Report Dissidents to the White House
Several people have emailed me this: Apparently the White House web site is asking that you report anyone writing things on health care that don't match the Administration position so the White House can "keep track".
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
Wow, "disinformation." You wonder why people ever listen to those counter-revolutionaries and aren't satisfied with just reading Pravda.
Well, we at the global headquarters of CoyoteBlog Enterprises are certainly happy to help. I sent them this email today:
Thanks for the opportunity to report disinformation where people write things that don't match what the President is saying on health care. Please check out this document I found on the web -- a number of parts bear very little relationship, and in fact outright contradict, what the President is promising about health care reform.
The link is to a copy of the House health care reform bill. If you are so inclined, you might wish to offer similar help.
Postscript: My son, who is a big fan of dystopic novels like George Orwell's "1984" might ask if he would get extra credit for turning in a family member.
Update #1: The White House site in question is really ridiculous. It responds to critiques of what is actually in the bill with statements like "the President has consistently said that if you like your insurance plan, your doctor, or both, you will be able to keep them." Well duh, of course he has. But this President, even more than the average President, will say just about anything.
At this point, since the President is purposely uninvolved in the crafting of the legislation and has admitted at times that he doesn't even know the details of what is in it, talking about his promises or preferences is irrelevant. In fact, nobody is talking about the President's promises and intentions any more, with actual legislation on the table. They are talking about what is actually in the written bills in the House and Senate.
So the question is, what is in the actual legislation, and does it match Obama's promises, and the current answer is clearly "no." And will the President veto a health care bill that doesn't follow through on his promises? Don't make me laugh. He is going to sign any bill with "health care" in the title no matter what it says -- his advisers have already made that clear by saying that the entire Presidency is riding on having some kind of bill pass that does something with health care.
By the way, in this we can see the White House strategy for passing such controversial bills. Their hope is to jump directly from the President's "everyone is a winner and there is no cost" rhetoric directly to signed legislation. They want people focused on his promises, which are enticing, and not the reality of the actual language of the bills, which is ugly and in many ways bear no relationship to the President's rhetoric. This worked for the stimulus and almost worked for Waxman-Markey and was tried again for health care.
morganovich:
i found an extremely fishy looking document on line that contradicts the current health care aims. it seems to have been written by some old white reactionaries. it was called the consti-someting. let me see if i can dig it out.
August 5, 2009, 8:03 amMethinks:
I've turned myself in for being against ObamaCare and for exercising my first amendment right to disagree with the government and to blast email my disagreement to everyone I know. If I disappear, look for me in Gitmo - it'll be this administration's version of Lubianka Prison. Or they'll sic my regulator on me so hard it'll drive me out of business and I'll defect to a comparatively free country - maybe North Korea.
BTW, his health care Czar is calling it "insurance reform". Right, no disinformation there. And she's saying that the video of Barry proudly exclaiming that he wants single-payer and that it may take a few steps to get there is spliced together to make it look like he's saying something he isn't saying. Who is propagandizing exactly? The first time I saw a video of him yammering about the glory of socialized medicine and how we're going to get there step by step was in a video posted by a single-payer supporter pissed off that the president broke his single-payer promise.
August 5, 2009, 8:14 amNot Sure:
I think you're being too negative. It's great that the government is going to give people health care that somebody else will have to pay for.
Maybe next week, we'll all get free ponies.
August 5, 2009, 8:26 amRick C:
@Not Sure: I don't want a pony; I want a full-sized horse. Oh, and someone's going to need to install a stable at the office.
August 5, 2009, 8:36 amStephen Macklin:
I turned myself in this morning. I didn't want the burden of reporting me to fall on friends and neighbors.
http://nomayo.mu.nu/confessions_of_an_obamacare_opponent
August 5, 2009, 8:49 amsilvermine:
You'll take your pony and you'll like it, or else!
Gosh, wouldn't it be nice if people in this country studied the earlier part of this century and knew what fascism actually is? Cue the brown shirts!
(Somehow, in taking Japanese, German, and Russian, plus writing multiple reports on WWII in school, I managed to give myself quite the education...)
