The Fact of My Ignorance

As the battle for healthcare reform rages on, many of the myths that I once expected to quietly die have instead become stronger and more entrenched. In particular, the degree of misunderstanding surrounding the “public plan” portion of healthcare reform proposals continues to astound me, both on the Right and the Left. I addressed some of those concerns in a post last week entitled “All About the Public Plan” and I think some of the misconceptions I discussed in that article have pertinence to the discussion of alternate reform mechanisms as well. Especially in regards to Co-ops, I think misunderstandings on the part of the Left have hobbled any chance at real discussion of this viable public plan alternative. So hopefully this will help clear some things up:

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Ok, those who have been following the healthcare reform battle have surely noticed that things have gotten nasty in the last couple of weeks.  And I mean seriously nasty.  I’ll admit, I’m still young, and I’ve only been following politics with intensity for the last 5 years or so, but I’ve done a fair amount of research on controversies of the past and I feel I’m fairly informed about the history of American politics over the course of the last century.  But the healthcare debate that’s going on now seems to be shaping up to be among the most vitriolic policy battles of recent history.  And along with that vitriol has come a slew of misinformation and purposeful misrepresentations that have far exceeded anything I would have expected to see in modern America.  With the advent of the internet and increased access to original sources, it’s perplexing to me how these smears can spread so quickly, and maintain such staying power.

And the pervasiveness of these myths is likewise surprising.  I’ve been watching videos of town hall protesters lately and it is extremely rare to see a protester carrying a sign that isn’t littered with false claims about the healthcare bills.  And some of them are so shockingly confused as to deal a serious blow to my faith in humanity (A sign I saw recently reading “keep your government hands off of my medicare” comes to mind).  And in casual conversations I’ve had with others about the bill I have yet to talk to an opponent who has actually cited something that’s really in the bill as justification for their opposition.  Once again, to be clear, every single person I’ve talked to who opposes the bill, when asked about their reasons, has cited nothing but provisions that are not actually in this bill.

So for the last few days I’ve been working on this article:  a feeble attempt on my part to correct 7 outlandish myths that are out there about healthcare reform.  In reality there are several claims being thrown about that are probably more shocking than these, but I tried to pick 7 that were both blatantly false, and commonly held.  Even many of the moderates in the audience may be unaware that the things mentioned below are, in fact, untrue.  I’ve tried to cite original sources wherever possible.  And for those who aren’t familiar with the methods of internet bloggers, the underlined text indicates a hyperlink to a source for the underlined statement.  This article is quite long, but I believe its topic is vitally important.

In the interest of full disclosure I should also point out that I’m currently a voting delegate to the California Medical Association (CMA) and American Medical Association (AMA), and I hold positions on the CMA’s Council on Legislation and the AMA’s House Coordinating Committee.  While these positions have certainly helped increase my understanding surrounding this bill and healthcare policy in general, I am speaking purely for myself in this article and nothing I say should be construed as reflecting the positions of those organizations or committees.

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So California’s budget woes have been going on for months now but the time for action is quickly growing near.  Unfortunately, while everyone agrees that action is necessary, nobody can agree on what those actions should be.  We’ve got a 26.3 Billion dollar gap still to close and accomplishing that in a bi-partisan way is looking to be nearly impossible.  Of course listening to statements from either side makes it seem so easy, “Just cut out our wasteful spending already!” or “Just raise taxes on the rich to where they belong!”.  But when you find out that if we were to, for example, cut all state funding for the UCs and CSUs it would still only save us 1.5 Billion or that raising corporate income taxes would only net us 430 million, it starts to look a little more complex.  Obviously a mixed approach will be necessary, at least until the economy begins to recover and the state’s income returns to normal levels.

The LA times has a very interesting little program on its website that allows you to try your hand at solving CA’s budget crisis.  It can be found here:

You Balance the Budget – LA Times

Screenshot from real life political computer game: "Take Back Illinois"

Well the Monday night deadline for CA politicians to agree on a budget came and went so Schwarzenegger was forced to send out 10,000 layoff notices to state employees.  The reason for the stall?  They were one vote short in the state senate.  California has a very unusual arrangement that requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of congress for a budget to be passed.  And after months and months of negotiations and concessions to republicans (the bill now consists of millions more in spending cuts than tax hikes) they were only able to entice 2 of the necessary 3 GOP senators to support the bill.

