"Many observers are puzzled by the level of anger and vitriol senior citizens have been directing toward their besieged elected representatives during recent health-care town halls. But no one can be more surprised, or put in a more uncomfortable position, than the organization that supposedly represents their interests, AARP. The 40 million–member advocacy group, after all, signed on early as a key supporter of President Obama's health-care-reform plan, and now it finds itself on the defensive, scrambling to win back much of its own membership. "A year ago, it seemed obvious that AARP would be for health reform," says the group's legislative-policy director David Certner. "Our membership as far as we could tell was quite ginned up about health-care reform"
The above atrocity is the first paragraph of a 9/01/2009 story from Time Magazine "Buzz" featured on the left leaning Yahoo News (Time being not "left leaning", but as left as you can get--somewhere left of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, who recently suggested he was to the right of President Ob ama).
First, there is NO such thing as an "Obama health care plan". The public understands that, if Time Magazine does not. That is what makes Oba'ama's assertions, in the nature of unsupported conclusions, about what his "health care plan" will do so absurd. The most Obama has is a vague concept of Federal CONTROL of health care in this country (whether through a "government option" and the 45 or so Federal agencies which would be created under the House bill, or exercised in some other manner). If you dispute the word "control", explain to me (Obama does not, and the mainstream media does not) HOW Obama intends to "control costs" and otherwise accomplish the goals he says he wants to accomplish. Vague goals are not a "plan". If Obama does not intend to have Federal bureaucrats tell both doctors and insurance companies what they may and may not do (Federal control), exactly HOW does he intend to accomplish those "wonderful" things he claims the Federal Government bureaucrats can accomplish for us (against all experience)?
You will recall about two weeks ago, when President Obama said that AARP was "on board" with his "plan". Time Magazine repeats that assertion above, even to the point of saying that AARP was "on board" EARLY. However, AARP issued a statement after Obama's assertion, saying that AARP had endorsed NO health care plan--a specific denial that it was "on board" with regard to the "Obama health care plan", in specific response to Obma's claim to the contrary.
Who is lying here? Is it Obama, who claimed an "endorsement" he did not have? Is it AARP, whose "leaders" have been all over the media attacking opponents of Federal control of health care? Is it Time Magazine, who has REPEATED Obama's assertion, even after that statement by the AARP? How about all three, which is the correct answer.
President Obama was falsely claiming an endorsement he does not have for a plan that does not exist. The AARP was suggesting that it had not betrayed its members by attacking them all over TV--giving everyone the idea that AARP had been bought off by Obama. Yet, AARP knows very well it has tired to give everyone the impression AARP has endorsed the non-existent "Obama health care plan", when it has not. Time, of course, routinely lies, and has done so again (ignoring the AARP response to the Obama assertion, as if there were not massive deception being practiced all around here).
Note that "many observers" bit in the very first sentence of the Time article. That is "journalist" speak for the mainstream media itself. Of course the mainstream media is "puzzled". They think that the general public--especially seniors--are HICKS who should take their lead from the mainstream media. That is the same attitude that the nation's "elites" in general have, including a significant part of the Republican Party "establishment". That is why there is no "puzzle" here. Would you not be angry if you saw these effete snobs telling you that you did not know what you are talking abut, when you are aware that you know more about the subject than either the mainstream media or a President who seems oblivious to actual facts (as distinguished from soaring rhetoric)? Darn right you would be "angry", and senior citizens are angry that their "supposed" advocates at AARP have turned out to have the same attitude: That seniors are HICKS who need to be guided by the "leadership" of AARP, who regard the members as a mere power base to use to advance their own interests and agenda rather than to be consulted and respected. The AARP "leadership" has exposed itself as totally uncaring about the views of its members, just as members of Congress (and the mainstream media) have exposed themselves as totally uncaring of the views of the public. Yet, on this issue the views of the "angry" public are more informed and correct than the views of the Big Government "elites", and the public is angry that their "leaders" can be both so arrogant and so dumb.
Ask yourself. Has the mainstream media made an effort to explain exactly what powers the new Federal agencies created by a health care "overhaul" wil have? What about the "old" Federal agencies? It is no good saying, as Obama and the mainstream media have attempted to do, what the non-existent "Obama health care plan" will NOT do. What WILL it do? And I don't mean platitudes. What, SPECIFICALLY, will it do? What regulations will Federal bbureaucrats be empowered to issue.? What will Federal bureaucrats have tohe power to determine what MUST be in all health insurance policies? Will Federal bureaucrats have the power to determine what doctors will be paid (like Medicare--see yesterday's entry)? Has AARP shown any interest in what powers Federally agencies will be given under the "Obama health care plan"? Of course not. AARP (the people in charge) has only shown and interest in being PART of the power group who is going to tell everyone else what to do (just like the AMA, members of Congress, Wal-Mart, Big Pharma, and all of the rest being willing to "partner" with the Federal Government to sell out the people).
What did AARP actually do to find out what its members thought? I think the evidence is that they did NOTHING, because they expected the members to have no mind of their own. We know that the AARP has done little to try to force the DETAILS of the "Obama health care plan" to be explained. We further know that AARP "leaders" have been attacking opponents of health care "reform"--which often means attacking their own members--even while issuing statements that AARP has endorsed no "specific plan" (as Obama has proposed none). The Time story makes clear that AARP "leadership" is more interested in placating its members than in really paying attention to what its members believe.
Notice the reference in the quoted paragraph from the Time article to "a year ago". Has anything changed in a year--anything that the people (including seniors) have noticed, and the "elite", arrogant, effete snobs in AARP, the mainstream media, and government do not seem to have noticed? Yep, something has changed.
A year ago the deficit, and accumulated debt, appeared to be a manageable, if concerning, problem. Now our deficit, and our debt, are totally out of control. The Obama Administration just raised the the projected debt level at the end of the next ten years from 7 TRILLION dollars to nine TRILLION dollars. Even that number is probably optimistic. President Obama himself has said that deficits att his level cannot be "sustained", and yet he is now assaying that they WILL be sustained for the next TEN YEARS.
The public, including seniors, realize that--as Obama said--this is intolerable. Even if Federal control of health care and health insurance had any merit, which it does not, we cannot afford to create a new "entitlement" at this time. Medicare is in DANGER (as seniors realize). Social Security is in DANGER. These deficits, and accumulated debt, make it probable (not merely possible) that we cannot give senior citizens what they have already been promised. The Obama "health care plan" (whatever it is) will be merely another nail in that coffin, and senior citizens realize it. Any "savings", and any additional revenue, need to be applied to save what we now have. Time, the rest of the mainstream media, Congress, and AARP do not seem to realize that there is NO money for the "Obama health care plan". New taxes, "savings", etc. do NOT create "money" to "pay for" a new health care plan. We have already SPENT all of that money, and much more. We are not "paying for" a health care plan when we are building a 9 TRILLION dollar debt over the next ten years (without a health care plan that will certainly add to that intolerable debt).
That is the biggest LIE of all: that ANY government program is being "paid for" when we are spending our way--with money we dont have--accumulated deficits over the next ten years of 9 TRILLION dollars. The public understands this. Our "elites" do not. I would rather be a HICK. Hicks are obviously smarter.
P.S. Yes, I am basically a "senior citizen"--62 years old. I long ago abandoned AARP which I understood that it was a Big Government organization more interested in the power of its leaders than in the real interests of its members
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