WHY WOULD DEMS WANT THAT?…. OK, so the Republican National Committee wants people to believe there may a plan out there to impose a health care “rationing system” in which Republican voters would be “discriminated against.” What else is in the “2009 Future of American Health Survey”? David Weigel posted the whole thing.
Among the questions that stood out:
* Do you believe your health care decisions should be made by you and your doctor, and not government bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.?
* Rationing of health care in countries with socialized medicine had led to patients dying because they were forced to wait too long to receive treatment. Are you concerned that this would be inevitable in the U.S. under the Democrats’ plan?
* Do you believe it is right for the government to use age and life expectancy as criteria for determining access to health care?
Now, it’s hardly a secret why the RNC would lie to its own supporters. The “2009 Future of American Health Survey” isn’t even a survey — it’s a fundraising gimmick. No one will be tallying the responses to the made-up questions.
But reading over these specific lies, and thinking about them in relation to the other insane attacks we’ve seen as part of the health care reform “debate,” it occurs to me to ask right-wing opponents of reform a simple question: “Why would Dems want that?”
And by “that,” I mean any of the various nightmares that insurance companies and GOP hacks have come up with. Why would Democrats want “death panels”? Why would they support widespread “rationing”? Why would they try to force bureaucrats between patients and their doctors? What possible incentive could they have?
They’re politicians. They want to do well, but they also want to keep their jobs (i.e., win re-election). It’s in their interests to pass legislation that would benefit the country, and which voters will like. Does it make any sense to think Democrats would take this rare opportunity to approve legislation that would kill off seniors, while making things drastically worse for tens of millions of people? Why would Dems want that?
Obviously, reason and rationality stopped being relevant quite a while ago. I get that. But I’d like to encourage well-intentioned folks who hear ridiculous claims about reform to ask themselves this basic question: does that sound like something a politician who wants to be popular would support?
