In a piece at Vanity Fair, Kurt Eichenwald says the Republican Party's attempts to postpone the Affordable Care Act have a lot to do with the fear that Americans will soon realize that the health care package is not the "government takeover of health care" that the GOP has drummed it up to be.
So, what accounts for the current, last-ditch, fumbling-fuming on the part of the G.O.P. to stop Obamacare, going so far as to threaten a shutdown of the government in an effort to overturn the clear voice of the American people that was expressed in the last election? It's hard to say. But I think I have an answer:
The lies are about to be exposed. And the Republicans are terrified of what the country will think when the veil of mendacity is torn away.
Little else can explain the hysteria that has grown ever louder with each passing day. Take one simple example, this squirm-inducing ad where a pervy Uncle Sam turns up at a young woman's gynecological exam. The message? Republicans are urging young people to forgo health insurance. Let me say that again: Republicans are urging young people to forgo health insurance. Not to vote against Democrats, not to lobby against Obamacare — to forgo health insurance. To risk catastrophic financial calamity in the event of a health crisis.
Why? And here, the lies begin. In what must be the creepiest political ad of all time — from Generation Opportunity, a group backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch — Obamacare is presented as a situation where the government, in the metaphorical form of the large-scale puppet-like Uncle Sam, will be giving people Pap smears and prostate exams. "Don't let the government play doctor. Opt out of Obamacare," the ads say.
Well, if that was what Obamacare did, maybe there would be a point. But, like death panels and their ilk, the "government takeover of healthcare" canard is a canard. Under Obamacare, people will have the opportunity to purchase private insurance. It's a little more complex than that, which I'll explain later, but the government will have nothing to do with the care anyone receives, any more than it would be rational to have an image of an insurance-company executive giving women Pap smears. (Actually, that would make a little more sense.)
Read Kurt Eichenwald's entire piece at Vanity Fair.
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