Overstatement

I was particularly dismayed this morning while listening to an NPR report on Morning Edition. I realize that the report is covering the fringe, and not the mainstream. But I also realize that it is the fringe that has gotten this debate off track.

There is a legitimate debate to be had about how to extend health care to those without it, how to control costs effectively, how to ensure that people don’t go bankrupt because of health care costs, etc. Those are real problems that we as a nation should strive to overcome. And, as a vital democracy, we should have a real, honest, passionate debate about how to accomplish that. But we aren’t.

Instead, we are watching fear tactics and ignorance take over. One person in the report said “We don’t need a communist nation and that’s what Obama’s taking us to.” Huh? Is that helpful? Yet that is the exact irrational fear echoed in much of the conversation around health care reform. The comment isn’t even intended to be taken seriously, which is impossible. It is simply intended to derail the conversation and put fear in people.

Another recent invention of the far-right is the idea that Obama is going to further extend government powers by taking over the Internet. This assertion is based on a reactionary response to the 2009 Cybersecurity Act which gives the president power over the internet in the case of electronic warfare or other emergencies. I wonder where these people think the internet came from. Do they think that it was the result of innovation by creative entrepreneurs who boldly funded the project with venture capital? Even more amazing is that many of the people suddenly concerned about the president getting too much power gleefully endorsed President Bush’s rejection of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and instead decided that it was just fine for the government to listen in to our phone calls without any kind of real oversight at all. 

In other words, there is no rational discourse going on about health care. Instead, we are chatting away about Cybersecuirty. The sad thing is that at the end of this year, we might have a bill passed to protect our hard drives, but have done nothing to protect the millions of Americans with insufficient health care.