's attempt to reform American health care for the good of the party's electoral chances in 2010. Appearing on a radio show, Inhofe says: "They [President Obama and the Democrats] ought to know, they ought to know from history. This is a losing proposition for them. And for those out there who believe, that would like to have something optimistic to look at, we are plotting the demise on a week by week basis of where Bill Clinton was in 1993 and where Obama is today and his demise ratio is greater than Clinton's was in 1993. So, he's trying to do the same things, except more extreme." On another talk radio show, Inhofe adds: "I just hope the president keeps talking about it, keeps trying to rush it through. We can stall it. And that's going to be a huge gain for those of us who want to turn this thing over in the 2010 election." [Town Hall (.com), 7/22/2009; Think Progress, 7/23/2009] Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) responds to Inhofe's statements: "Slowly but surely the Republicans are revealing their true strategy on health care: partisans gamesmanship comes before getting something done. If Republicans believe doing nothing will ingratiate themselves with the American people, they have not learned a single lesson from the last two elections. Their do nothing approach is why health care costs have skyrocketed, and it's why Republicans are in such a bad place today. This strategy is bad politics, but it is also a deeply troubling way to govern." [Think Progress, 7/23/2009]
Entity Tags: Robert Menendez, James M. Inhofe, Obama administration, Republican Party, Barack Obama
Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck says that President Obama supports health care reform as a form of "reparations" for African-Americans whose ancestors were held as slaves. Beck claims that a provision in the Congressional health care reform bill requires a medical school or other health-related institution applying for a federal grant or contract to prove its inclusiveness to minorities. Beck then tells his viewers: "[J]ust in case the universalness of the program doesn't somehow or another quench his reparation appetite, he's making sure to do his part to pay the debt in the other areas.… So. You got it? This isn't preference to the best institutions that are going to be churning out our doctors, but the institutions with the most diversity. We shouldn't be dishing out grants based on what hospital looks, you know, the most like an Old Navy commercial.… Obama is no dummy. He knows that you would never pass reparations. He knows you would never pass any of this stuff. This is all affirmative action." On the same program, Beck and his guest, Fox contributor Linda Chavez, claim that the health care reform bill would mandate that minority patients be treated by doctors of their same race. Earlier in the day, Beck made many of the same claims about reparations on his radio show. He told his listeners: "This man [Obama] is putting through reparations times 10.… Who'd receive the money? All blacks, or just those directly descended from slaves? Would Barack Obama?… Wait a minute. His father was not a descendent of slaves, and his mother was white. So maybe Michelle Obama would be the only one that should be able to get the cash. Since Obama is half white and half black, would he pay and receive? See, these are the tricky questions, but then again, they have nothing to do with Obama's objection to reparations. Obama is against direct reparations for one reason: He doesn't ever want the victim card to be lost." [Media Matters, 7/23/2009; Media Matters, 7/30/2009] Days later, Beck will accuse Obama of being a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred of white people" (see July 28-29, 2009).
Entity Tags: Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, Fox News, Linda Chavez, Glenn Beck
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Race-Based Rhetoric, Conservative Media Pundits, Media Opposition, Fox News
Patients First bus featuring the "Hands Off Our Health Care" slogan and bloody handprint logo. [Source: Associated Press]The citizens' organization Patients First, a subsidiary of the conservative lobbying group Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, and May 29, 2009), schedules a 13-state bus tour. The tour is aimed at bringing conservative protesters to rallies and "town hall" meetings where the White House's controversial health care proposals are being discussed. AFP's board includes James Miller, a Federal Trade Commission chairman and budget director during the Reagan administration. The tour begins with a "tea party" rally in Richmond. According to AFP official Ben Marchi, organizers will urge constituents to call or visit their senators and sign a petition that asks members of Congress to "oppose any legislation that imposes greater government control over my health care that would mean fewer choices for me and my family and even deny treatments to those in need." The bus will make 26 stops in Virginia alone before journeying to North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Louisiana. Another bus will visit Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Iowa, Arkansas, and Missouri. "Virginians are fired up about health care and what they see as an overreaching federal government," Marchi says. "We don't want legislators to come between them and their doctor. The relationship that exists between doctors and patients is sacred and should not be interfered with." [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 7/23/2009; Politico, 7/28/2009]
Entity Tags: Obama administration, Americans for Prosperity, Patients First, Ben Marchi, James Miller
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, 'Tea Party' Movement, Health Care Reform Controversy, Political Front Groups
PolitiFact logo. [Source: Yahoo! Buzz]The St. Petersburg Times's "PolitiFact" debunks the recent spate of claims by Betsy McCaughey (R-NY) that the Obama health care reform proposal would mandate 'death counseling' (see July 16, 2009) and encourage seniors to die sooner to save money (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 23, 2009, and July 23-24, 2009). Days later, the Annenberg Political FactCheck organization will come to the same conclusions. 'Advance Care Planning Consultation' - According to HR 3200, the latest version of the health care reform legislation, the relevant section is entitled "Advance Care Planning Consultation." This details how Medicare would pay for voluntary end-of-life counseling sessions. According to the legislation: "such consultation shall include the following: An explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to; an explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses; an explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy." Medicare will pay for one such session every five years, and will pay for interim sessions if a Medicare recipient's health worsens in between those five-year sessions. Jon Keyserling, general counsel and vice president of public policy for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, which supports the provision, says the bill does not encourage seniors to end their lives, it just allows some important counseling for decisions that take time and consideration. "These are very serious conversations," he says. "It needs to be an informative conversation from the medical side and it needs to be thought about carefully by the patient and their families." According to Jim Dau of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the legislation does not encourage patients to end their lives. Dau says McCaughey's claims are "not just wrong, they are cruel." He adds: "We want to make sure people are making the right decision. If some one wants to take every life-saving measure, that's their call. Others will decide it's not worth going through this trauma just for themselves and their families, and that's their decision, too." Keyserling says it is clear to him and his organization's lawyers that such end-of-life counseling sessions are purely voluntary, like everything in Medicare. "The only thing mandatory is that Medicare will have to pay for the counseling," says Dau. A press release from the AARP says that McCaughey's characterization of the health care bill is "rife with gross—and even cruel—distortions." [St. Petersburg Times, 7/23/2009; Annenberg Political Fact Check, 7/29/2009] 'Scare Tactics' - The St. Petersburg Times concludes: "For our ruling on this one, there's really no gray area here. McCaughey incorrectly states that the bill would require Medicare patients to have these counseling sessions and she is suggesting that the government is somehow trying to interfere with a very personal decision. And her claim that the sessions would 'tell [seniors] how to end their life sooner' is an outright distortion. Rather, the sessions are an option for elderly patients who want to learn more about living wills, health care proxies and other forms of end-of-life planning. McCaughey isn't just wrong, she's spreading a ridiculous falsehood." [St. Petersburg Times, 7/23/2009] The non-partisan FactCheck.org, an organization sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, will write: "In truth, that section of the bill would require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice, and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It would not require doctors to counsel that their patients refuse medical intervention." The organization will note that inflammatory "chain e-mails" are making the rounds making claims such as: "On Page 425 of Obama's health care bill, the federal government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session every five years with the objective being that they will explain to them just how to end their own life earlier. Yes.… They are going to push SUICIDE to cut medicare spending!!!" FactCheck will respond: "In fact, [the part of the bill cited on p. 425] requires Medicare to cover counseling sessions for seniors who want to consider their end-of-life choices—including whether they want to refuse or, conversely, require certain types of care. The claim that the bill would 'push suicide' is a falsehood." FactCheck will find that McCaughey "misrepresent[ed]" the bill in her claims, and she and other health care reform opponents are resorting to "scare tactics" to try to defeat the legislation. [Annenberg Political Fact Check, 7/29/2009]
Entity Tags: St. Petersburg Times, Medicare, Jon Keyserling, American Association of Retired Persons, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, FactCheck (.org), Jim Dau, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, Obama administration
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) issue a statement that warns the Obama administration's health care reform proposal would provide for "government-encouraged euthanasia" of senior citizens. Boehner and McCotter's statement reads: "Section 1233 of the House-drafted legislation [HR 3200, the most recent version of the reform proposal] encourages health care providers to provide their Medicare patients with counseling on 'the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration' and other end of life treatments, and may place seniors in situations where they feel pressured to sign end of life directives they would not otherwise sign. This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law. At a minimum this legislative language deserves a full and open public debate—the sort of debate that is impossible to have under the politically-driven deadlines Democratic leaders have arbitrarily set for enactment of a health care bill." Boehner and McCotter also state that the reform bill would encourage state-assisted suicide: "With three states having legalized physician-assisted suicide, this provision could create a slippery slope for a more permissive environment for euthanasia, mercy-killing, and physician-assisted suicide because it does not clearly exclude counseling about the supposed benefits of killing oneself. Health care reform that fails to protect the sanctity and dignity of all human life is not reform at all." [House Republican Leader, 7/23/2009] The next day, McCotter will add: "This is very dangerous. We, in Michigan, have already fought back in attempted assisted suicide several years ago. And yet you see that the people who support this are trying to use this bill to advance this agenda." [MSNBC, 7/29/2009] The statement is quickly challenged by Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who with Representative Charles Boustany (R-LA) introduced a separate bill that would provide for end-of-life consultations for senior citizens. Both bills propose nothing more than having Medicare pay for such consultations, if the patients or the patients' families desire them. "I cannot tell you how disappointed I was to see this type of reaction to a carefully crafted piece of legislation we have been working on for more than six months that is bipartisan and that speaks to the needs of American families," Blumenauer says. "The American public, especially our senior citizens, deserve our best efforts to meet their needs—not treat them like political footballs." A Boustany spokesman says the congressman stands behind the measure he co-authored, but says it should include language stating that taxpayer money would not be used to counsel patients on physician-assisted suicide. Two states—Oregon and Washington—allow physician-assisted suicide in certain situations, and the Montana Supreme Court is considering a lower-court ruling that found physician-assisted suicide to be a right under Montana's Constitution. [Politico, 7/28/2009] Liberal media watchdog organization Media Matters calls the statement's analysis "repulsive." [Media Matters, 7/24/2009] The characterization of the bill by Boehner and McCotter will be disproven by a St. Petersburg Times analysis (see July 23, 2009).
Entity Tags: St. Petersburg Times, Obama administration, John Boehner, Charles Boustany, Thaddeus McCotter, Media Matters, Earl Blumenauer
Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor of New York and a lobbyist for the health care industry, writes two frightening op-eds, one for the Wall Street Journal and one for the New York Post, that make false claims about the Democrats' health care reform package. In the Journal, she claims that the bill contains a provision that would "pressure the elderly to end their lives prematurely," a claim she has made before (see July 16, 2009). In the Post, she goes much farther, claiming that two of President Obama's top health care advisers favor denying expensive health care treatments to senior citizens, the mentally disabled, and other "less productive" members of American society. She names Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethicist, the health care adviser at the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and a member of the Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. She cites a 2008 article by Emanuel in the American Medical Association's journal, where he wrote that some doctors sometimes go too far, construing the Hippocratic Oath "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others." McCaughey takes Emanuel's words and accuses him of wanting "doctors to look beyond the needs of their patients and consider social justice, such as whether the money could be better spent on somebody else. Many doctors are horrified by this notion; they'll tell you that a doctor's job is to achieve social justice one patient at a time." McCaughey states that Emanuel believes "medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those 'who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens…' Translation: Don't give much care to a grandmother with Parkinson's or a child with cerebral palsy." She also claims that Emanuel "explicitly" advocated denying health care to senior citizens in favor of providing treatment to younger patients. McCaughey claims that both Emanuel and Dr. David Blumenthal, the White House's national coordinator of health information technology, favor "slowing medical innovation to control health spending" and denying patients access to advanced medical technology. According to McCaughey, Blumenthal also favors letting "computers tell… doctors what to do." She concludes: "No one has leveled with the public about these dangerous views.… Do we want a 'reform' that empowers people like this to decide for us?" [Wall Street Journal, 7/23/2009; New York Post, 7/24/2009] A White House official later notes that McCaughey misrepresented Emanuel's writings, and that Emanuel was describing positions and beliefs that he opposed in the same articles. ABC News's Jake Tapper will note that Emanuel's fellow doctors and medical ethicists know him as a fervent advocate of the rights of dying patients. [ABC News, 7/28/2009] And Emanuel himself will rebut McCaughey's claims (see August 12, 2009). McCaughey's previous claims about the dangers of health care reform, including her assertion that reform would encourage doctors to let senior citizens die, have been roundly debunked (see July 23, 2009).
