The White House Asks that We Report Health Care Disinformation

The continuing fight against the proposed health care bill is getting increasingly nasty as the Democratic majority is resorting to Chicago-style machine politics to force the plan on the American people. This despite a majority of the people not wanting anything to do with government control of their health care decisions.

The latest move by the White House was the creation of an email address (flag@whitehouse.gov) where they requested that their supporters identify and report anyone spreading “fishy” facts surrounding the health care proposal. Obviously, this was meant to stifle dissent but it looks like it is going to backfire.

For my part, in the interest if bipartisanship, I did report to the site some of those spreading disinformation. My email was as follows:

Madam/Sirs:

Per your request for the identity of persons spreading disinformation about the proposed health care bill I feel obligated to report the following: I have seen a lot in disinformation being spread about the health care proposal and it is all coming from people who haven't read the bill. They are easily identifiable as they are the leadership and members of the Democratic majority in the House and Senate. (Doubt me? Ask Waxman as he publicly admitted he hadn't read the bill.) Also being spread by people in the White House is the figure of "47 million" uninsured. There are no facts to back up that claim and it is, at best, a WAG and at worst, an outright fabrication.

Also the following information has been brought to my attention and it certainly should be brought to yours as clearly these individuals are spreading disinformation:

1. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) at a Health Care for America Now rally: “And next to me was a guy from the insurance company who argued against the public health insurance option, saying it wouldn’t let private insurance compete. That a public option will put the private insurance industry out of business and lead to single-payer. My single-payer friends, he was right. The man was right.”

2. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) told Single Payer Action: “I think that if we get a good public option it could lead to single-payer and that is the best way to reach single-payer. Saying you’ll do nothing till you get single-payer is a sure way never to get it. … I think the best way we’re going to get single-payer, the only way, is to have a public option and demonstrate the strength of its power.”

3. Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein at the Democratic National Convention last year: “They have a sneaky strategy, the point of which is to put in place something that over time the natural incentives within its own market will move it to single-payer.”

4. Noble Prize winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman: “[T]he only reason not to do [single-payer] is that politically it’s hard to do in one step…You’d have to convince people completely give up the insurance they have, whereas something that lets people keep the insurance they have but then offers the option of a public plan, that may evolve into single-payer.”

These individuals are clearly spreading disinformation because the President has denied through Press Secretary Gibbs that this will lead to a single-payer system. Or maybe, they haven't lied? Who is lying? The President or the four people above?

But there! I've done my civic duty as you asked.

Now I have a couple of questions for you.

1. Who authorized you to collect names and spy on American citizens engaged in political discourse?

2. Who came up with the idea that it was ok to have one group of citizens "report" another group for disagreeing with the plans of the administration? (What's next? A gulag for political dissenters?)

Please publicly identify the author(s) of this idea so we, the people, know who is responsible. Or is the promised "transparency" just a little too much for you?

In our Republic, such dissent is Constitutionally protected and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

And yes, if you haven't figured it out by now, I am opposed the the government taking over the health care of the American people. Our country was founded on the premise of equal opportunity, not equal outcome. I urge you to stay away from my right to choose.

Sincerely,

I’ll let you all know how things are from the gulag.

But seriously, it’s important that we do let them know how we feel. If we are silent then we have agreed to their programs by our very silence. If we are vocal then the politicians know that their political survival depends on following the wishes of the electorate.

To be sure, there are those in politics who look on the electorate as a necessary evil and an impediment to their acquisition of more power. Hopefully we will get rid of some of them in the next election and that will teach a lesson, short-lived though it may be, to the rest.