Many of us have heard this exchange on last week's Real Time which began with highlighting the ridiculous statement by Jon Kyl that "Well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is Abortions", and his staff's later comment that it was "Not Intended to be a Factual Statement".
The big verbal battle began when Michael Steele attempted to draw false equivelency between that statement and those made by Democrats.
BILL MAHER, HOST: Tell me what’s worse than that, because in a world full of lies, I feel this man [Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.)] stands alone. I mean, and for that statement to come from his press secretary, “His remark was not intended to be a factual statement,” it includes a percent. I mean, it's one thing if you’re, “This is my opinion,” but there was an actual number in there. 90 percent as opposed to three.
ED SCHULTZ: What he was trying to do there, he was trying to sell the American people to be against Planned Parenthood. Okay.
MICHAEL STEELE: Right.
SCHULTZ: So this is the United States senator, one of a 100, on the floor of the Senate, throwing out a falsehood and then admitting to the American people, “Well, you know, I really wasn't too high on the facts. Just throwing it out.”
STEELE: And you're shocked by that because?
SCHULTZ: Well, I’ll tell you, this is what it’s come to?
STEELE: But you've seen over the past couple of weeks in the whole lead-up to the vote this week, you know, hyperbolic statements on both sides from…
MAHER: Really?
SCHULTZ: What compares to that?
MAHER: Really? What, thank you.
STEELE: From, from, you know, “Republicans want, you know, to kill old people and put them out of their homes."
MAHER: Who said that?
STEELE: A number of members of Congress.
MAHER: They said they wanted to kill old people?
STEELE: Yes. No, wait a minute.
MAHER: Wait a second. That's the exact phrase they used?
STEELE: Yes. You can go back. Go back, go back.
MAHER: I’m just asking.
STEELE: Go back. Go back. Yes. Hold on.
MAHER: They want to kill old people?
STEELE: Go back, go back to the congressman from Florida who made the exact same statement…
MAHER: Alan Grayson, get sick and die. But you…
SCHULTZ: You said this week, Michael. You said this week.
STEELE: I said leading up to this week.
SCHULTZ: Okay, okay.
STEELE: Listen to what I say.
Ok, so was Alan Grayson's comment equal to that of Jon Kyls? Let's review.
Grayson: The Republican Health Care plan for America is Don't Get Sick. If you have insurance Don't Get Sick. If you don't have insurance, Don't Get Sick. If you're sick - Don't Get Sick. Bet then they had a back-up plan. If you get sick America, Republicans want you to Die Quickly.
Ok, so that is admittedly hyperbolic - but contrasted with Jon Kyl the issue isn't is it hyperbolic the issue is is it True?
The problem that the Right doesn't understand is that It's Not TRUE that 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is Abortions, that is in fact only 3% of their services. But is it true that the Republican Health Care plan last year - which was essentially NOTHING except Tort Reform - was "Don't Get Sick and if you do - Die Quickly?"
Well, YES - because that's the plan coming for health insurance providers when they punished people for getting sick with lifetime limits and pre-existing condition rules. That's exactly what the Plan was, and frankly since Paul Ryan's Budget repeals the Health Care Exchanges which would ban those limits permanently, that's exactly what the plan is NOW.
Don't get sick (or we'll refuse to give you care by saying you have a pre-existing condition). Die Quickly (or we'll off your care with a lifetime cap!) The Democratic Plan was to End THIS - the Republican plan is to keep it going.
Jon Kyl was LYING, Alan Grayson Wasn't.
But I've found on the right they really don't get this. For example: Maher says Democrats didn't use violent rhetoric towards Republicans
Too bad Steele couldn't think of anything more recent like Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl.) saying Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) budget was "a death trap for some seniors."
Or Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) saying that freshmen House Republicans came to Washington to kill women.
Or Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) saying shutting down the government is "the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians."
Or Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Mary.) saying, "This entire debate has involved throwing women and children under the bus."
Yes, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz did argue that the Ryan Voucher Plan was a "Death Trap" but that's not "Violent Rhetoric". It's Accurate. The CBO has since stated that Ryan's plan produces at yawning GAP between government expenditures and health care costs that will have to be filled out of the beneficiaries own pockets.