Entity Tags: New York Post, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, David Blumenthal, Ezekiel Emanuel, Jake Tapper, Wall Street Journal, Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research, Obama administration, Office of Management and Budget
Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR), an anti-health care reform lobbying organization owned by former health care industry executive Rick Scott (see August 4, 2009), sends an e-mail to a listserv called the Tea Party Patriots Health Care Reform Committee detailing over 100 "town hall" meetings to take place during the August recess. All are to be hosted by Democratic members of Congress, and most will feature discussions of the White House/Congressional Democrats' health care reform proposals. [TPMDC, 8/3/2009] The Tea Party Patriots Health Care Reform Committee has hundreds of members on its mailing list, and cross-connects to other, larger mailing lists for anti-reform groups such as Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR), Patients First, Patients United Now (an affiliate of Americans for Prosperity), and FreedomWorks (see April 14, 2009). CPR features the same list of town hall meetings on its own Web site. The liberal news site TPMDC notes that the same listservs have featured blatantly racist messages such as pictures of President Obama with a bone through his nose (see July 28, 2009). [Conservatives for Patients' Rights, 7/2009; TPMDC, 8/3/2009]
Entity Tags: Rick Scott, Conservatives for Patients Rights, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, Patients United Now, Tea Party Patriots Health Care Reform Committee, Patients First, TPMDC
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, 'Tea Party' Movement
Rep. Louis Gohmert. [Source: Associated Press / Washington Blade]Representative Louis Gohmert (R-TX) lays out a skein of theories on radical radio host Alex Jones's broadcast. During his interview with Jones, Gohmert accuses the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats of trying to implement socialism and kill senior citizens; Jones and Gohmert compare Obama to a number of foreign despots. Gohmert tells Jones and his listeners: "We've been battling this socialist health care, the nationalization of health care, that is going to absolutely kill senior citizens. They'll put them on lists and force them to die early because they won't get the treatment as early as they need.… I would rather stop this socialization of health care because once the government pays for your health care, they have every right to tell you what you eat, what you drink, how you exercise, where you live.… But if we're going to pay 700 million dollars like we voted last Friday to put condoms on wild horses, and I know it just says an un-permanent enhanced contraception whatever the heck that is. I guess it follows that they're eventually get around to doing it to us." Gohmert is echoing claims by Republican lawmakers and industry lobbyists that the Democrats' health care reform proposal will kill senior citizens (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, and July 23-24, 2009). Jones ups the ante by accusing the White House "science czar" of planning to "put… stuff in the water to sterilize us," and then goes on to accuse the White House of, among other things, implementing a "eugenics control grid over us" and implementing "youth brigades, national service compulsory in a group outside the military under the Democratic Party control in the city year in the red and black uniforms." Gohmert agrees with Jones, and says these kinds of policies were "done in the 1930s," a plain reference to Nazi Germany, "and it's not the only place its been done. It has been done throughout history." Jones says, "Mao did it," referring to Communist China's Mao Zedong. Gohmert agrees: "Well, that's exactly what I was thinking of. This is the kind of the thing we got to stop. We got to get back to the roots, the basics." Gohmert praises Jones for his rhetoric and accusations: "That shows how on top of things you are, Alex." For his part, Jones effusively thanks Gohmert and reminds him that "you're there fighting and we're supporting you." [Think Progress, 7/27/2009] Progressive MSNBC host Rachel Maddow says of Gohmert and Jones: "You know, the Democrats may be fighting it out about whether they're going to be beholden to the insurance companies and whether there's going to be a public option in health care reform. But when it comes to the Republicans, this is the kind of thing they are bringing to the table: Hitler, Mao, and secret plots to kill old people." [MSNBC, 7/29/2009]
Entity Tags: William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton, Richard Poplawski, Obama administration, Alex Jones, Louis Gohmert, Mao Zedong, Think Progress (.org), Rachel Maddow
Anti-health care reform protesters displays sign with swastika prominently featured. [Source: Paul Rhea]The Democratic National Committee and several national and local unions stage a rally in Austin, Texas, to support the White House's health care reform proposals. Anti-health care protesters also appear, one of whom carries a sign with a Nazi symbol prominently displayed. The sign warns that anti-reform advocates want "no repeats" of Nazi Germany, apparently in reference to the reform proposals. [TX 912 Candidates, 8/5/2009; Philip Martin, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Democratic National Committee
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Labor/Union Rhetoric & Actions
Frank Kratovil hung in effigy by a conservative protester. [Source: Joe Albero / Salisbury News]An angry conservative protester hangs Representative Frank Kratovil (D-MD) in effigy in front of his office. Other conservative protesters rally around the effigy, waving signs and chanting anti-health care reform slogans. Conservative lobbying organization Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see April 15, 2009 and May 29, 2009) quickly distances itself from the incident, saying that it had nothing to do with the protest and disapproved of the tactic. AFP is helping organize raucous, disruptive anti-health care protests around the country. The next day, AFP spokeswoman Amy Menefee will write: "We held an event the previous night, where this man passed out flyers asking people to join him the next day at the office for a protest. That is how some AFP members ended up coming, but they were disgusted by his behavior. I repeat, this gathering WAS NOT an AFP event or sponsored by us in any way." Conservative blogger Joe Albero, who took the picture featured in many news articles, calls the effigy "despicable" and accuses Democrats of "turn[ing] it around to be something it wasn't." [Washington Post, 7/28/2009] The liberal news and advocacy site Think Progress later identifies the protesters as members of Patients First, a subsidiary of AFP. [Think Progress, 7/28/2009] Reporter Glenn Thrush opines, "If this is the face of anti-health care reform protest, the GOP has a serious problem." He also confirms that although AFP claims not to have sanctioned the protest, AFP members were in attendance. [Politico, 7/28/2009] Think Progress notes that Menefee, before joining AFP in the beginning of 2009, worked for the Galen Institute, a conservative think tank funded by medical-device and pharmaceutical corporations. [Think Progress, 7/31/2009] One of Kratovil's colleagues, Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), calls the hanging a "shocking and despicable act of hate," and says "Republicans must condemn it." [Think Progress, 7/29/2009] The Democratic National Committee will use the photograph of Kratovil being hung in effigy in ads claiming that the "anti-reform mobs" are being "organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform." [Baltimore Sun, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Glenn Thrush, Patients First, Galen Institute, Joe Albero, Republican Party, Think Progress (.org), Chris Van Hollen, Democratic National Committee, Frank Kratovil, Americans for Prosperity, Amy Menefee
Lewin Group logo. [Source: WNY Media]The Republican National Committee plans to spend a million dollars in August on television ads opposing health care reform. One of the key elements of the ad campaign is a study released today by the Lewin Group that finds 119 million Americans would lose the coverage they currently have under the Obama administration's health care reform proposal. MSNBC's progressive talk show host Rachel Maddow airs video clips of Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Representatives John Boehner (R-OH), Tom Price (R-GA), Paul Ryan (R-WI), and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) all citing the Lewin study as evidence that health care reform is bad for Americans. The Lewin Group is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, a health insurance provider. United Health operates a subsidiary called Ingenix, which in turn operates a consulting firm, the Lewin Group. Maddow notes that Republicans call the Lewin Group "nonpartisan and independent" when in fact it is a branch of a health care insurer. In January 2009, United Health agreed to pay $400 million to the State of New York after being charged with defrauding customers—manipulating data in order to shift medical expenses onto consumers. Former Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, himself a doctor, says the issue is "not… about Democrats versus Republicans. This is about the health insurance agency versus the American people." [Ingenix, 7/27/2009; MSNBC, 7/28/2009]
Entity Tags: Republican National Committee, Tom Price, UnitedHealth Group, Rachel Maddow, Lewin Group, Obama administration, Paul Ryan, Ingenix, John Boehner, Howard Dean, MSNBC, Newt Gingrich, Charles Grassley, John Barrasso
Timeline Tags: US Health Care, Civil Liberties, 2010 Elections
The conservative lobbying group Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see April 15, 2009 and May 29, 2009), in conjunction with the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition, organizes a large protest at a town hall meeting organized by Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO). Michelle Sherrod, a McCaskill aide, intends to discuss the senator's opinion on the Obama administration's health care reform proposals with the protesters, but AFP volunteers and associated protesters have a different agenda. The AFP Web alert says, "We hope we can have a vigorous yet courteous exchange Monday evening," but according to liberal blog OpenLeft, whose contributors videotape part of the proceedings for YouTube, the conservative protesters—numbering somewhere around 1,000—are disruptive, often preventing Sherrod and other citizens from asking or answering questions. AFP later calls the protest a "smashing success." The Fox News blog, Fox Nation, celebrates the protest with the headline, "Tea Party Protest Erupts During Senator's Town Hall!" [Americans for Prosperity, 7/24/2009; Open Left, 7/27/2009; St. Louis Business Journal, 7/27/2009; Americans for Prosperity, 7/28/2009; Fox Nation, 7/29/2009]
Entity Tags: St. Louis Tea Party Coalition, Claire McCaskill, Americans for Prosperity, Michelle Sherrod, Fox News, OpenLeft
Category Tags: Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Opposition to Obama, 'Tea Party' Movement, Fox News
Bernie Sanders. [Source: Down With Tyranny (.com)]Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a progressive independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, explains to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow why Democrats are having so much difficulty winning broad support for their health care reform proposal. "There seems to be a gap between the seriousness of what's actually being fought over in Washington right now and the level of discourse about it," Maddow asks (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, and July 27, 2009). "Why do you think it is that there's so much sideshow craziness about this issue?" Sanders responds that Democrats "have not been as clear as we should be in what, in fact, we are fighting for." Sanders, a proponent of government-led "single-payer" health care, which would in essence supplement private health care and health insurance, says that because single-payer "is off of the table because of the power of the insurance companies and the drug companies," the resulting proposals have become "pretty complicated… [opening] up opportunities for the extreme right-wing to come up with their crazy ideas." Maddow says, "They're sort of filling the vacuum of the lack of details that people don't understand with craziness that people are willing to [believe]." The health care crisis is real, Sanders says, with thousands of Americans dying every year because of lack of access to doctors, and 1 million American families predicted to go bankrupt over staggering health care bills. But the discussion has been derailed, he says, into discussing "killing Grandma" and "rationing health care." Sanders believes that the insurance companies, and their Republican and Democratic allies in Congress, are battling the so-called "public option"—providing a government-run health care alternative for people who can't afford health care from the private providers—because they "are very afraid and rightfully so, that if given the choice, the people would gravitate towards a public plan because a public plan will not have the administrative costs, the huge CEO compensation costs, and the general bureaucracy that a [private] plan will have." Besides, Sanders notes, "if you want to do any kind of cost containment, you need to have the competition from a public plan because without that, the private insurance companies will be out there on their own, being able to raise rates as much as they have in the past." Health care corporations are spending $1.3 million per day lobbying lawmakers and other influential government officials, Sanders says, and health insurance and drug companies are spending millions on negative advertising. That kind of money has a powerful impact. "[W]ith all of that money coming into Capitol Hill," he says, "I'm afraid that too many of my colleagues look at the world from the perspective of the insurance companies, from the drug companies who are charging us the highest prices for medicine in the entire world, rather than from the needs of ordinary Americans." [MSNBC, 7/29/2009]
Entity Tags: Rachel Maddow, Bernie Sanders
Slate reporter and columnist Christopher Beam coins a new term, "deathers," to label conservatives who are spreading the debunked rumors that President Barack Obama's health care proposals would kill old people (see July 16, 2009 and July 23, 2009). Beam publishes his article on the same day that Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) claims that under Obama's reforms, seniors would be "put to death" (see July 28, 2009), and that Obama holds a "town hall" meeting where he debunks this and other rumors surrounding his proposals (see July 28, 2009). The claim apparently originated with lobbyist and lawyer Betsy McCaughey (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 16, 2009, and July 23-24, 2009), who used similarly questionable claims to derail the 1994 reform proposals by the Clinton administration (see Mid-January - February 4, 1994). Others have made similar assertions; Representative Paul Broun (R-GA) recently warned that Obama's reform proposals would "kill people" (see July 10, 2009), and conservative commentator and author Charlotte Allen says: "Obama's not going to say, 'Let's kill them.' But he seems to be perfectly comfortable with the idea that a lot more old people are going to die a lot sooner." End-of-Life Consultations - Beam shows that the language of the bill, as it stands in Congress at this time, provides for "end-of-life consultations" between patients and doctors, if the patients wish them. In those consultations, doctors would explain what kind of services are available to those patients—palliative care and hospices, in-home care, more intensive treatments in a hospital, etc.—but would not tell patients that they had to restrict themselves to less intensive treatments that would shorten their lives. Some "deathers" have also insisted that the bill provides for the withholding of "artificially administered nutrition and hydration." McCaughey is a vocal proponent of this claim. However, such a choice would have to be made by the patient and/or the family, specifically not a doctor. Shared Decision-Making - Opponents of health care reform such as McCaughey claim that the House bill would "coerce" seniors into taking part in a program that forces them into making decisions about "trade-offs among treatment options," or takes the final decision-making power away from them and places it in the hands of doctors or government officials. In reality, the bill would provide an informational tool for patients and families to make informed decisions. No coercion could legally be applied. Obama Staffers Cause Concern - Some of Obama's staffers have said and written things that cause consternation among reform opponents (see July 23-24, 2009). One of Obama's senior health care advisers, Ezekiel Emanuel, who serves as health policy adviser at the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), wrote in 2008 that doctors too often interpret the Hippocratic oath "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others," leading some to wonder if Emanuel would put cost concerns over patients' needs; others have gone farther, comparing Emanuel to Nazi doctors and of advocating "eugenics." In 1977, Obama's "science czar," John Holdren, joined two other authors in writing about possible methods of population control, including a speculative bit about sterilizing people by introducing chemicals into the water supply. (ABC News later reports that the controversial passage was from a textbook in which various methods of population control were considered and rejected. Holdren recently released a statement saying that population control is not the government's job; his statements on the matter passed muster in the Senate Commerce Committee, whose Republican members joined Democrats in unanimously approving his nomination as the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.) And some worry that the proposed Independent Medicare Advisory Council, which would oversee cost containment for Medicare, would be staffed, in Allen's words, with "a certain class of secularized intellectuals" who might put cost concerns over quality of life. [Slate, 7/28/2009; ABC News, 7/28/2009]
Entity Tags: John Holdren, Charlotte Allen, Barack Obama, Christopher Beam, Ezekiel Emanuel, Senate Commerce Committee, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Medicare, Virginia Foxx, Paul Broun
Melissa Harris-Lacewell. [Source: Melissa Harris-Lacewell]Melissa Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton, attempts to explain the increasingly overt and virulent racism being promulgated by some conservative lawmakers, talk show hosts, and anti-health care protesters (see February 1, 2008, August 1, 2008 and After, August 4, 2008, August 19, 2008, November 18, 2008, February 24-26, 2009, April 7-8, 2009, July 24, 2009, July 25, 2009, and July 28, 2009). "[A]s a political scientist, you always want to start with the assumption that a political party, whatever choices it's making are trying to seek office," she says. She says one must assume that the racist rhetoric "is somehow a strategy of the right or strategy of an element of the GOP to somehow gain office either in the mid-term elections or more long term for the presidential race." However, that is not the entirety of the reasons behind the rhetoric: "[T]he other part, I think, that I have maybe not been thinking about as carefully is that when we think about the history of race in America, sometimes we have to put aside the notion of strategy and just embrace the reality that race in this country has often brought out irrational anger, fear, anxiety, emotionalism. So it is possible that this is not actually a GOP or a conservative strategy but is instead really kind of an emotional tantrum on the part of some members of the conservative wing who really just are floundering as they look at a world that is changing so dramatically around questions of race." MSNBC host Rachel Maddow expands on Harris-Lacewell's point, saying: "I was with you on it being an irrational tantrum until I started to see the same very specific tactic used in very different venues about very different subjects, this idea of the person who is not white being the problem racist, being used against [Supreme Court nominee Sonia] Sotomayor (see May 26, 2009, May 26, 2009, May 28, 2009, May 28, 2009, May 29, 2009, May 29, 2009, June 5, 2009, and June 12, 2009)… being used against the president now, inexplicably, unrelated to any policy issue but just as a free floating critique of the president. And it does make me wonder about this as an overt political strategy." Harris-Lacewell replies: "President Obama paused in the middle of the primary race to speak in Philadelphia about the question of race in America. And he set up sort of two possibilities, black anger rooted in a history of African-American inequality and white resentment rooted in a sense of kind of a loss of racial privilege. Now, I think in many ways it's a very accurate assessment of sort of the ways that blacks and whites, not completely and not perfectly, but often perceive things quite differently. So I spent the month in New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina is a perfect example of this. Everybody in the country was mad but African-Americans saw the failures of the federal government around Katrina as a race issue. White Americans who were still angry about the failures of the government saw it primarily as a bureaucratic issue rather than a race issue. So here, you have these two groups with very different perspectives. Now, that made all the difference in being able to make policy. So I think that they're hoping that these differences in how blacks and whites often see the world can be a perfect kind of wedge to use on health care, to use on education, to use on a wide variety of issues that, in fact, really—if we don't fix health care, it is bad for all Americans. But if we can somehow kind of suggest that the president is just trying to do things that are good for black people and bad for white people, then it opens up that kind of possibility of anxiety, distrust, and different perceptions." [MSNBC, 7/30/2009]