August 5, 2009, 10:39 ammorganovich:
i think looking at this as a first amendment issue (as many seem to be) it to get it the wrong way around. there are no consequences to disagreeing. gathering the viewpoint of others is not illegal nor immoral. the act of gathering and digesting the arguments against your viewpoint is a valid and important part of any debate.
they are not trying to control your speech, they are trying to win an argument. where it becomes immoral is if they take the same tack that so many global warming zealots have and post piles of misleading information, distortions, ad hominem attacks and outright lies with titles like "how to argue with a global warming skeptic".
what they want to do is build an authoritative looking database for obamacare supporters to use to argue with opponents. i get this stuff all the time from AGW supporters. it is absolutely ubiquitous if you use google. it's also almost invariably wrong, but its patina of legitimacy by being on a "science" site sucks in those unable to evaluate the arguments on the basis of the facts. debunking such propoganda wastes the time of the other side and keeps them from more profitable pursuits.
you're going to get the same kind of thrust here - we're already seeing it with this "you can keep your health plan" line, which is clearly untrue based on the current bills.
watch. this is all about providing ammo for the supporters and a massive distraction while the congress churns out a bill that has nothing to do with what is being said.
there is nothing illegal or wrong about canvassing the opinions of one's opponents in order to argue against them more effectively.
however, when you start to deliberately distort facts to advantage your side of the argument, now you have crossed over into immoral and quite possibly into fraud.
on that basis, things are not looking good.
August 5, 2009, 10:43 amtomw:
Maybe someone is 'acting stupidly' and making statements 'without knowing the facts', hmmh?
Our CinC appears to be doing the above, for which he should be soundly criticized.
On the other hand, if Congrefs tries to remove itself from the finely crafted bill we know they are working on, and keep their platinum plated policies and freedom of choice, then Congrefs will likely be getting a bunch of new faces elected in 2010, no?
tomw
August 5, 2009, 10:59 amJ Howe:
I've done my patriotic duty and submitted the House bill as a conduit of disinformation. I also told them that I was happy to see that the truth police were watching over the country. Of course, I'm sure the sarcasm will be lost on them. My only hope is that this e-mail address gets slammed. I find this whole matter to be disgusting (but not surprising)
August 5, 2009, 11:11 amMethinks:
Obama is everyone's president, no? The vast majority doesn't like his legislation. Nobody's poll shows a majority support for it. I'm surrounded by Obama lovers here in the North East who hate this program because they're not stupid enough to simply take Obama's platitudes on a piece of legislation so important.
Obama's response? Deride anyone who opposes his maneuvers. He turns into the community organizer, riot organizer in chief for whom anyone who disagrees with him is his sworn enemy.
In one of his directives, he proclaims "This is the moment our movement our movement was built for." And then goes on to accuse anyone who doesn't want government ObamaCare down rammed down their throats, support the status quo and don't want reform. So, it's either his shit plan or you're against health care for the poor. I thought he was supposed to be the great uniter?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2308899/posts
I know a lot of people - including die-hard Democrats - who are calling their representatives to tell them to vote "no". Apparently, his cult of personality is less important than their kids and parents. I know people who have never been politically active suddenly come to life to fight this legislation.
The congress critters and Obama can delude themselves about the source of the anger all day (What is "K Street", anyway?)and vote for a slow government take-over of health care and the permanently high taxes that will require. But, they vote that way at their own peril. We will vote them out of office at the very first opportunity.
August 5, 2009, 12:29 pmMesa Econoguy:
Most of the disinformation is emanating from the White House.
We are in bizarro-world.
August 5, 2009, 4:12 pmMesa Econoguy:
Oh, and
“the President has consistently said that if you like your insurance plan, your doctor, or both, you will be able to keep them.â€
Yes he has, and each time he has been flagrantly and brazenly lying.
This president is a liar. There, I said it. Come get me, bastards….
[He's also childishly naïve, and an economic dimwit.]
August 5, 2009, 4:21 pmDr. T:
Remember Nixon and his enemies list? At least his enemies were real.
This White House behavior seems to stem from Ms. NannyState on steroids. NannyState has gone beyond just caring for and protecting us immature and helpless citizens; she's now assembling lists of those who disagree with her opinions, and she's asking all the "good" citizens to help her. Of course, it's all for our own good, because NannyState always is right.
August 5, 2009, 5:03 pmBill:
Perhaps Obama could formalize this policy by pushing for the resurrection of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
August 5, 2009, 5:29 pmChris:
I wonder if liberals ever think to themselves, "We've got a popular, likeable president and we have the press completely doing our bidding, and we still can't convince the public. Maybe our policies are just bad." Nah. But they should.
August 5, 2009, 7:01 pmMichael:
Romney care is Obama care. 75% of the people in Mass. consider it to have failed. 38% feel the quality of health care has declined and cost are rising fast. And this program went in to place in 2006. Too many people even on the left know first hand that federal health care isn't going to work.
As for our friends in California, they saw Hawaii's universal health care collapse in six months. As coyote has said in the past. People weren't forced in to public housing. But with health care, everyone is going to have to live in that house.
August 5, 2009, 10:41 pm