If the current Medicare system were allowed to continue, CBO found that an average 65-year-old beneficiary's costs would be only 25 percent of what it'd be in the individual private insurance market. Under the GOP plan, those costs would jump to 68 percent.
So it becomes like what Bill Maher asks: What Happens when the value of the voucher is exhausted and people dont' have the money to pay the bill?
Well, they don't get any more care - or to be more specific they have to Self Ration Their Care by trying make the coupon stretch as far as possible. Just like Seniors who are already cutting their pils in half or sacrificing food to buy their medications. It's Not True that we don't know what will happen, because it's already been happening with the last big Republican Health Care Failure, the Prescription Drug Bill.
But it's not like Republicans haven't made their own "Death Predictions" as we all know full well.
Where Beck accuses Zeke Emmanuel of being the architect of the "Death Panel" (after a bunch of blather about Alan Simpson)
Or Mike Huckabee saying that the Death Panels are in the Stimulus Bill.
Tucked away in the $787 billion stimulus was the establishment of the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness, which will become our version of Britain's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the ironically and Orwellian-named NICE. NICE decides who lives and who dies based on age and the cost of treatment. So the stimulus didn't just waste your money; it planted the seeds from which the poisonous tree of death panels will grow.
[...]
Who will get rationed? Well, the very old and the very young, obviously, the most helpless and vulnerable among us. But it will also be those who don't live politically correct lives -- those who have too many cigarettes or cocktails or cans of soda. "Death by Chocolate" won't just be a cute name on the dessert menu.
NICE doesn't do any such thing, Private Insurance Companies DO - as Politifact has shown.
At its heart, the Club for Growth's ad criticizes a medical approach known as comparative effectiveness research, which aims to find the most effective treatments for the lowest cost.
Once again, some Republicans have started linking the general premise of comparative effectiveness and what NICE does in Britain to describe how a government-run plan in the United States would discriminate against people who are older or very sick. Here's one such comment:
The only initiative from the Obama administration along those lines is the increase in funding for comparative effectiveness research through the stimulus. That data would be used to help doctors and patients make better drug and procedure decisions, not dictate treatment, he said.
So, back to the Club for Growth ad. Although our experts agree that it gets the NICE statistic correct about the British practice, the ad's main point about cost limits is incorrect. There is no such practice in the comparative effectiveness program, nor is it part of the current health reform proposals pending in Congress. The House and Senate bills under consideration would not require the government to decide how much a person's life is worth. As a result, we give the Club for Growth a False.
See, it's not that what Huckabee said is "violent" or "hyperbolic" - it's simply based On a Lie. Just like the Death Panel Lies that were told by Sarah Palin.
The fact is that the Comparative Effectiveness Panel is specifically prohibited from blocking care based on costs.
`Sec. 1181. (a) Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research Established-`
(1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary shall establish within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality a Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (in this section referred to as the `Center') to conduct, support, and synthesize research (including research conducted or supported under section 1013 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003) with respect to the outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of health care services and procedures in order to identify the manner in which diseases, disorders, and other health conditions can most effectively and appropriately be prevented, diagnosed, treated, and managed clinically.
The goal of the CCER is simply see what works best, not just what works cheaply, so the argument that this is some kind of "Death Panel" is just simply a LIE.
Meanwhile Ryan's plan isn't exactly a new idea, it's essentially an expansion of Medicare Advantage which already allows for seniors to buy private health care with government support - the problem is that private care is 128% more expensive than care Medicare itself.
Contrast that with the Demcratic Plan which has extended the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund for another 12 years, by actually saving money - not throwing additional costs onto the backs of seniors.
Ir's the TRUTH that 45,000 people every year die because they can't afford or have been denied care by the private insurance industry. The Republican response to the fact was to simply Ignore It and Deny it. They simply Refused to Believe it was possible, but the only other study of this had previously said a few years ago that the number of dead Americans from lack of care is still over 30,000 per year.
So even if you choose to go with the lower estimate (which is actually out of date) what's the rationale for letting insurance companies continue these deadly practices?
Time and time again when confronted with facts and truth, the Republican default position is to ignore it, argue with it - then LIE about it
Because as I said in the title, they can't handle the truth.
Vyan