Entity Tags: Rachel Maddow, Melissa Harris-Perry
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Race-Based Rhetoric, Liberal Media Pundits
Virginia Foxx. [Source: Watauga Watch]Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) says that the Obama administration's health care proposals will put millions of elderly Americans at risk of being killed by the government. "Republicans have a better solution that won't put the government in charge of people's health care, that will make sure we bring down the cost of health care for all Americans, and that insures affordable access for all Americans, and is pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government." Huffington Post's Jason Linkins notes that the Republican leadership in Congress has not actually proposed any alternatives to the Obama health care proposals. Liberal media watchdog site Media Matters writes, "Democratic legislation actually provides professional guidance for seniors' difficult decisions—NOT to encourage euthanasia." [Huffington Post, 7/28/2009; MSNBC, 7/29/2009]
Entity Tags: Virginia Foxx, Obama administration, Jason Linkins, Media Matters
Following up on arguments that Congressional Democrats' health care reform proposal would encourage senior citizens to die sooner (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23-24, 2009, and July 24, 2009), conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners, "People at a certain age with certain diseases will be deemed not worth the investment, and they will just—as Obama said—they'll give them some pain pills and let them loop out until they die and they don't even know what's happened." During a phone-in town hall on health care the same day as Limbaugh's broadcast, President Obama will say something quite different from Limbaugh's characterization (see July 28, 2009). MSNBC host Rachel Maddow says of Limbaugh's allegations later that evening: "'Democrats want to reform health care because it's a secret plan to kill people.' This is the kind of thing that when it shows up on the floor of the House or in a town hall with the president, you get a little glimpse of crazy. But the nest for this kind of crazy, where this stuff is hatched, it's among the conservative base and in the conservative media. Conservative talk radio is really where they let it all hang out." [MSNBC, 7/29/2009]
Entity Tags: Rush Limbaugh, Barack Obama, Rachel Maddow
MacKilip's altered photograph of Obama as a witch doctor. [Source: TPM Muckraker]Dr. David McKalip, a neurosurgeon, resigns as president-elect of the Pinellas County (Florida) Medical Association after circulating a graphic of President Obama dressed as a witch doctor with a bone through his nose. On July 23, he sent the graphic as an e-mail with the heading "Funny stuff," and said that he thought the artist who created the graphic "was expressing concerns that the health care proposals [made by President Obama] would make the quality of medical care worse in our country." McKalip is an outspoken opponent of the White House's proposed health care reform package. He later apologized and denied he is a racist, and called the graphic merely a "satire." In an e-mail to the members of the association, he writes, "For now, in the interest of protecting this movement from any collateral damage, I am withdrawing from making media appearances on health system reform." But in an e-mail to fellow anti-reform protesters, he writes: "Here they come. The first of what likely will be many e-mails accusing me of being a rascist [sic] for forwarding this e-mail of Obama as a witch doctor. Almost like Hillary [Clinton] and the Obama photo form [sic] the presidential campaign.… This may be worth doing a story on about how these ultra-liberal groups like to race bait and avoid the issue.… Lesson learned: Any attempt to discuss politics will lead to a race-baiting war.… Don't let them bait you. I will choose to ignore them and always talk about the issues." In a previous e-mail defending his choice to send the Obama picture, McKalip cited his participation in a "career counseling day several years ago for African-American Boy Scouts." [TPM Muckraker, 7/23/2009; Connexion, 7/28/2009] After learning of McKalip's action, the association called the e-mail "inflammatory," said it "denounced" McKalip's act, demanded a public apology, and called itself "appalled by the statements and act" of McKalip. [Pinellas County Medical Association, 7/24/2009]
Entity Tags: Pinellas County Medical Association, David McKalip
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Race-Based Rhetoric
President Obama holds a "town hall" meeting on health care reform, sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). The meeting is conducted by telephone at AARP's Washington headquarters, where a small studio audience and approximately 180,000 callers from around the country listen and take part. Rumor Control - In his introduction, AARP CEO A. Barry Rand tells the participants: "There's a lot of misinformation about health care reform—even on what AARP stands for, and what AARP supports. This town hall is part of our ongoing effort to debunk myths and provide accurate information.… I want to make it clear that AARP has not endorsed any particular bill or any of the bills being debated in Congress today. We continue to work with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and with the administration to achieve what is right for health care reform." AARP president Jennie Chin Hansen notes some of the most prevalent myths and misinformation about health care reform as expressed in previous AARP-sponsored town halls: "Like, will the government tell my doctor how to practice medicine?" For his part, Obama says: "Nobody's trying to change what does work in the system. We are trying to change what doesn't work in the system." He reassures the participants that "Nobody is talking about cutting Medicare benefits. I just want to make that absolutely clear.… [W]e do want to eliminate some of the waste that is being paid for out of the Medicare trust fund that could be used more effectively to cover more people and strengthen the system." Opposition Profiting from Status Quo - Of the anti-reform opposition, Obama says: "I know there are folks who will oppose any kind of reform because they profit from the way the system is right now. They'll run all sorts of ads that will make people scared.… Back when President Kennedy and then President Johnson were trying to pass Medicare, opponents claimed it was socialized medicine. When you look at the Medicare debate, it is almost exactly the same as the debate we're having right now. Everybody who was in favor of the status quo was trying to scare the American people saying that government is going to take over your health care, you won't be able to choose your own doctor, they're going to ration care.… You know what? Medicare has been extraordinarily popular. It has worked. It has made people a lot healthier, given them security. And we can do the same this time." If nothing is done to change the status quo, Obama says, the cost of health care coverage will rise dramatically. "Health care costs are going up much faster than inflation," he says, "and your premiums will probably double again over the next 10 years.… We're already seeing 14,000 people lose their health insurance every day. So the costs of doing nothing are trillions of dollars over the next couple of decades—trillions, not billions… without anybody getting any better care." Controlling health care inflation will allow the government to stabilize the Medicare trust fund: "[N]ot only can we stabilize the Medicare trust fund, not only can we help save families money on their premiums, but we can actually afford to provide coverage to the people who currently don't have health care." End-of-Life Rumors - One caller is concerned about rumors surrounding end-of-life care. "I have been told there is a clause in there that everyone that's Medicare age will be visited and told to decide how they wish to die," she says. "This bothers me greatly, and I'd like for you to promise me that this is not in this bill." The host elaborates: "As I read the bill, it's saying that Medicare will, for the first time, cover consultation about end-of-life care, and that they will not pay for such a consultation more than once every five years. This is being read as saying every five years you'll be told how you can die." Obama replies, "Well, that would be kind of morbid," and reassures the caller that the rumors are not true, adding, "Nobody is going to be knocking on your door." He explains that one proposal would have Medicare pay for consultations between doctor and patients about living wills, hospice care, and other information critical to end-of-life decisions. "The intent here is to simply make sure that you've got more information, and that Medicare will pay for it," he says. "The problem right now is that most of us don't give direction to our family members, so when we get really badly sick… the [doctors] are making decisions in consultation with your kids or your grandkids and nobody knows what you would have preferred." Obama is refuting rumors that claim under his reform proposal, elderly Americans would be encouraged to die sooner (see July 16, 2009 and July 23, 2009). Pre-Existing Conditions - Insurers will no longer be able to deny care to people with so-called "pre-existing conditions." Obama reflects on his mother, who died of cancer: "She had to spend weeks fighting with insurance companies while she's in the hospital bed, writing letters back and forth just to get coverage for insurance she'd already paid premiums on. And that happens all across the country. We're going to put a stop to that.… We're going to reform the insurance system so that they can't just drop you if you get too sick. They won't be able to drop you if you change jobs or lose your job.… We want clear, easy-to-understand, straightforward insurance that people can purchase." Keeping Existing Coverage - Obama reassures another caller that she will not have to drop the coverage she has. "Here's a guarantee that I've made: If you have insurance that you like, then you'll be able to keep that insurance. If you've got a doctor that you like, you'll be able to keep your doctor. Nobody is going to say you've got to change your health care plan. This is not like Canada where suddenly we are dismantling the system and everybody's signed up under some government program. If you've already got health care, the only thing we're going to do for you is, we're going to reform the insurance companies so that they can't cheat you.… If you don't have health insurance, we're going to make it a little bit easier for you to be able to obtain health care." Those dissatisfied with their coverage, or who have no coverage at all, would have a wider array of choices, including, perhaps, a government-run plan (the "public option"). Rationing Health Care? - One caller asks, "Even if I decide when I'm 80 that I want a hip replacement, am I going to be able to get that?" Obama responds: "My interest is not in getting between you and your doctor—although keep in mind that right now insurance companies are often getting between you and your doctor. [Decisions] are being made by private insurance companies without any guidance as to whether [they] are good decisions to make people healthier or not. So we just want to provide some guidelines to Medicare, and by extension the private sector, about what [treatments] work and what doesn't.… We don't want to ration by dictating to somebody [that] we don't think this senior should get a hip replacement. We do want to provide information to [you and your doctor about what] is going to be most helpful to you in dealing with your condition." He gives the following analogy: "If you figure out a way to reduce your heating bill by insulating your windows… you're still warm inside. [But] you're not wasting all that energy and sending it in the form of higher bills to the electric or gas company. And that's then money you can use to save for your retirement or help your kid go to college. Well, it's the same principle within the health system." Obama is refuting claims by health care opponents that the government intends to ration health care and deny elderly patients needed treatment (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23-24, 2009, July 24, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, and July 28, 2009). Reform Not 'Socialized Medicine' - Obama assures the participants that his vision of health care reform is not socialism under any guise. "A lot of people have heard this phrase 'socialized medicine,'" he says. "And they say, 'We don't want government-run health care. We don't want a Canadian-style plan.' Nobody is talking about that. We're saying, let's give you a choice." He recalls: "I got a letter from a woman the other day. She said, 'I don't want government-run health care. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my Medicare.'… I wanted to say, 'That's what Medicare is. It's a government-run health care plan that people are very happy with.'" Conclusion - Obama says he doesn't expect a perfect health care system. "But we could be doing a lot better than we're doing right now," he says. "We shouldn't have people who are working really hard every day without health care or with $8,000 deductibles—which means basically they don't have health insurance unless they get in an accident or they get really sick. That just doesn't make sense. So we've got to have the courage to be willing to change things." After the town hall ends, AARP board chair Bonnie Cramer says she believes Obama "really made it very clear that Medicare beneficiaries will not see cuts in Medicare services." By speaking directly to older Americans, Cramer says, "He put to rest a lot of their concerns." [Slate, 7/28/2009; AARP Bulletin Today, 7/29/2009; McKnights, 7/29/2009]
Entity Tags: Medicare, Barack Obama, Bonnie Cramer, American Association of Retired Persons, A. Barry Rand, Jennie Chin Hansen
Governor Tim Kaine (D-VA), chairman of the Democratic Party, defends his party's difficulties in moving its health care reform proposals through Congress. Interviewed by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Kaine says: "This is a heavy lift. Every president since President Truman has said, we need to find a health care future where we have a competitive insurance market and all Americans receive coverage. What we've seen happen in the last month or so is we now have bills that have passed through three different committees in the Senate and House. Two other committees are expected to take action very soon. We're farther than we've ever been. It's heavy lifting. It ain't easy. We're going to have to take the various bills and then make them into a workable plan." Part of the reason why the legislation is moving so slowly is that Democrats are ideologically diverse, Kaine says. "[A]n awful lot of this debate is ultimately getting the Democrats to pull together and be results-focused rather than what has to be my plan or I'm not getting onboard." The situation in the Republican Party is quite different, he continues: "What I'm looking for among Republicans is, you know, are there any Republicans who are going to stand up and say, 'You're right, this system needs fundamental reform and change?' A system where 15 years ago, more than 60 percent of small businesses provided health insurance to their employees, and today, 38 percent do, and that number is dropping like a stone while the percentage of GDP that we spend on health care is going up. That system is broken. You don't hear a single voice really among Republican leadership standing up and acknowledging that and saying we've got to make some changes." [MSNBC, 7/30/2009]
Entity Tags: Harry S. Truman, Democratic Party, Tim Kaine, Rachel Maddow, Republican Party
Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY), a progressive Democrat who favors single-payer (government-provided) health care and is one of the strongest voices from the Democratic left in favor of the "public option" in health care reform, introduces an amendment to the pending health care reform legislation, HR 3200, that would eliminate Medicare. Weiner has no intention of actually trying to eliminate Medicare, instead he wants to get Republicans, who have repeatedly said they don't want "government health care" (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23-24, 2009, July 24, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, and July 28, 2009) to go on record as supporting Medicare, a government-run health care provider. Weiner tells interviewer Rachel Maddow: "I guess Republicans don't like publicly funded, publicly administered health plans except for Medicare, and, I guess, except for the Veterans Administration and except for the health care that our military gets from the Department of Defense. The fact of the matter is, what we've learned is that government administered health care works pretty darn well. It's got lower overhead and people like it. So, when my Republican colleagues pound the drum and pound the podium about how they hate government-run health care, I guess they haven't looked at what they get." Weiner says he introduced the amendment in part to embarrass House Republicans whose rhetoric on public health care he thinks has become quite harsh. [MSNBC, 7/31/2009]
Entity Tags: Medicare, Anthony D. Weiner, US Veterans Administration, Rachel Maddow, US Department of Defense
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says of the corporate-led resistance to health care reform (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, July 27, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, Before August 6, 2009, and August 6-7, 2009): "Insurance companies are out there in full force, carpet bombing, shock and awe against the public option. These are initiatives that are very important in this legislation, and they are to correct what the insurance companies have done to America and to the health of our people over the years." Afterwards, Pelosi is equally blunt, telling reporters: "It is somewhat immoral what they are doing. Of course, they have been immoral all along how they have treated the people they insure. They are the villains in this. They have been part of the problem in a major way. The public has to know that." [MSNBC, 7/31/2009]
Entity Tags: Nancy Pelosi
Jon Kyl (R-AZ), the Senate minority whip, says that the health care industry needs no further regulation or government intervention: "The health insurance industry is the most regulated or one of the most regulated industries in America. They don't need to be kept honest by a competitor from the government." Kyl is referring to the proposed "public option" in the Democrats' pending health care reform legislation, which would provide a government-run alternative to private health care for millions of Americans. [MSNBC, 7/31/2009]
Entity Tags: Jon Kyl
Anti-health care reform proponents claim that the Democrats' reform package will allow the government direct access to US citizens' bank accounts. In some variants of the claim, the government will steal money from those accounts to fund the reform package. The claim is quickly disproven. From an E-mailed 'Clearinghouse of Bad Information' - Apparently the claim originates in a "chain e-mail" sent out by an anonymous anti-reformer. The e-mail, which references its claims by page numbers from HR 3200, the pending House version of the reform legislation, is characterized by the St. Petersburg Times's "PolitiFact" team as a hugely long e-mail that they call "a clearinghouse of bad information circulating around the Web about proposed health care changes." The e-mail is apparently based in part on the work of Peter Fleckenstein, who sends frequent and regular commentaries on Twitter under the name "Fleckman," and posts his analyses on his blog. Fleckenstein identifies his Twitter comments with the tag #tcot, which stands for "top conservatives on Twitter." A health care analyst with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, Jennifer Tolbert, calls the e-mail "awful.… It's flat-out, blatant lies. It's unbelievable to me how they can claim to reference the legislation and then make claims that are blatantly false." Tolbert is particularly offended by the e-mail's claim that ordinary citizens will suffer a lack of health care in order to provide free care for illegal immigrants. Many of the e-mail's other claims are equally wrong. Based on Provision for Electronic Health Records - The claim that "[t]he federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer" is based on a portion of the legislation that provides for electronic health records, including the enabling of "electronic funds transfers in order to allow automated reconciliation" between payment and billing. However, the government will not have access to citizens' bank accounts and will not be able to make unauthorized withdrawals. [St. Petersburg Times, 7/30/2009; TPM Muckraker, 8/11/2009] Quick Promulgation - However, the lie quickly makes the rounds of conservative anti-reformers. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh cites the false claim numerous times on his radio broadcast; on August 6, he calls the program "[d]irect deposit access to every individual's bank account," and says: "That is in the House bill. You think that's the worst thing in it. I'm not arguing with you, but there are things that are a greater abomination than that. I mean, this bill determines, the government's going to determine who lives and dies. They are going to fund abortions and they are going to be for euthanasia on the back end" (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23-24, 2009, July 24, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 31, 2009 - August 12, 2009, August 6, 2009, August 7, 2009, August 10, 2009, and August 10, 2009). On a local conservative radio show in early August, Representatative John Shadegg (R-AZ) calls the supposed provision "pretty Orwellian." On August 11, a participant in a "town hall" forum hosted by Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) asks about the claim. [KFYI, 8/2009; Rush Limbaugh, 8/6/2009; TPM Muckraker, 8/11/2009] Similar to Automatic Bill Payment - Progressive media watchdog Web site Media Matters notes: "[I]f you're paying back a student loan from the government (like we are) and you've set up automatic bill pay online, this is the same thing. Completely uncontroversial, and totally not scary—unless if you're trying to fearmonger." [Media Matters, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: John Shadegg, Media Matters, Arlen Specter, Rush Limbaugh, St. Petersburg Times, Jennifer Tolbert, Peter Fleckenstein
Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who co-authored the provision in the House health care reform legislation mandating that Medicare would pay for periodic "end-of-life" counseling sessions between patients and doctors, releases a fact sheet called "Myth vs. Fact: Advance Planning Consultations in HR 3200" (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23-24, 2009, July 24, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, and July 31, 2009 - August 12, 2009). Blumenauer writes: "Few areas are more vital for honest discussion and careful consideration than end-of-life care for America's seniors. Unfortunately, families often do not know their loved ones' preferences for end-of-life care and are not confronted with these difficult decisions until an emergency arises. This leaves spouses, sons, daughters, and grandchildren unprepared; as a result families struggle to make decisions in the midst of turmoil. The House health care legislation includes a provision (Sec. 1233) that provides seniors with better care as they grapple with these hard questions. This provision extends Medicare coverage to cover the cost of patients voluntarily speaking with their doctors about their values and preferences regarding end-of-life care. These are deeply personal decisions that take thoughtful consideration, and it is only appropriate that doctors be compensated for their time." He then corrects three "myths" surrounding the provision: Myth: Patients will be forced to have this consultation once every five years. In reality, he writes, such advance planning consultations are entirely voluntary; the provision mandates that Medicare will pay for one such consultation every five years if the patient chooses. Under certain circumstances, Medicare will pay for more frequent consultations. Myth: Patients will be forced to sign an advance care directive (or living will). Blumenauer writes that no such mandate exists in the legislation, or is being contemplated. Like the advance planning consultations, living wills are entirely voluntary. Myth: Patients will have to see a health care professional chosen by the government. The government will not choose any health care professionals for anyone. If a patient chooses to have an advance planning consultation, it will be with a doctor of his or her choosing. Blumenauer notes that the following organizations have endorsed his provision: the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, the American College of Physicians, the American Hospice Foundation, the Center to Advance Palliative Care, Consumers Union, Gundersen Lutheran Health System, the Hospice and Palliative Nursing Association, Medicare Rights Center, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, the National Palliative Care Research Center, Providence Health and Services, and the Supportive Care Coalition. [US House of Representatives, 7/2009 ; Politico, 7/28/2009]
Entity Tags: Consumers Union, Center to Advance Palliative Care, American College of Physicians, American Association of Retired Persons, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Supportive Care Coalition, Providence Health and Services, National Palliative Care Research Center, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Hospice and Palliative Nursing Association, Medicare, Gundersen Lutheran Health System, Earl Blumenauer, Medicare Rights Center, American Hospice Foundation
Progressive author and columnist Joe Conason writes that if the Democrats' attempt to reform health care fails, "much of the blame rests on our political culture's empowerment of deception and ignorance. Fake erudition is revered, every hoax is deemed brilliant, and prejudice is presented as knowledge—while actual expertise is disregarded or devalued." Conason points to two conservative commentators as primary founts of destructive misinformation: neoconservative publisher and cable news pundit William Kristol, and health industry lobbyist Betsy McCaughey (see January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, July 16, 2009, and July 23-24, 2009), whom Conason names as "the right-wing celebrities who worked so hard to kill the Clinton reform plan" in 1994 (see Mid-January - February 4, 1994). Conason labels McCaughey as "the source of the 'elderly euthanasia' hoax now circulating on the Internet, talk radio, and in right-wing media, which claims that Democratic health bills will force old, ill Medicare recipients into making plans for their own deaths" (see July 28, 2009). A thorough debunking of her claims by a variety of Congressional and media sources (see July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, and Late July, 2009) has done little to derail the impact on the media, and on the citizenry, that McCaughey's claims are having. McCaughey's falsehoods are being heavily, and effectively, promoted by Kristol and other conservative pundits (see July 17, 2009) on Fox News and other media outlets. Conason notes that Kristol, interviewed by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, admitted that the government provides "first-class" healthcare to American soldiers and senior citizens (in the form of the Veterans Administration and Medicare) before trying, and failing, to back away from the admission. [Salon, 7/31/2009]
Entity Tags: Joe Conason, Clinton administration, Jon Stewart, Elizabeth ("Betsy") McCaughey, William Kristol, Fox News
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Fox News, Liberal Media Pundits
A screenshot from a Democratic National Committee ad highlighting phrases from the memo. [Source: Weekly Standard]The conservative Web site and political action committee (PAC) Right Principles releases a memo entitled "Rocking the Town Halls: Best Practices," written by Bob MacGuffie, a founder of the organization and a volunteer with the "Tea Party Patriots," a subsidiary of the conservative lobbying group FreedomWorks (see April 14, 2009). [Think Progress, 7/31/2009; Tea Party Patriots, 8/6/2009] The organization is very small—basically MacGuffie and four friends—and although MacGuffie volunteers with the aforementioned tea party group, he insists he and his organization have no connections to the much larger and well-funded FreedomWorks or other lobbying organizations that support anti-health care protests. "We are recommending with that memo that other grassroots groups that share our view should go to the town halls of their members and use the strategy that we did," MacGuffie says. "We are trying to get into that town halls to make them understand that they do not have the unanimous support from people in their communities." [TPMDC, 8/3/2009] Although the site either never posts the memo or takes it down shortly after, it quickly circulates throughout the conservative community (see July 23, 2009), and will be used to disrupt "town hall" meetings by Democratic House members, who intend to spend time during the August recess holding such meetings to discuss the Obama administration's health care proposals. [Right Principles, 2009; Think Progress, 7/31/2009] MacGuffie later claims to have first e-mailed the memo to "8-10 community activists" in June. [Weekly Standard, 8/5/2009] 'Best Practices' - The memo advises conservative activists and protesters of the best ways to dominate and disrupt the town hall meetings. Basing the memo on actions conducted by Right Principles members and supporters during a May 2009 town hall meeting held by Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT), MacGuffie writes, "We believe there are some best practices which emerged from the event and our experience, which could be useful to activists in just about any district where their congressperson has supported the socialist agenda of the Democrat leadership in Washington." Some of the steps include: Artificially inflating numbers. "Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington." Being disruptive from the outset. "You need to rock the boat early in the rep's presentation. Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the rep's statements early." The memo also advises, "Don't carry on and make a scene, just short, intermittent shout-outs." Attempt to rattle or goad the speaker. "The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions." The memo also attaches some possible questions for the representatives, "which apply to most any Democrat that is supporting the socialist agenda," it says. [Bob MacGuffie, 7/2009 ; Think Progress, 7/31/2009] Progressive news and advocacy Web site Think Progress will note that the questions closely resemble talking points handed out in July by FreedomWorks. [Think Progress, 7/31/2009] Liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow will accuse Right Principles of crafting a "how-to" manual for disruptive "rent-a-mob" activities. [Washington Times, 8/6/2009] The conservative Weekly Standard will accuse "liberal media" outlets such as Think Progress and MSNBC of "manufacturing outrage" over the memo, and prints MacGuffie's denials of having any connections to FreedomWorks. "There is no formal connection," he says. "I don't know anyone from FreedomWorks." [Weekly Standard, 8/5/2009]
Entity Tags: Weekly Standard, Tea Party Patriots, Right Principles, Jim Himes, Obama administration, Rachel Maddow, Think Progress (.org), FreedomWorks, Bob MacGuffie
The Internet news site Politico reports on the quickly escalating confrontations occurring at "town hall" meetings held around the country, featuring conservative protesters agitating against the White House's health care reform proposals (see Late July, 2009). Reporter Alex Isenstadt writes: "Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety—welcome to the new town hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress." The meetings, held by Democratic House members attempting to discuss the health care proposals with their constituents, have quickly devolved into confrontational events disrupted by shouting, cursing protesters waving signs and shouting down speakers, often before they can begin speaking. Other Methods to Discuss Issue with Constituents - After one such meeting (see June 22, 2009), House member Tim Bishop (D-NY) says he will not hold more town halls until late August. "I had felt they would be pointless," he says. "There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation." He adds: "I have no problem with someone disagreeing with positions I hold. But I also believe no one is served if you can't talk through differences." Other Democrats such as Bruce Braley (D-IA), Allen Boyd (D-FL), and Thomas Perriello (D-VA) have experienced similar incidents at their own town hall meetings. Isenstadt characterizes the meetings as plagued by "boiling anger and rising incivility." Braley explains the heated protests by saying, "I think it's just the fact that we are dealing with some of the most important public policy issues in a generation." Bishop notes: "I think in general what is going on is we are tackling issues that have been ignored for a long time, and I think that is disruptive to a lot of people. We are trying, one by one, to deal with a set of issues that can't be ignored, and I think that's unsettling to a lot of people." Dan Maffei (D-NY), whose July 12 meeting at a Syracuse middle school was disrupted, says he is considering other options to avoid the confrontations. "I think you've got to communicate through a variety of different ways," he says. "You should do the telephone town hall meetings. You should do the town hall meetings. You should do the smaller group meetings. It's important to do things in a variety of ways, so you don't have one mode of communication. You're going to have people of varying views, and in this case, you've got the two extremes who were the most vocal." Russ Carnahan (D-MO) says he enjoys the town hall meetings, and will not let disruptions stop him from holding them. Perriello agrees. "I enjoy it, and people have a chance to speak their mind," he says. Countering the Protesters - Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), has planned countermethods for the spate of meetings to be held during the August recess. According to sources familiar with the meetings Van Hollen has held, Van Hollen advised his fellow Democrats to "Go on offense. Stay on the offense. It's really important that your constituents hear directly from you. You shouldn't let a day go by [that] your constituents don't hear from you." Continuing the Protests - Van Hollen's Republican counterpart, Pete Sessions (R-TX), who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), says the protests will continue. "We've seen Russ Carnahan, we've seen Tim Bishop, we've seen some other people face some very different crowds back home," he says. "The days of you having a town hall meeting where maybe 15 or 20 of your friends show up—they're over. You've now got real people who are showing up—and that's going to be a factor." Asked if the Republicans would use the confrontations against Democrats, Sessions says, "Wait till next year." Possible Backlash? - Democrats warn that Republicans will likely face a backlash in public opinion if the public perceives the party as being too closly aligned with tea party activists or other radical-right protesters. Former DCCC political director Brian Smoot says: "It's a risk that they align themselves with such a small minority in the party. They risk alienating moderates." [Politico, 7/31/2009]
Entity Tags: Dan Maffei, Brian Smoot, Allen Boyd, Alex Isenstadt, Chris Van Hollen, Tim Bishop, Russ Carnahan, Bruce Braley, Obama administration, Pete Sessions, National Republican Congressional Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Politico, Thomas Perriello
Professor Stephen Hawking. [Source: Quarkscrew (.com)]The conservative publication Investors Business Daily (IBD) writes an editorial harshly criticizing the Democrats' health care reform package. The editorial repeats the debunked canard that the reform proposal will mandate allowing elderly, less "productive" citizens to die rather than pay to keep them alive (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23-24, 2009, July 24, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, and July 28, 2009). IBD compares the US health care system to Britain's government-run National Health Service (NHS), claiming that in Britain health care is strictly rationed and routinely allows people to die if they don't meet up with the criteria for paying for their care. "The British have succeeded in putting a price tag on human life, as we are about to," the editorial claims. In the original version of the editorial, the editors write, "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." The IBD editors are apparently unaware that Hawking was born in Oxford, England, lives in Britain, teaches at the University of Cambridge, and has been supported by Britain's health care system for his entire life. The Washington Post's Ezra Klein writes: "You could write some long response to the rest of the lies and distortions in that IBD editorial, but the more appropriate reply is to just warn people against ever reading the editorial page in Investor's Business Daily. It's not just that they didn't know that Stephen Hawking was born in England. It's that the underlying point was wrong, as you'll note from the continued existence of Stephen Hawking. They didn't choose an unfortunate example for an accurate point. They simply lied." Hawking himself tells Guardian columnist Hugh Muir: "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived." After the corrections, IBD alters the editorial to omit the Hawking reference, but does not acknowledge that Hawking has remained alive due to NHS medical interventions. [Investor's Business Daily, 7/31/2009; Washington Post, 8/10/2009; Guardian, 8/11/2009; Huffington Post, 8/13/2009]
Entity Tags: Ezra Klein, Investors Business Daily, Stephen Hawking
Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-PA) holds a session designed to allow him to discuss the proposed health care reform package with his constituents on a one-on-one basis. The event, held at a restaurant in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, draws so many would-be participants, many of whom are unruly and volatile, that Murphy agrees to change the format and discuss health care and other issues with the entire group. Murphy's remarks are received with shouts, screams, curses, and repeated attempts to interrupt Murphy with slogans and chanting, mostly from conservative anti-reform protesters. According to a local reporter, Murphy "kept his cool, listening to people's concerns and defending his plans while occasionally asking hecklers 'to be respectful.'" Murphy holds a second, equally contentious meeting at a local grocery store, although, a reporter notes, "the crowd seemed more evenly divided politically at the supermarket than the restaurant." Murphy says: "The great thing about Bucks County is that people really can be very passionate. So that's why I don't flinch and give them their chance to talk while most of my colleagues are putting their heads in the sand." At both meetings, Murphy draws an extended session of boos and catcalls when he tells the crowds, "I happen to think [President Obama is] doing a pretty great job." He repeatedly calls the present health care system "unsustainable," and stresses that he supports the so-called "public option," which would allow people to choose between a private and government-supervised health care plan. He also says that if the public option becomes available, he and his family will use it. He is repeatedly asked whether the various health care proposals contain provisions for mandating the "euthanasia" of elderly people, which none of the proposals feature. And he insists that the reform package will benefit small business owners and will not raise taxes for ordinary Americans. One anti-reform protester shouts, "A national health care bill would rob us of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," to which a pro-reform advocate retorts: "You've had your say. Now shut your mouth." Murphy intervenes: "Let him speak," he says. One resident says after the meetings: "Deciding to open up the question to the full crowd was a good idea, but I think many people are still confused as to what the bill is trying to accomplish. The question is, what type of health care will be available to citizens, and at what price?" Another audience member praises Murphy's calm in the face of sometimes-ugly opprobrium. "If I was in his shoes, I don't think I could have done it," he says. "He was very respectful and did a good job trying to keep tempers down." [Bucks County Courier Times, 8/2/2009]
Entity Tags: Patrick Murphy
Anti-reform protesters carry signs depicting Doggett with 'devil horns' and a sign featuring Nazi SS lettering. [Source: Raw Story]Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) receives a hostile reception in a town hall meeting in an Austin grocery store. The meeting is to discuss the controversial Democratic health care reform proposal. The crowd is much larger than some had anticipated, and apparently packed with anti-health care reform protesters; anti-reform and anti-Obama signs are prominently displayed, including signs that read, "No Socialized Health Care." Protesters also wave signs with Doggett depicted with devil horns, of a marble tombstone with Doggett's name on it, and with slogans alleging Democrats are Nazis. When Doggett tells the crowd that he will support the reform plan even if his constituents oppose it, many in the crowd begin chanting "Just say no!" and, according to news reports, "overwhelm… the congressman as he move[s] through the crowd and into the parking lot." One resident says of the meeting: "The folks there thought their voices weren't being heard. They were angry, but they were respectful. There wasn't any violence." Another says, laughing: "He jumped in [his car] and fled. It was like he was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. It was a beautiful thing." Doggett later notes that because of the disruption, he is unable to engage in discussion with constituents who have other issues, including a father who wants his help in getting his son into a military academy. [Austin American-Statesman, 8/3/2009; New York Times, 8/3/2009; Atlantic Monthly, 8/4/2009] Congressman: Protesters a 'Mob' - Doggett will later characterize the anti-reform protesters as a "mob." In a statement, he says: "This mob, sent by the local Republican and Libertarian parties, did not come just to be heard, but to deny others the right to be heard. And this appears to be part of a coordinated, nationwide effort. What could be more appropriate for the 'party of no' than having its stalwarts drowning out the voices of their neighbors by screaming 'just say no!'… Their fanatical insistence on repealing Social Security and Medicare is not just about halting health care reform but rolling back 75 years of progress. I am more committed than ever to win approval of legislation to offer more individual choice to access affordable health care. An effective public plan is essential to achieve that goal." [Politico, 8/3/2009; CBS News, 8/3/2009] Coordinated by Local Republicans, Washington Lobbyist Firm, 'Tea Party' Group - The protest is coordinated by Heather Liggett, a local Republican Party operative, and by officials with the lobbying firm Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which has organized numerous anti-tax "tea party" demonstrations (see April 15, 2009 and May 29, 2009). Liggett confirms she is part of a national network of conservative organizers putting together anti-reform protests. Doggett says: "This is not a grassroots effort. This is a very coordinated effort where the local Republican Party, the local conservative meet-up groups sent people to my event." Of the event itself, he says: "In Texas, not only with the weather but with the politics, it is pretty hardball around here. I have a pretty thick skin about all of this. But this really goes over the line." And Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), adds: "Conservative activists don't want to have a conversation. They want to disrupt." [New York Times, 8/3/2009] Democratic National Committee (DNC) spokesman Brad Woodhouse says, "The right-wing extremists' use of things like devil horns on pictures of our elected officials, hanging members of Congress in effigy, breathlessly questioning the president's citizenship, and the use of Nazi SS symbols and the like just shows how outside of the mainstream the Republican Party and their allies are." Another group with connections to the "tea party" movement, "Operation Embarrass Your Congressman," helped organize the protest. It says on its Web site: "These arrogant, ignorant, and insolent [Congress members] have embarrassed America, trampled the Constitution, and ignored their constituents for far too long. Attend their townhall meetings during recess and press them with intelligent questions (unlike the mainstream media), asked in an intelligent manner to see if they are really in touch and on board with 'the will of the people.'" [CBS News, 8/3/2009] After the meeting, FreedomWorks, a conservative lobbying organization that actively promotes disruptive behavior at Congressional town halls (see April 14, 2009), posts video from the meeting, and exhorts its members, "If you know of a town hall meeting your Congressman is having, be sure to show up, bring some friends, and them know what you think." [FreedomWorks, 8/3/2009]
