Non-Partisan and Patriotic Position is to Reject Fabrications

The author of the list below is a private sector leader in the health care industry who teaches at the Weatherhead School of Management and the Medical School of Case Western Reserve University. He was chief execuitve of QualChoice Health Plan and now is a board member at the Joint Commission, MetroHealth and SummaCare. 

Follow the link and you can read his short but expert explanations for each myth.  Well worth reading.

But there is another story to be told here, a second reason to contemplate this list.  While the author is careful to focus on his area of expertise, health care, analyzing the list according to which party is pushing which myth we discover what fact checkers have been pointing out since the primaries:  it is inaccurate and un-American to throw up our hands and conclude ‘both sides are doing it.’ 

In this one (important) case, on the basis of the analysis by an industry expert, we can see clearly that 9 of the 10 myths below have been manufactured by Republicans who continue to repeat these over and over again (even more so on Fox News), despite fact checkers, and now this industry expert, demonstrated them to be fabrications designed to mislead us.

Myth #1. Democrats will destroy Medicare through the ACA

Myth #2. Republicans will destroy Medicare through the Ryan proposal

Myth #3. The ACA has “raided” $716 billion from Medicare

Myth #4. Doctors will be paid less and will abandon their patients

Myth #5. The ACA is a socialist/government takeover of the health system

Myth #6. The individual mandate imposes an unfair burden on those who can’t afford insurance

Myth #7. Excessive regulation of insurance will drive up cost

Myth #8. Insurance companies won’t want to participate due to higher risk and limited returns

Myth #9. It’s all funded with a huge tax on the middle class

Myth #10. We have to address costs first before expanding coverage.

The author concludes his list with this:  “There are many areas of legitimate difference, but the above are not among them. Let’s talk about the reality of what the law says, not political images and slogans.”

This is a non-partisan position and I agree with it whole heartedly.  Putting this expert’s analysis of health care myths into the larger context of the campaign and the past three years, it is also a non-partisan and patriotic position to conclude that today, the single greatest challenge to the great American experiment is the Republican Noise Machine distorting political communication with its partners in crime at Fox News.

It remains simply untrue that both sides are doing it this time around.  One side, the Republican side, is lying nine times more often on this central issue.  Just as Mann and Ornstein argued earlier, both sides are not doing the same thing in this election.  Being fair and balanced on this issue does not require us to ignore the facts and conclude there is a deep and intentional integrity gap here. 

One side is campaigning, which always mean selecting the facts that support your position.  The other side is building on the past three years of selling complete fabrications about birth certificates and socialism, including the current Romney ad, still airing in Ohio, claiming that the president sold Chrysler to the Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China.  Despite Chrysler’s vehement denial and Politifact rating it as a ‘pants on fire’ lie the ad continues to run as we approach election day. 

And that untruth is part of a larger fabrication in the same Romney ad, as Romney tries to deny that he would have let GM go under.  Here is how www.factcheck.com evaluated this ad.

GM, Chrysler & Bankruptcy

The ad also misleads Ohio voters when it says “Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy.” That’s true, but not the full story. The facts are that Romney in 2008 advocated that U.S. automakers go through a “managed bankruptcy” without the kind of extensive government assistance that Obama ultimately provided.

In a Nov. 18, 2008, New York Times op-ed headlined “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” Romney argued against a bailout. He wrote: “A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs.” As for government assistance, he said the “federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.”

During the second presidential debate, Romney falsely claimed that Obama implemented “precisely” what he recommended. But there was a significant difference. Obama provided direct federal aid — federal loans and equity investments — that the Detroit News called “extraordinary” and essential to the industry’s successful turnaround.

In its endorsement of Romney — which the TV ad touts — the Detroit News wrote that it endorsed Romney “despite his wrong-headedness on the auto bailout.”