So when everyone woke up the next day and 10,000 more Californians were facing unemployment, did any of the senators who had voted against the bill, have second thoughts?  Did they acknowledge in anyway that thousands of CA families would now be suffering (and not to mention on the unemployment and/or welfare roles of the state) because of their posturing?  Nope.  In fact they gave a big raspberry to bi-partisanship and ousted the senate minority leader who helped negotiate the compromise bill.  The reason for these legislators’ ire?  The bill still contains tax hikes.  Literally, many of them will not vote for the legislation if it contains any tax hikes at all.

Unfortunately, CA is facing a 42 billion dollar deficit that absolutely cannot be fixed by spending cuts alone.  Governor Schwarzenegger recognizes this:

“If you think that you can do this budget without any increase in revenues then you have a big math problem because you can’t erase a $42 billion deficit without revenue increases,” Schwarzenegger said. “I hate taxes, but you when you are faced with that kind of reality, that’s what you have to do. We can only solve this problem with additional revenues and with spending cuts.”

We slashed 11 billion from the budget last year and the current budget has 15.2 billion in further spending reductions in the works.  I don’t think we can cut our way to solvency without unconscionably… Continue reading

One last stimulus post and then I promise I’ll take a break.  I have been utterly amazed at the creative reading skills of stimulus opponents over the last few weeks.  As they say a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth has finished putting its shoes on.  And the four outrageous claims discussed here have been passed around virtually unchallenged for a while now.

ACORN Nuttiness

The idea that there was money for ACORN in the stimulus was first invented by Fox news in the run up to the stimulus debate and its since been parroted by republican legislators including John Boehner and David Vitter.  In reality, of course, ACORN is not mentioned at all in the bill but what worries republicans is that 4.2 billion is set aside for local governments and (gasp) non-profit organizations to help them buy up foreclosed homes, fix them up, and sell them or rent them out.  So the logic goes 1.There is money in the bill for non-profits to buy up homes,   2. ACORN is a non-profit organization that does things vaguely housing related   3. The democrats are trying to sneak money to their buddies at ACORN!!!!!

Lest you think I’m exaggerating here is a quote from Louisiana Republican David Vitter on the subject: ”$4.2 billion dollars would be available to organizations like ACRON for so-called neighborhood revitalization. That’s just political payoff, quite frankly, not in spite of their voter registration fraud activity, really because of it, in my opinion, in terms of support from some of the liberals in Congress.”  … Wow.   That’s quite a conspiracy theory he’s put together there.  Never mind the fact that “ACORN Housing” is an entirely different organization than the ACORN that committed voter fraud, never mind that ACORN housing has never purchased a foreclosed home in its history and has no plans to do so, and never mind that… Continue reading

I thought these seven minutes were some of the most important of Obama’s speech and they can serve here as a springboard for discussing two important topics.  The first is the issue of partisanship.  I have been thoroughly impressed with Obama’s calm demeanor and mature perspective in regards to bipartisanship.  He has reached out across the aisle in an unprecedented way and he has been repeatedly slapped in the face by congressional republicans.  Yet he doesn’t turn on them, he doesn’t denounce them and give up, he talks about how his efforts are a long-term investment.  And he says he’s going to continue reaching across the aisle because its going to take a long-term investment to change the culture of washington.  That demonstrates humility and maturity that we have long expected of our neighbors and friends but which we, for some reason, have not expected of our politicians for a long time.  

He could easily use recent events to score political points against republicans, blaming the lack of bipartisanship on them, especially in light of all the political points they’ve been scoring on him lately.  But I like to think that he has more confidence in the American people.  He knows we can look at an issue rationally and won’t be deceived by strategist commentaries and media blowhards.  He trusts that we can judge a situation based on facts and long-term results and not on quotes and smears.  In short, he’s taking the high road, the same high road he stuck to during his campaign and that goes a long way in my book.

The second issue he talks about is pork.  I think its hilarious how conservative pundits have been able to redefine the word pork so that they can label this stimulus bill as such.  Or it would be hilarious if… Continue reading