Entity Tags: Lloyd Doggett, Heather Liggett, Brad Woodhouse, FreedomWorks, Jennifer Crider, Operation Embarrass Your Congressman, Americans for Prosperity
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, 'Tea Party' Movement, Domestic Violence & Terrorism
The lobbying group America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), funded by nearly 1,300 health care providers and other medical companies, urges its members' employees to, in AHIP's words, "GO TO TOWN MEETINGS WITH MEMBERS OF CONGRESS IN AUGUST TO CONFRONT THEM on House Democrats' top recess message—that health reform legislation is 'health insurance reform to hold insurance companies accountable'" (all caps from the source). AHIP plans on releasing negative television ads opposing the Obama administration's health care reform proposals. According to AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach: "The American people want Washington to focus on solutions, not the same old divisive political rhetoric that hasn't worked in the past. Our industry has offered to completely transform how health insurance is provided today. We have stepped up to do our part to make health care reform a reality. That's an INCONVENIENT FACT that some people have chosen to ignore. These attacks are politically motivated, and they ignore the significant commitment that our industry has made to the health reform process. WE'RE GOING TO BE VERY ACTIVE. We have people on the ground in more than 30 states. There are thousands of industry employees WHO HAVE NOW HAD THEIR INTEGRITY CALLED INTO QUESTION. They want to have their voices heard as part of this. We have contacted all of our member companies and encouraged them to get involved. August is a great time because of the face-to-face interaction with members." [Campaign for an American Solution, 8/2/2009]
Entity Tags: Robert Zirkelbach, America's Health Insurance Plans
Conservative blogger and commentator Michelle Malkin, on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," calls the "tea party movement" opposing taxes and health care reform "counterinsurgencies." Malkin says there is a growing "tea party movement—these counterinsurgencies amongst taxpayer rights groups," that is fomenting opposition to health care reform. She claims that these "counterinsurgencies" will escalate their confrontation behaviors in what she calls "town halls-gone-wild." And, Malkin says, the "counterinsurgents" are members of true "grassroots" organizations (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, and Before August 6, 2009). [Think Progress, 8/2/2009]
Entity Tags: Michelle Malkin
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Media Pundits, 'Tea Party' Movement
Fox News covers the Sebelius/Specter town hall meeting. [Source: Eyeblast (.org)]Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) hold a meeting at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia to discuss the White House's health care reform proposals. A large and vocal crowd of anti-reform protesters attempts to shout over, or shout down, both Sebelius and Specter during the event. Over 400 people attend the meeting, and many "cheered, jeered, and booed" the two, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sebelius's response to the crowd: "I'm happy to see democracy is at work." The Inquirer reports, "Sebelius and Specter managed, barely, to impose a tenuous civility on the hour-long meeting titled 'Health Insurance Reform—What's in it for You.'" At one point, the booing and screaming become so pervasive that Sebelius informs the crowd, "We can shout at one another, or we can leave the stage." Audience members verbally engage with each other as well: one, a self-identified Republican "political junkie," says the nation cannot afford to insure 47 million uninsured Americans, and is countered by a rheumatologist who works with underinsured and uninsured patients, and who describes the horrific situations many of them face. One anti-reform participant tells the pair, "The American people don't want rationed health care," winning cheers from many in the audience. When Sebelius retorts that health care is already rationed for the 12,000 people a day whose insurance disappears when they lose their jobs, she wins applause from other audience members. About a dozen members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are there to support Sebelius and Specter, and some members of the pro-reform group Physicians for Obama are also in attendance. Countering them are numerous audience members with "Tell Washington No" bumper stickers plastered to their chests. One anti-reform organization, the Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots, will later claim to have around 40 members in attendance. Outside the hall, dozens of anti-reform protesters picket with signs saying, among other slogans, "Government Health Care: Dangerous to Your Health," "Welcome to the United States Socialist Republic," and various anti-abortion signs. After the meeting, Sebelius says: "Health care touches everybody personally.… I find it difficult, because so much misinformation gets repeated in questions at town hall meetings. We have a challenge to get the message out." [Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/3/2009] After the meeting, FreedomWorks (see April 14, 2009), a lobbying organization that actively promotes the town hall disruptions by conservative protesters, calls the event "a must emulate at town halls across the country over the next month." [FreedomWorks, 8/3/2009]
Entity Tags: US Department of Health and Human Services, Arlen Specter, FreedomWorks, Service Employees International Union, Kathleen Sebelius, Physicians for Obama
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, 'Tea Party' Movement, Labor/Union Rhetoric & Actions
A town hall meeting to discuss the White House's proposed health care reform package is disrupted by a volatile crowd of anti-reform protesters. The event is hosted by Representative Steve Driehaus (D-OH), and takes place at a Unitarian church. The event draws so many participants that it is moved to a larger room, but many still are forced to remain outside. Driehaus opens the meeting by saying, "I know that there are those with the tea party group and I welcome you and I welcome them to my office." The protesters respond by screaming and shouting over Driehaus as he tries to outline his reasons for supporting reform. "Tell the truth!" one participant screams as Driehaus tries to explain what is and is not in the proposal. Another shouts, "Move to Europe!" Driehaus says he understands there are dramatically different points of view surrounding the reform proposals. "I know some people would like a single-payer system and some would like no change at all," he says. "I get that.… We have the most expensive health care system in the world. We've got the best medical system in the world, if you can afford to pay for it." One protester outside the church, Sue Hardenbergh, holds a sign opposing what she believes will be "nationalized health care," and tells reporters she doesn't believe assurances from the Obama administration that citizens will be able to keep their same doctor and private insurance plans under the new program. "I am in favor of reform. I am in favor of fiscal responsibility," she says. "I think the bill as presented is going to eliminate a competitive market and the private insurance industry." [Cincinnati Enquirer, 8/3/2009; Think Progress, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: Sue Hardenbergh, Steve Driehaus, Obama administration
Conservative anti-health care reform protesters disrupt a "listening session" held by House member Steve Kagen (D-WI) in a Green Bay, Wisconsin, library. The library quickly fills with 300 participants, leaving some 50 to listen and protest outside the venue. According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, "[t]he vast majority of people attending the event appeared to come in protest of the health care legislation, and they repeatedly disrupted the event by shouting." Green Bay police soon appear at the library in response to reports of disruption, and they stay throughout the event to keep order. No one is arrested. Local reports say Kagen keeps his calm throughout the event, and does not try to shout over the protesters, but several times speaks about the attitude on display. "You can talk, but I can't listen to 100 people at the same time," he says. "This is not a shouting contest. This should be a discussion." According to the Press-Gazette: "If the event were a shouting match, the mob won. Kagen tried talking about the health care bill, but the roaring chants deafened his attempts. Several elderly people covered their ears and grimaced at the level of noise." The Press-Gazette calls many of the shouts and screams "incomprehensible." In the last half hour of the session, the crowd calms somewhat, and Kagen is able to engage in a more active discussion. One participant will later explain the crowd's behavior: "We are scared and when we get scared, we get angry," she says. "We sit back here [in Wisconsin] and we have no control." [Green Bay Press-Gazette, 8/4/2009; Think Progress, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: Steve Kagen
Progressive columnist Eugene Robinson, an associate editor for the Washington Post, calls the efforts by anti-health care reform protesters to disrupt and block debate "shocking." Robinson tells interviewer Rachel Maddow: "This seems extreme, extraordinary—you could almost say shocking. It's hard to be shocked in politics, but this is so clearly an organized campaign of intimidation, of theater. I mean, it's not theater in 'all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players' metaphorical sense, but theater in a, you know, 'let's put on a show' kind of sense to, not just to shout down any individual congressman or congresswoman who happens to be holding a town meeting, but to create this videotape that gets posted on Web sites, that gets on television that creates this sort of atmosphere of health reform—the very idea of health reform being on the defensive. [T]his is something that strikes me as particularly noxious and out of bounds." Robinson says that the original anti-tax, anti-Obama "tea parties" had little effect, partly because they were not focused on a single issue. Now that the "tea party" organizers have focused their groups on opposing health care, they are much more effective, Robinson says. "[T]here's a definite aim here, which is to stop in its tracks the most serious attempt at actual health care reform that could make a difference in millions of people's lives and also make a difference to the bottom lines of insurance companies and others that make money off the health care industry as it is.… [T]his is a tactic that's sort of almost mob intimidation at these meetings—you never know where they're going to pop up, when they're going to pop up—that I don't think anyone quite knows how to respond to at this point. I mean, do you bring in your own side to shout down the shouters down? Do you bring in the… police to enforce the disorderly conduct laws? I'm not quite sure what you do." Maddow wonders if there may not be a political cost to the conservatives over "being associated with this kind of raw thuggishness," and continues: "I'm all in favor of rabble rousers and people even being disruptive and using their First Amendment rights, even if it is an untoward, unfriendly way. But when it is part of a corporate strategy organized by lobbyists who are sort of astroturfed (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, July 27, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, Before August 6, 2009, and August 6-7, 2009), do they ultimately get in trouble when that is exposed?" Robinson says while that may well be the case, in the short term pro-reform advocates "have to find a way to go on the offense in this debate and not be caught on the defensive—and there is a sense that this new tactic has put health care reformers on the defensive or at least wondering exactly how to respond." [MSNBC, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: Eugene Robinson, Rachel Maddow
Fox News host Sean Hannity tells the conservative protesters engaging in orchestrated protests of health care reform (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009), "Now, so far at these town hall meetings, you're doing terrific." He adds: "This is what's going to stop this. You are. You're gonna make it happen.… You're standing up to these bureaucrats. You're standing up to their phony platitudes, talking points, and bumper stickers. The polls are now turning against [President] Obama, [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi, and [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid, so now they're bringing out their own pollster to lie to you and find out a way how they can win the PR battle, and they're telling them that they've got to attack the insurance companies." [Media Matters, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Sean Hannity, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Fox News
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Media Pundits, 'Tea Party' Movement, Fox News
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh says that if the recent spate of disruptive and violent protests against health care reform (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009) are, in fact, orchestrated (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, and Before August 6, 2009), then it is "about damn time." He continues: "We have had groups like ACORN [the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now] and Democrat rent-a-mobs making up excuses and lying about things they oppose to affect public policy for years, while people like me haven't had time because we work. We do not protest for a living. We do not rent ourselves out to be part of mobs. So, if this is actually an orchestrated event, then I'm glad somebody on our side's getting in gear.… It doesn't matter to me one way or the other [if the protests are coordinated]. The people who are showing up are genuinely angry. And if their transportation is being facilitated—about damn time. You've got to take these people on the way they play the game. The aggressor sets the rules in a conflict." [Media Matters, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Rush Limbaugh, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) says that Democrats and supporters of health care reform should not be swayed by the numerous instances of outrage and disruption effected by conservative and anti-health care reform protesters (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, and August 3, 2009). Durbin says he believes Congressional Democrats should continue "speaking with the public, meeting with people who are the health care professionals, and talking about the current situation. I've done it and I'll continue to do it. But you know, I hope my colleagues won't fall for a sucker punch like this. These health insurance companies and people like them are trying to load these town halls for visual impact on television. They want to show thousands of people screaming 'socialism' and try to overcome the public sentiment which now favors health care reform. That's almost like flooding the switchboards on Capitol Hill. It doesn't prove much other than the switchboards have limited capacity. So, we need to have a much more balanced approach that really allows members of Congress to hear both sides of the story, rather than being sucker-punched or side-tracked by these types of tactics." [Think Progress, 8/3/2009]
Entity Tags: Richard ("Dick") Durbin
House Representative Gene Green (D-TX) holds a "town hall" meeting in North Houston to discuss a number of issues, including the economic stimulus and health care reform. Anti-health care reform activists attempt to disrupt the meeting, as has happened at previous events (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009). However, according to local reporter David Jennings, although Green "had to struggle to keep his town meeting in order," he "did not lose control of his meeting." Jennings writes that Green was prepared for the disruptions. He chose a small venue for the meeting and allows people to "vent a little." The disruption is limited, with one protester repeatedly shouting and catcalling (and eventually being upbraided by another audience member outside the venue). Health care reform is the dominant topic of discussion in the meeting. [Lone Star Times, 8/4/2009] Local Fox News reporter Duarte Geraldino interviews many of the conservative anti-reform protesters and reports, "some attendees admit they don't live in the district." Geraldino finds that many came as a result of "an internet campaign" by right-wing activists (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, and Before August 6, 2009) urging their members and supporters to attend town hall meetings and heckle Democratic Congress members. Geraldino hosts a video clip of one protester and notes, "Pay close attention to the man behind the congressman, he seems to have forgotten the part about respect." The crowd is reportedly so raucous and disrespectful that another attendee says he came to give Green "a really hard time" but decides not to after being annoyed by the constant screaming and heckling from his fellows. "This is a free country, but I think there's a certain degree of respect" required. [My Fox Houston, 8/4/2009; Think Progress, 8/4/2009] One conservative protester asks the audience to raise their hands if they "oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care." Almost all raise their hands. Green quickly responds, "How many of you have Medicare?" About half the attendees raise their hands. Think Progress reporter Faiz Shakir later writes that they apparently "fail[ed] to note the irony." Later in the discussion, a small business owner who supports health care asks how many people "do not have health insurance of some kind." When only one person raises their hand, she says, "I think the people who are objecting are the people who have insurance." [Think Progress, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: David Jennings, Faiz Shakir, Raymond Eugene ("Gene") Green, Duarte Geraldino
On Fox News's early morning show "Fox & Friends," co-host Peter Johnson thanks the group of conservatives engaging in orchestrated protests against health care reform (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009). Johnson says, "[W]e thank you for representing Americans, and we hope that other Americans get out there." [Media Matters, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Peter Johnson, Fox News
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Conservative Media Pundits, Media Opposition, 'Tea Party' Movement, Fox News
Anti-health care reform protesters sound off at a health care forum in Hartford, Connecticut, featuring Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT). Many of the protesters identify themselves as either belonging to a "tea party" protest organization or a related group calling itself "Dump Dodd." One protester seems to suggest that Dodd, who has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer, either commit suicide or be forced to die: "How come we don't just give Chris Dodd painkillers? Like a handful of them at a time! He can wash it down with Ted Kennedy's whiskey!" The protester is apparently referring to a claim by Rush Limbaugh that the reform proposal would deny senior citizens needed treatment, and would instead force them to rely on pain medications while waiting to die (see July 28, 2009). One reform advocate, who later posts his impressions of the event on the liberal blogs Daily Kos and My Left Nutmeg, writes that the "Dump Dodd" protesters rail about communism and socialism taking over American democracy, and notes, "Never mind that they were essentially calling Medicare, the VA, and the military's Tricare communist and socialist." [My Left Nutmeg, 8/4/2009; Stephen Herron, 8/5/2009; Washington Post, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Rush Limbaugh, Daily Kos, Christopher Dodd, Edward M. ("Ted") Kennedy, My Left Nutmeg, US Veterans Administration, Medicare, Tricare
The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder says that the Democrats are, in part, being beaten in the public perception battle over health care reform because they were caught flat-footed by the wave of angry, if orchestrated, conservative opposition manifesting itself at town hall meetings across America (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009). Ambinder writes: "Democrats know the rulebook. The tactics being used against them by Republican and conservative groups were perfected by the party when it set out to defeat President Bush's Social Security privatization proposals. They also know that it's easier to gin up noise against a major legislative initiative than it is to sell an initiative that isn't fully formed yet.… As a Democratic strategist said to me: 'I think as Dems we learned a lot of lessons from beating Bush on privatization—we know and perfected all the tricks and tactics so we know what to expect from the tea baggers, the insurance companies, and other opponents.'" But because the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats have not yet created a cohesive, easily explained health care reform package, conservatives are finding it easy to attack the various proposals while Democrats flounder in attempting to explain that not-yet-perfected package. It is also easy for conservatives to allege horrific elements of that package which do not exist, but succeed in inflaming public opinion and raising the "fear level" among ordinary citizens. Ambinder concludes: "The press will be complicit in telling the story, as the louder voices at town hall meetings will ultimately get more coverage. As the Democratic National Committee has learned, it's not easy to engineer a massive national congressional switchboard campaign unless there is a defined target.… The goal of the opposition—of FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity (see April 15, 2009)—isn't to change minds; their activists know what they believe already: it's to make noise. Making noise scares members of Congress. And Democrats are vulnerable to panics." [Atlantic Monthly, 8/3/2009]
Entity Tags: Obama administration, FreedomWorks, Marc Ambinder, Americans for Prosperity
Two House Representatives, James McGovern (D-MA) and Richard Neal (D-MA), are booed and heckled during a contentious town hall meeting at the University of Massachusetts to discuss health care reform. Like so many other such forums and meetings, the discussion is disrupted by anti-health care reform protesters, who shout, scream, boo, catcall, and chant throughout the meeting (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, and August 4, 2009). Both McGovern and Neal support the Obama administration's health care reform proposals. University officials threaten several times to shut down the meeting because of the behavior. One protester shouts that McGovern is like Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who performed horrific experiments on concentration camp prisoners during World War II. According to local media reports, protesters outnumber supporters at the meeting. They argue that health care would be strictly rationed and elderly citizens would be denied care altogether, points vehemently disputed by the two congressmen. After the meeting, McGovern says it is plain that health care reform opponents had planned to dominate the meeting with their tactics, but adds: "This is still the United States of America and people have the right to be heard. The meeting wasn't perfect and it wasn't always polite but I got the opportunity to express my view on the subject." [Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: University of Massachusetts, Jim McGovern, Richard Neal
Christopher Murphy (D-CT) holds a town hall in Meriden, Connecticut, to discuss the Democrats' attempt to reform health care. Unlike many other town hall meetings in other areas (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009), Murphy's meeting, held at a local library, is peaceful and relatively undisturbed by orchestrated groups of angry anti-reform protesters. Instead, Murphy hears one story after another of constituents denied health care by their insurers, or having life-saving treatments delayed by those insurance providers. "I really feel we can get a system of health care in this country that covers everybody and costs less than what we have now," Murphy tells the audience. [Meriden Record-Journal, 8/4/2009] Local bloggers express disappointment in the lack of protests at the Murphy town hall, and exhort conservatives and anti-reform proponents to take part in Murphy's future meetings, as well as other Connecticut Democrats' meetings. Blogger Chris Healy writes: "One's [sic] perrson's [sic] mob is another person's concerned citizen's group. People should be vocal, direct, but polite and respectful. Most of the yourtube [sic] tapes show that. If Members of Congress get upset because people are shouting at them, maybe they should listen." [Chris Healy, 8/5/2009]
Entity Tags: Chris Healy, Christopher Murphy
House Representative Todd Akin (R-MO), holding a forum on health care reform at Maryville University, tells audience members that he opposes the Obama administration's health care reform proposals. "Why do we want to turn over all of our health care to the government?" he asks. Akin, who bills his meeting as a "Freedom Conference," also lambasts the Obama administration's environmental and economic moves. Contrary to many health care discussions with Democratic lawmakers (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009), the crowd at Akin's forum is largely friendly and supportive. The forum also features speakers from conservative organizations and industry lobbying firms such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)'s Center for Health Transformation. [St. Louis Beacon, 8/4/2009] During the meeting, Akin jokes about his Democratic colleagues being lynched, a crack that receives cheers and applause. Akin remarks, "Different people from Washington, DC, have come back to their districts and had town hall meetings, and they almost got lynched." After an outburst of cheers and laughter, Akin, grinning, says, "I assume you're not approving lynchings, because we don't want to do that." As he says this, he mockingly imitates being strangled, presumably by a noose. [Think Progress, 8/6/2009; TPMDC, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Competitive Enterprise Institute, Todd Akin, Center for Health Transformation, Newt Gingrich, Obama administration, Maryville University
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, 'Tea Party' Movement, Race-Based Rhetoric
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh defends the lobbyist-funded conservative agitators and their raucous protests against health care reform (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009). Protesting characterizations of the protesters as "unruly mobs," he says, "These are orderly people… geniune voting American citizens." Limbaugh says that President Obama is the "community agitator" who taught liberal protesters "how to show up at events like this over and over again and rip 'em apart, and tear 'em down, disrupt them, and make sure they don't happen.… This time it's not ginned up, it's genuine. It's real. People do not want [health care reform]." [Media Matters, 8/4/2009] The day before, Limbaugh defended the protests' orchestration, saying if they are orchestrated, it is "about damn time" (see August 3, 2009).
Entity Tags: Rush Limbaugh, Barack Obama
A group of right-wing organizations, including Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (ATAH) and the Liberty Counsel, warns that the Democrats' health care reform proposal would mandate government funding of transsexual surgery. "Say NO to Tax-Funded 'Tranny Care,'" ATAH proclaims on its Web site, and writes: "No American should be forced to pay for these nature-rejecting procedures with his or her tax dollars. Homosexual groups like Human Rights Campaign boast of their support for taxpayer-funded 'sex-change' operations in cities like San Francisco.… Folks, you don't have to be very politically sophisticated to predict that GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) activists and their liberal allies are going to demand 'Tranny-Care' under a federal health insurance system, in the name of 'fairness' and 'inclusion'—even if it's not passed initially as a 'benefit.' And yes, the idea of subsidizing body-disfiguring 'operations' surely would be considered 'queer' by the average tax paying American." The site goes on to note that the House version of reform legislation, HR 3200, provides for "standards, as appropriate, for the collection of accurate data on health and health care" based on "sex, sexual orientation, [and] gender identity." The Senate version of the bill says that the government will "detect and monitor trends in health disparities," which ATAH says would require "the Department of Health and Human Services to 'develop standards for the measurement of gender' (i.e., officially recognize subjectively self-determined 'transgender' or 'transsexual' gender identities). It further mandates 'participation in the institutions' programs of individuals and groups from… different genders and sexual orientations.'" The Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber writes: "There's a gulf of difference between what [President] Obama and liberals in Congress, and the American people deem 'medically appropriate'; especially when it's 'we the people' footing the bill. To force Americans, against their conscience, to fund abortion on demand and to facilitate gender confusion by subsidizing the elective practice of genital 'sex-change' mutilation is unconscionable." Barber demands that citizens oppose reform legislation "unless taxpayer funding for both abortion and sex change surgeries are expressly excluded." [Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, 8/4/2009; MSNBC, 8/5/2009] Critics: Controversy a 'Red Herring' Based on 'Misinformation' - Autumn Sandeen, a transsexual whose photo is prominently featured in the ATAH post, writes that the entire controversy is a "red herring" enabling conservatives to mount an attack on health care reform over a non-existent issue. Sandeen writes, "Let's keep in mind what those who are bringing up 'sex change operations' don't really care that much about whether or not I personally get genital reconstruction surgery paid for by the government; what these folk really want to do is derail all health care reform—and if badmouthing trans people like me is how they believe they can derail it, then they're going to badmouth trans people like me." [Autumn Sandeen, 8/5/2009] Liberal blogger Pam Spaulding accuses Barber and ATAH of "shilling misinformation and twisting facts to frighten people," and says of Barber, "It's no surprise he wants to fixate on something he believes is fertile ground for generating heat on Obama's health reform." [Pam's House Blend, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: Pam Spaulding, Matt Barber, Human Rights Campaign, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Autumn Sandeen, Liberty Counsel
Conservatives for Patients' Rights logo. [Source: Conservatives for Patients? Rights]An organization called Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR) publicly takes credit for orchestrating the disruptive and sometimes-violent protests against the White House's health care reform proposals (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009). Washington Post reporter Greg Sargent says the admission "rais[es] questions about [the protests'] spontaneity." CPR is headed by Rick Scott, a former health industry CEO who once ran Columbia/HCA before being ousted for malfeasance in 1997. (Columbia/HCA subsequently paid the US government $1.7 billion dollars in fines due to fraud that occured during Scott's tenure.) Scott, who was once a part owner of the Texas Rangers with George W. Bush, now owns an investment firm that primarily traffics in health care, and owns a chain of Florida urgent care clinics called Solantic. [Washington Post, 5/10/2009; Plum Line, 8/4/2009] (Solantic also boasts former Bush administration official Thomas Scully as a member of its board. In 2004, Scully deliberately withheld information from Congress that the Bush administration's Medicare reforms would cost $200 billion more than acknowledged.) [MSNBC, 8/7/2009] Contracting with 'Swift Boat' PR Firm - Scott is spending millions on CPR's public relations effort, and has contracted with CRC Public Relations, the group that masterminded the "swift boat" attacks against 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. He is also coordinating his efforts with Grover Norquist, the conservative advocate and influential Washington insider. CPR spokesman Brian Burgess confirms that CPR is e-mailing "town hall alert" flyers and schedules of town hall meetings to its mailing list. CPR is also actively recruiting members for the "tea party," a loosely organized group of conservative protesters (see April 8, 2009). Scott says, "We have invested a lot of time, energy, and resources into educating Americans over the past several months about the dangers of government-run health care and I think we're seeing some of the fruits of that campaign." Doug Thornell, a House Democratic staff member, says: "The more you dig the more you learn that this is a carefully orchestrated effort by special interest lobbyists and the Republican Party, who are using fringe elements on the right to protect insurance company profits and defeat health care reform. The anger at these events looks very similar to what we saw at McCain/Palin rallies in the fall." [Washington Post, 5/10/2009; Plum Line, 8/4/2009] Group Interested in Protecting Industry Profits, Critics Say - Richard Kirsch of Health Care for America Now, a pro-reform group, says of Scott: "Those attacking reform are really looking to protect their own profits, and he's a perfect messenger for that. His history of making a fortune by destroying quality in the health care system and ripping off the government is a great example of what's really going on." CPR plans on spending over $1 million a month in anti-reform television and radio ads. [Washington Post, 5/10/2009] White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, learning of CPR's admission, says the organization is led by a "CEO that used to run a health care company that was fined by the federal government $1.7 billion for fraud. I think that's a lot of what you need to know about the motives of that group." Scott retorts, "It is a shame that Mr. Gibbs chooses to dismiss these Americans and their very real concerns, instead opting to level personal attacks." [San Francisco Chronicle, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: Greg Sargent, Doug Thornell, Columbia/HCA, CRC Public Relations, Brian Burgess, Conservatives for Patients' Rights, Solantic, Thomas A. Scully, Rick Scott, Richard Kirsch, Obama administration, Robert Gibbs, Grover Norquist, Republican Party, Medicare
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, 'Tea Party' Movement, Political Front Groups
Progressive reporter and columnnist Steve Benen writes that the Republicans and conservatives orchestrating (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, and Before August 6, 2009) the raucous anti-health care reform protests (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009) must be careful to avoid a backlash among moderate and independent Americans. Noting that the media has reported multiple instances of protesters' comparisons of President Obama and his administration to Nazis, and their stated opposition to Social Security, Medicare, and other popular government programs, Benen writes: "It's probably the one angle the corporate interests and their lobbyists haven't considered: the unintended consequences of rallying confused right-wing activists to shout down policymakers who'll improve their health care coverage. Once you wind up the fanatics and point them in the direction of a town hall meeting, you never really know what they're going to say, do, wear, or hold.… This is not to say all opponents of reform are radical extremists. The point, though, is that conservatives run a risk of convincing the American mainstream that the only people worked up in opposition to health care reform are nutjobs.… Obviously, those concerned about the reform proposals go beyond fringe, unhinged activists. But if and when the anti-reform campaign becomes synonymous with right-wing lunatics, organized by insurance companies, it becomes far easier for the political mainstream to dismiss their legitimacy, while regular Americans think, 'Well, I don't want to be on their side.'" [Washington Monthly, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: Steve Benen
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Liberal Media Pundits
Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) appears on an MSNBC talk show hosted by progressive Rachel Maddow. Three days before, Doggett was accosted in a Texas grocery store by an angry, shouting mob of anti-health care reform protesters (see August 1, 2009). Doggett says opposition such as this just bolsters his commitment to battle for reform. He says that the anti-reform protests are "staged" (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, July 27, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, Before August 6, 2009, and August 6-7, 2009). "[M]y real complaint is not their cameras or their taunts or their silly signs saying I was a traitor to Texas and a devil to all people—my complaint is that when other neighbors show up, they should not be silenced. And that's what this crowd did. After I listened to their taunts and questions and discussed the bill with them for an hour, they insisted on yelling, 'just say no,' any time anyone else wanted to speak." Countering the Anti-Reform Protesters - Doggett says that pro-reform advocates need to counter the anti-reform protesters: "[P]eople need to not sit back and think that President Obama and a Democratic Congress can solve all of these problems. They have to be engaged and involved. We cannot turn over the agenda to folks that really remind me, Rachel, like that crowd of Republican staffers that showed up for Bush against Gore down in Florida. It's the same kind of approach." Maddow reminds viewers that Doggett is referring to the "Brooks Brothers" mob riot from the 2000 presidential recounts in Florida, where the "spontaneous" riot was created by Republican aides and operatives brought down from Washington. She notes that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and the National Republican Congressional Committee "have sent out the footage of what was done to you at this town hall meeting. They're bragging about it. They're publicizing it. They're implicitly calling for more of this sort of thing." Doggett says of his Republican colleagues: "No, nothing surprises me about these people. They'll do anything they can to block health care reform just as they have for six decades.… [The protesters are inflating their numbers] because they're under-numbered at the people that have been being abused by the health insurers come out [sic] and tell their story." Doggett gives his fellow Democrats the folliwing advice: "Don't give up or give in. This is too important. We have few more important issues in America today, and we need to be steadfast in our commitment to learn from those who have legitimate concerns and criticisms. But there's no way you can rewrite this bill to satisfy this mob. We need to be firm and committed to a strong, public plan that will give that nudge to the insurers." Obama 'Judo' - After Doggett's interview is completed, Maddow interviews Chris Hayes, an editor for The Nation magazine, who adds to Doggett's statements by saying he believes the Obama administration and the Democratic Party are trying to use the excesses of the anti-reform rhetoric against reform opponents. Maddow says: "I think the lesson that the Obama folks took from the—this past year's presidential campaign, where they didn't try to organize people to go to McCain-Palin rallies, to shout down the 'kill them all' rhetoric that they were hearing from their crowds.… They publicized it, essentially… they used those displays of extremism to try to splinter the people who were on the right… who were either tolerating that stuff or denouncing it." Hayes says he believes the same thing is beginning to happen now. "I mean, this is sort of signature Obama political strategy, which is a kind of judo, right? To kind of use the excesses of your enemy against them. And I think that you're already seeing that DNC [Democratic National Committee] and other people sending the message out showing the signs of swastikas that are showing up at these rallies. The images of Stalin, the screaming, the sort of red-face spittle-flecked anger that is coming out in these town halls to show that, look, this is isn't just, you know, some kind of middle-of-the-road, undecided independent voter who's having some reservations about the possible cost of the health care bill. These are radicals. These are extremists. These are zealots.… They should just be called out for what they are." [MSNBC, 8/5/2009]
Entity Tags: National Republican Congressional Committee, Barack Obama, Chris Hayes, Democratic National Committee, Rachel Maddow, John Boehner, Lloyd Doggett
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tells a San Francisco reporter that she does not believe the recent spate of conservative anti-health care reform protests at local "town hall" meetings between Congress members and constituents (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009) are spontaneous. They are, she says, organized by "Astroturf" groups purporting to be founded and run by ordinary citizens, but in fact are organized by corporate lobbying firms to serve industry interests (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, and Before August 6, 2009). "I think they're Astroturf," she says. "You be the judge. There is no question that people want to know what's in the legislation, want to know how it is paid for, and know what it means to them. And that is why we have town meetings, either electronically or personally. Just because someone opposes their understanding of what this health care is, that's not a bad thing. But some of what is orchestrated to prevent the opportunity of presenting the plan, that's a different story." [San Francisco Chronicle, 8/4/2009] In the same interview, Pelosi says that she has seen some protesters "carrying swastikas and symbols like that" to the meetings. Pelosi has distributed a memo to her fellow House Democrats that provides them talking points to rebut some of the harsher anti-reform claims, short, finely crafted answers informing citizens what health care reform will provide for them, and accusing health insurance companies of leading a "carpet bombing, slash-and-burn, shock and awe" effort to defeat the "public option" plan. [NewsMax, 8/6/2009]
Local 'tea party' protesters at the Arcuri/Hoyer town hall. [Source: WKTV]Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), taking part in a town hall meeting in upstate New York hosted by House member Michael Arcuri (D-NY), is browbeaten and verbally assaulted by conservative protesters who are against health care reform. The meeting is to discuss a proposal for a high-speed rail system for the area. "You're lying to me!" one protester, local conservative activist Don Jeror, screams during the assemblage. "Just because I don't have sophisticated language, I can recognize a liar when I see one!" Jeror adds, "Why would you guys try to stuff a health care bill down our throats in three to four weeks, when the president took six months to pick a dog for his kids?!" Jeror and many of the activists, who continue to scream and shout over Hoyer during his entire presentation, belong to a group called the "Fort Stanwix Tea Party 'Patriots.'" House Member Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), who was recently accosted by conservative protesters during a town hall meeting in his district (see August 1, 2009), says the protests are anything but spontaneous and citizen-driven. "This notion of a grass-roots campaign is totally and completely phony," he says. "The Republican Party has coordinated this apparent outrage and stirred it up." While he and fellow Democrats welcome dialogue, he says, "there's no way you can change the legislation to satisfy any of these Republicans and their insurance allies." Doggett is referring to allegations that corporate lobbying groups such as Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, and Before August 6, 2009) are behind the protests. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs agrees, saying, "I think what you've seen is they have bragged about manufacturing, to some degree, that anger." Bob MacGuffie, a Connecticut conservative activists who recently wrote a strategy memo directing fellow conservatives in methods to disrupt and dominate town hall meetings (see Late July, 2009), says that while there is organization, the anger and resistance to reform is "most assuredly real.… We're organizing those voices, but it's a real emotion, coast to coast." ABC News reports that polls show the "protesters are not representative of the public at large, which overwhelmingly supports provisions such as 'requiring insurance companies to sell health coverage to people, even if they have pre-existing medical conditions' and 'requiring that all Americans have health insurance, with the government providing financial help for those who can't afford it.'" [ABC News, 8/4/2009; TPMDC, 8/4/2009; WKTV, 8/4/2009]
Entity Tags: Lloyd Doggett, Americans for Prosperity, ABC News, Bob MacGuffie, FreedomWorks, Robert Gibbs, Don Jeror, Michael Arcuri, Steny Hoyer, Republican Party
Screenshot of Texas GOP Web site featuring Doggett protest video, from August 5, 2009. [Source: Think Progress (.com)]Though Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Steele says that the Republican Party has no ties to, or involvement with, the recent spate of raucous and near-riotous protests against health care reform (seeAugust 5, 2009, June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009), the Web site of the Republican Party of Texas features a front page celebration of the recent disruption at a town hall hosted by Texas Democrat Lloyd Doggett (see August 1, 2009). A photo of Doggett on the site links to a YouTube video of protesters screaming and shouting at him, hosted on the Texas Republican Party's official YouTube account, txgoptv. The video concludesd with the words, "Produced by the Republican Party of Texas," and features a legal disclaimer that proclaims the video was paid for the by the Republican Party of Texas. [Republican Party of Texas, 8/2009; Think Progress, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Republican Party of Texas, Republican National Committee, Lloyd Doggett, Michael Steele
Grover Norquist, the highly influential leader of the conservative activist group Americans for Tax Reform, acknowledges that his group, along with Americans for Prosperity and the National Conservative Union among others, has encouraged its members to attend town hall meetings to protest health care reform proposals (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009). Norquist also admits that his organization provides talking points, suggested questions to ask, and slogans to chant at the meetings. However, he says his group does not endorse the raucous, sometimes riotous discussions that are taking place. "The more civilly you ask the question, the more powerful it is," he says. "Nobody says go and scream. That's the least effective thing you can do." But a former Republican aide notes, "If you are going to town-hall, you understand the potential pitfalls." [Roll Call, 8/5/2009]
Entity Tags: National Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, Americans for Prosperity
Screenshot of the bottom of Recess Rally's home page, taken August 22, 2009. [Source: Recess Rally (.com)]MSNBC host Rachel Maddow examines an organization called "Recess Rally," which is promoting anti-health care protests over the Internet, providing information about upcoming "town hall" forums hosted by Democratic lawmakers, and proclaiming, "We the people say no to socialized health care." Maddow gives some information on who is organizing Recess Rally. At the bottom of Recess Rally's home page, a number of sponsors are listed, including conservative blogger and Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, and conservative blogs such as RedState and Smart Girl Politics. Funded by Corporate Lobbying Firms, Corporate Interests - Other sponsoring organizations are less easily identifiable as citizen organizations. American Majority is a lobbying organization headed by Ned Ryun, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush; many of the organization's senior officials are veterans of the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign, former Republican lawmakers, and conservative lobbyists. American Majority is itself an offshoot of another organization, the Sam Adams Alliance. That organization is headed by a former executive director of the Illinois State Republican Party, and by a former Dow Chemicals engineer who also heads a large conservative think tank. Another sponsor of Recess Rally is a group called Let Freedom Ring, whose founder provided the funding for the 2008 Republican campaign ads that used footage of the 9/11 attacks to promote the Iraq war. Another sponsor was responsible for the 2004 "Swift Boat" campaign advertisements that besmirched then-presidential candidate Senator John Kerry (D-MA). Two other groups sponsor Recess Rally: Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see May 29, 2009, July 27, 2009, and August 1, 2009) and its subsidiary, Patients First (see July 23, 2009, July 27, 2009, and August 6, 2009). AFP runs Patients First, which is busing people around the country to demonstrate against health care reform, and another "grassroots" organization, Patients United Now (PUN). Maddow says that groups like these are "experts at fake grassroots campaigns that promote corporate interests." (AFP president Tim Phillips will call the buses "really good props"—see August 6, 2009.) Sincere Americans Protesting at Direction of Corporate Interests, PR Firms - Noting that AFP is headed by, among others, oil billionaire David Koch and longtime Republican fund-raiser Art Pope, Maddow says: "This oil industry and Republican operative millionaires' club is, according to the Republican Party… just average, middle-class Americans—just regular American folks sitting around the kitchen table, thinking about whether they can get away with saying that the government continuing its long standing policy of encouraging living wills is really a secret plot to kill old people (see November 23, 2008, January 27, 2009, February 9, 2009, February 11, 2009, February 18, 2009, May 13, 2009, June 24, 2009, June 25, 2009, July 10, 2009, July 16, 2009, July 17, 2009, July 21, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 23-24, 2009, July 24, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, July 28, 2009, and July 31, 2009 - August 12, 2009). Americans are showing up at these events to shout down the discussion and to chase their congressmen and they are enraged. And they're enraged at least in part because they're being riled up by over-the-top, fabricated conspiracy theories about health care. And they're being directed and orchestrated by the corporate interests that do this for a living and do it very well. RecessRally.com is not some organic outgrowth of American anger. This is how corporate America creates the illusion of a grassroots movement to support their own interests. This is what they do. They are professionals. This is an industry. To talk about these town hall events as some organic outpouring of average American folks who have concerns about health care is to be willfully blind as to what is really going on—which is professional PR operatives generating exploitive, manufactured, strategically deployed outrage in order to line their own pockets. These PR spinmeisters get paid a lot of money for doing it. The corporations they work for get to kill legislation that would hurt their profits. And the real people who they launch into these town hall settings after they're told that health care reform is a secret commie plot to kill old people and to mandate sex changes—those real people get more and more and more angry, and more and more and more alienated. And ultimately, they get left, like the rest of us, with a health care system that is broken and doesn't work in the interests of the American people, but does work in the interests of the corporations that profit from the way the system is now. This is professional, corporate-funded, Republican staffed PR, and it should be reported as such." [Recess Rally, 8/2009; MSNBC, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Sam Adams Alliance, RedState (.com), Tim Phillips, Smart Girl Politics, Recess Rally, Patients First, Patients United Now, David Koch, Art Pope, Americans for Prosperity, Let Freedom Ring, Michelle Malkin, Rachel Maddow, American Majority, Ned Ryun, George W. Bush
Reporter and media critic Howard Kurtz writes of the difficulties in discerning perceptions from reality in the debate over health care reform, and the increasingly contentious town hall meetings across America (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009). "Is there a rising tide of anger in America against Barack Obama's health plan and big-government programs?" he asks. "Or are the media just making it seem that way?" It has long been common practice to use footage of "one person… screaming, or us[ing] incendiary rhetoric" to add interest to an otherwise "dull and routine story," he notes. In the modern age of YouTube, "instant" viral videos of protests and near-riots at town halls are subsequently played and replayed on cable news shows "in an endless loop." Kurtz notes the controversial "strategy memo" for disrupting and dominating discussion at town halls, originally released by a small conservative Connecticut organization and picked up and redistributed by larger Washington lobbying firms (see Late July, 2009). He writes, "I have no idea how widely this memo has been distributed, but the language is revealing." He also notes that some lobbying firms have taken credit for "helping gin up the sometimes-rowdy outbursts targeting House Dems at town hall meetings around the country, raising questions about their spontaneity" (see August 4, 2009). [Washington Post, 8/5/2009]
Entity Tags: Howard Kurtz
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Media Complicity, Media Opposition
America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the health care industry's trade association, distributes "talking points" for use by opponents of health care reform that specifically target the so-called "public option" for alternative government-provided health care. AHIP has been heavily involved in orchestrating and facilitating the recent spate of raucous anti-reform protests (see July 10, 2009 and August 2, 2009). The talking points, entitled "August Recess Talking Points," include the following: "Health plans strongly believe that now is the time for comprehensive, bipartisan health care reform that enhances affordability, improves quality, covers all Americans, and puts the health care system on a sustainable path. However, we also share the concerns that employers, providers, and patients have raised about the significant unintended consequences of a new government-run plan. A government-run plan would dismantle employer-based coverage, thereby violating the shared commitment to ensure that those who like their current coverage can keep it. The government-run plan would also add significant liabilities to the federal budget." Reporter Greg Sargent notes that like any other lobbying group or citizens' organization, AHIP has the right to "encourage… participation and distribut[e] talking points." However, he notes that the industry AHIP represents "has a tremendous financial stake in whether a public plan becomes a reality. And the industry is not only telling people to go to town meetings, but also telling them how to voice their opposition to a public option. Bottom line: It's indisputable that the industry is orchestrating public opposition to one of health care reform's most important components." [Plum Line, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Greg Sargent, America's Health Insurance Plans
Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) says that a House member has been physically assaulted during a town hall meeting by anti-health care protesters (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 4, 2009). He refuses to identify the representative in question. Instead, he warns that the increasingly riotous confrontations at town hall meetings by conservative protesters are rising to "a dangerous level." He blames misinformation disseminated by conservative lobbying organizations who are helping orchestrate the town hall disruptions (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, and Before August 6, 2009) and on Fox News (see August 3, 2009 and August 3, 2009). "When you look at the fervor of some of these people who are all being whipped up by the right-wing talking heads on Fox, to me, you're crossing a line," he says. "They're inciting people to riot with just total distortions of facts. They think we're going to euthanize Grandma and the government is going to take over." Another Democratic staffer says flatly, "These people are crazy." Connolly notes that many of the more elderly protesters receive Medicare, but are seemingly unaware that Medicare is a government program. Steve Driehaus (D-OH), who recently held a contentious health care discussion (see August 3, 2009), says: "We're not going to say we're no longer going to listen to constituents because of a few angry protesters. We have no intentions of changing our plan based on any extracurricular nonsense." Grover Norquist, president of the conservative advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform, says the protests are nothing more than spontaneous outbursts of real public anger. He also says his organization encourages its members to attend town halls, and gives them talking points, suggested questions to ask, and slogans to chant (see August 5, 2009). "People are pissed," he says. "They've been lied to." [Roll Call, 8/5/2009]
Entity Tags: Fox News, Americans for Tax Reform, Steve Driehaus, Gerry Connolly, Grover Norquist
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, 'Tea Party' Movement, Domestic Violence & Terrorism, Fox News
Some Democratic politicians accuse Republicans of organizing "angry mobs" to disrupt town hall meetings around the country (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009). Conservatives retort that the protests are spontaneous outbursts of anger and concern from ordinary citizens who oppose the White House's health care reform proposals. According to a Democratic National Committee (DNC) ad, Republicans "have no plan for moving our country forward, so they've called out the mob.… [D]esperate Republicans and their well-funded allies" are trying to "destroy President Obama." Senator Arlen Specter, who took part in a contentious town hall three days ago (see August 2, 2009), says: "I think that a fair amount of the activity was orchestrated. I think a fair amount of it was involved individuals who came without being orchestrated. But it was a battleground." And White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says some of the anger from the crowds is manufactured: "In fact, I think you've had groups today, Conservatives for Patients Rights [CPR], that have bragged about organizing and manufacturing that anger" (see August 4, 2009). In return, CPR spokesman Brian Burgess says, "The White House is desperate for a scapegoat to blame for their failure to convince Americans to let the government take over health care." A Democratic organization with connections to the Obama administration, Organizing for America, is planning strategy for upcoming events, including a Michigan appearance by Vice President Joe Biden. An e-mail from the organization encourages Michigan Democrats to "stand with the vice president and against the angry mobs being directed by Republican operatives in Washington to disrupt events throughout the month of August." DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse says that mobs of right-wing activists are being transported from one rally to another by "well-funded, highly organized groups run by Republican operatives and funded by the special interests who are desperately trying to stop the agenda for change the president was elected to bring to Washington.… This type of anger and discord did not serve Republicans well in 2008—and it is bound to backfire again." Republican National Committee (RNC) spokeswoman Gail Gitcho responds: "In a remarkable example of callousness, the White House and Democrats have reduced the concerns and opinions of millions of Americans to 'manufactured' and have labeled them as 'angry extremists,' for voicing their opposition to President Obama's government-run health care experiment.… Are Democrats so out of touch that they are shocked to learn that Americans are concerned about their $1.6 trillion government-run health care experiment?" CNN political analyst Bill Schneider observes: "On issues like this, intensity of opinion matters as much as numbers. Opponents of the president's health care reform seem to feel more intensely about it than Obama's supporters." [CNN, 8/5/2009] Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, says he believes the use of intimidation and extreme tactics—including displays of overtly Nazi symbols and hanging representatives in effigy—will "backfire in a big way" because their aim is to keep people from talking about health care. "When you've got people shouting and hanging members of Congress in effigy," he says, "most people are going to react badly to that. I think most people want to have a civil discussion." Van Hollen says that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and other Republican leaders "are actively involved in sort of fueling the fire of these disruptions. They've got to be careful what they ask for here.… If Republicans want to continue to ally themselves with these fringe groups, it will continue to discredit them." National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain counters: "Democrats have gone from blaming Republican obstruction, to the insurance industry, to Matt Drudge, and now they are even blaming the voters who are registering their opposition at town halls across the country. At what point are they going to get the message that people simply don't want a government takeover of health care?" [Roll Call, 8/5/2009]
Entity Tags: Chris Van Hollen, Robert Gibbs, Bill Schneider, Barack Obama, Arlen Specter, Brian Burgess, Obama administration, Republican National Committee, Ken Spain, Democratic National Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Conservatives for Patients Rights, Gail Gitcho, National Republican Congressional Committee, Joseph Biden, John Boehner, Brad Woodhouse
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), says the outcry and dissension over health care reform as demonstrated by protesters in town hall meetings across the US (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009) will help the Republican Party elect more people to Congress. Democrats say Cornyn, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), and other Republican lawmakers are actively encouraging the sometimes-explosive town hall confrontations. Inciting fear and anger among conservative voters is a perfectly defensible strategy for a party that has been soundly defeated in two straight elections, Cornyn says. "Fear, I would say, precedes anger, and I think there are a lot of people who tell me they are scared of what they see coming out of Washington in terms of spending and the debt and muscular federal intervention on everything from financial institutions to healthcare," he says. "It's almost like a part of the grieving process.… I see real opportunities for us." [The Hill, 8/5/2009] In July, Cornyn's colleague James Inhofe (R-OK) said that for the GOP to succeed in 2010, it must "stall" health care reform (see July 22, 2009).
Entity Tags: John Boehner, John Cornyn, National Republican Senatorial Committee, James M. Inhofe
Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Steele tells a Washington Times reporter that his organization had no role in the recent spate of raucous and near-riotous confrontations by conservative anti-health care reform advocates (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009). "I had nothing to do with that, I did not encourage that," Steele says. "And we're not encouraging people to be angry, I mean to the point of being nasty and brutish and ugly. That's not what this is about. There's no upside for the Republican Party or the people involved to do that. Now some people, you know, that's how they express their frustration, that's how they express their frustration. But that's not something deliberately coordinated by me or any one state party." Steele's statement is at odds with recent exhortations and statements of support from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who has just issued a press release that celebrates the "success" of the town hall disruptions, and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which has celebrated the disruptions with a "Recess Roast" e-mail urging more disruptions. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is another Republican who disagrees with the angry, confrontational tactics: hours before Steele's statement, he sent out a Twitter message that said, "Town hall meetings are an American tradition—we should allow everyone to express their views without disruption—even if we disagree!" [Think Progress, 8/5/2009]
Entity Tags: National Republican Congressional Committee, John Boehner, Republican National Committee, John McCain, Republican Party, Michael Steele
A protester at a health care forum wears a shirt from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a prominent area health care provider. [Source: My Left Nutmeg (.com)]Representative Chris Murphy (D-CT) holds a forum in Simsbury, Connecticut, to discuss health care reform. Like many other forums in this and other states (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009), Murphy's meeting is disrupted by loud and angry protesters who oppose reforming health care. An African-American supporter of health care is accosted by one protester who, on camera, shouts: "You and your asinine friends say that we're paid by big insurance—you're paid by ACORN [a grassroots vote-registration organization] and our tax dollars. Yeah, that's me, hello, get the f_ck out of my face and go back where you come from." Another protester is caught on camera by a local blogger wearing an Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield shirt. [My Left Nutmeg, 8/5/2009; My Left Nutmeg, 8/6/2009] Anthem, like most corporations involved in health care, is opposed to reform of the health care industry. In recent days, it has asked to be allowed to raise rates on Connecticut members anywhere between 20 and 32 percent. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called the request "a rate increase that will be catastrophic, not only for our consumers but for our economy." [Associated Press, 7/30/2009]
Entity Tags: Christopher Murphy, Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, Richard Blumenthal
Democratic Representative Brad Miller (D-NC) says that his office has received a very credible and disturbing death threat over his support for the Obama administration's health care reform proposals. Miller, unlike many of his colleagues, has not scheduled any "town hall" events to discuss health care reform with his constituents (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, and August 5, 2009). "We have received a threatening phone call in the DC office, there have been calls to the Raleigh office," says Miller's communications director, LuAnn Canipe. "The call to the DC office was, 'Miller could lose his life over this,'" she says. "Our staffer took it so seriously, he confirmed what the guy was saying. He said, 'Sir is that a threat?' and at that time our staffer was getting the phone number off caller ID and turning it over to the Capitol Police." Canipe says the police have not yet reported back to them what, if anything, they have found. She says Miller was not planning on holding any town hall meetings anyway, and would not schedule any now: "Our point is, we're not gonna be bullied into having a town hall so it can then be interrupted by the fake grassroots folks.… We don't want to people to think we're shutting out our constituents. We're meeting with them one on one to discuss health care reform." [TPMDC, 8/5/2009; MSNBC, 8/13/2009] Afterwards, Miller expounds on his reasoning for not desiring to hold town hall meetings during the remainder of the summer recess: there is, he says, "a lynch-mob mentality out there. There is an ugliness to it." [MSNBC, 8/7/2009]
Entity Tags: LuAnn Canipe, Brad Miller
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Domestic Violence & Terrorism
Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) hosts a "town hall" meeting to discuss the Democrats' health care reform proposal in Douglas, Arizona. As with so many other town halls of this nature, Giffords's is repeatedly disrupted by shouting, screaming, and chanting audience members protesting the reform package (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, and August 3, 2009). Unlike the others, this event takes on a more sinister overtone when a pistol is found on the floor of the grocery store after the event. Giffords's aides report the dropped pistol to local police. Giffords says she will not be intimidated by either guns or rhetoric. "Yelling and screaming is counterproductive," she says. Trent Humphries, the leader of the local anti-reform movement in nearby Tucson, accuses Giffords of lying about the gun, and says none of his fellow protesters would hurt her. "Nobody is threatening Gabby," he says. "But she does need to get in front of her constituents and answer to her constituents." Giffords is a member of the so-called "Blue Dog" caucus of conservative Democrats who are balking at supporting the health care reform package in its current form. [Arizona Daily Star, 8/10/2009] Police investigating the incident will decide not to press charges. Officer Marcus Gonzalez will tell the press: "Apparently, there was no police report taken, the reason being that it was an accidental drop of a gun. Apparently, a male gentleman that went to the meeting had a gun holstered on his side. And when he sat down, it fell out of his holster." The "male gentleman" owns the gun and was legally carrying it pursuant to Arizona's "open-carry" law. "We're not really conducting an investigation on this, because there's not really an investigation to conduct," Gonzalez says. [TPMDC, 8/11/2009] A conservative blogger will post a video from the event, and call it "tightly scripted." [Gila Courier, 8/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Marcus Gonzalez, Trent Humphries, Gabrielle Giffords
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, 'Tea Party' Movement, Domestic Violence & Terrorism, Gun/Second Amendment Rhetoric
Salisbury Post masthead. [Source: Echo Media]An op-ed in the Salisbury (North Carolina) Post criticizes the current wave of disruptive protests that are derailing health care forums around the nation (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, and August 5, 2009). "With funding and staff support from advocacy groups opposed to health care reform and to the Obama administration," the Post writes, "organized groups have been showing up at Congressional town hall meetings held mostly by Democrats in favor of health care reform. The protesters jeer, heckle, wave placards, shout over the speaker, and carry on much like the student radicals of yore. Memos that have cropped up on the Web show that these protests are not intended to be any kind of dialogue but purely disruptive, preferably ending with the member of Congress forced to retreat. Videos of the demonstrations almost immediately appear on the Internet. The idea is to make opposition to health care reform seem more widespread than it really is.… [I]t is impossible to dismiss the large quotient of manufactured outrage in these disruptions. The campaign smacks of what political operatives call 'Astroturf'—fake grass roots" (see April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, July 27, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, Before August 6, 2009, August 6, 2009, and August 6-7, 2009). [Salisbury Post, 8/5/2009]
Entity Tags: Salisbury Post, Obama administration
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, Media Opposition, Political Front Groups
Charles ("Chuck") Grassley addresses an AARP meeting in early 2009. [Source: AARP]Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), one of the GOP senators counted on by the Obama administration to help pass the Democrats' health care reform package, tells a radio audience that under that reform package, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) would be allowed to die. Kennedy is in the final stages of terminal brain cancer. Under the proposal, Grassley says, Kennedy would be denied care; instead, a younger patient would receive that care because they could "contribute more to the economy." On Iowa City radio station KCJJ-AM, Grassley says: "In countries that have government-run health care, just to give you an example, I've been told that the brain tumor that Senator Kennedy has—because he's 77 years old—would not be treated the way it's treated in the United States. In other words, he would not get the care he gets here because of his age. In other words, they'd say 'well, he doesn't have long to live even if he lived another four to five years.' They'd say 'well, we gotta spend money on people who can contribute more to economy.' It's a little like people saying when somebody gets to be 85 their life is worth less than when they were 35 and you pull the tubes on them." The Iowa Independent notes that the health care reform proposal has no provisions for "rationed care" of any kind, as Grassley asserts, much less a provision to deny care to elderly patients in favor of younger, more potentially productive patients. [Think Progress, 8/5/2009; Iowa Independent, 8/5/2009] Adam Lioz, a correspondent to the liberal Huffington Post, writes: "My first thought after watching video of Grassley's statements is that he has now disqualified himself from participation in further Senate Finance Committee negotiations. How can someone act as a good-faith negotiator on a critical and complex issue while simultaneously stoking fear and spreading bald-faced lies about the content of the leading legislation on the topic? And why should Democratic senators take him seriously and continue to engage him? Bipartisanship is helpful; but at what cost?" [Huffington Post, 8/13/2009]
Entity Tags: Senate Finance Committee, Adam Lioz, Charles Grassley, Obama administration
Heather Blish speaks at Steve Kagen's forum. [Source: WGBA]Congressman Steve Kagen (D-WI) attempts to explain his position on health care reform to a sometimes-raucous crowd, mirroring the difficulties other lawmakers have had with demonstrative and angry audiences (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, August 6, 2009, and August 6, 2009). Towards the end of the health care forum, one audience member, Heather Blish, questions Kagen's position on the issue. Blish describes herself as "just a mom from a few blocks away" who is "not affiliated with a political party." In reality, she was a Republican Party of Wisconsin and a Republican National Committee (RNC) official; she also worked for Kagen's opponent, John Gard, in 2008. According to her LinkedIn profile, Blish is still a member of both Republican organizations, and an adviser to the state party. Reporter and pundit Sam Stein writes: "We don't know why Blish chose to describe herself the way she did. And there's certainly nothing wrong with people showing up at a town hall to express their differences. But Blish's misdirection feeds a suspicion that she—like some other protesters at these events—are there to create political theater rather than participate in serious debate." [Huffington Post, 8/6/2009; Think Progress, 8/7/2009; WGBA, 8/7/2009] Blish's boss, Scott Detwiler, who owns a Web design firm that develops sites for political candidates and campaigns, confirms that Blish has been active in local Republican politics. Blish says she has terminated her connections with the Republican Party. [New York Times, 8/7/2009]
Entity Tags: Sam Stein, Republican National Committee, Scott Detwiler, Heather Blish, John Gard, Steve Kagen, Republican Party of Wisconsin
An anti-health care reform protester carries a poster depicting President Obama as Adolf Hitler. [Source: The New Republic]An anti-health care reform organization, Patients First—a subsidiary of industry lobbyist group Americans for Prosperity (see May 29, 2009 and August 6, 2009)—holds an anti-reform rally in Pueblo, Colorado. Obama's 'Final Solution' - The keynote speaker tells the assembled crowd that Democratic health care reform will mandate physician-assisted suicide: "If this new Obama-care program comes to fruition, when you reach 65 and every five years thereafter, you're going to have a counseling session with some federal airhead. Part of this process is called end-of-life counseling and part of the end-of-life counseling can be an end-of-life order. Adolf Hitler issued six million end of life orders. He called his program the final solution. I kind of wonder what we're going to call ours." The speaker compares the Obama administration to the regimes of despots Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Pol Pot, and then tells the audience to "go to offices of members of Congress and put the fear of God in them." [TPMDC, 8/7/2009; ColoradoPols (.com), 8/7/2009; MSNBC, 8/10/2009] Commentator Blasts Nazi Comparisons - MSNBC's Rachel Maddow later says: "Put the fear of God in them—because what Obama is doing with killing all these people like Sarah Palin said, that's like what Hitler did and you know what Hitler deserved. This is the rhetoric that corporate-funded, GOP-allied groups like Americans for Prosperity are funneling through which they set up to look like grassroots organizations to get people to go 'put the fear of God' into elected officials.… What has started as rowdy and rude and mean-spirited disruptions has turned, in some cases, into actual violence, with several hospitalizations for minor injuries and some arrests being reported at health care town halls last night (see June 30, 2009, July 6, 2009, July 25, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 27, 2009, July 31, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 1, 2009, August 2, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 3, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, August 5, 2009, August 6, 2009, August 6, 2009, and August 6-8, 2009). What's also evident is that the anti-reform rhetoric increasingly is invoking specific references to Nazis and specific comparison of President Obama to Adolf Hitler.… You know, there are people alive today who barely survived the Holocaust. And there are many people alive today whose whole families were killed in the Holocaust. Nazism is not a metaphor for a political policy you disagree with. Used deliberately as a strategy to characterize a political opponent, it has a very specific resonance with people looking to justify violence. The implication of conjuring up the Third Reich is that, in the case of someone who's identified as a Nazi, as a modern day Hitler, violence against that person, even murder, would not only be seen as justified, it might be celebrated. This rhetorical strategy sets the stage for political violence that the perpetrator could hope would be praised. As such the idea of assassination, other kinds of political violence are always in the subtext. And you know, sometimes assassination isn't even in the subtext. Sometimes it just bubbles right up to the surface." [MSNBC, 8/10/2009]
Entity Tags: Americans for Prosperity, Barack Obama, Republican Party, Rachel Maddow, Patients First
Category Tags: Conservative Opposition to Obama, Health Care Reform Controversy, 'Tea Party' Movement, Faith-Based Rhetoric
General Events
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