Photo by Magnus Manske
Former Alaskan governor
Sarah Palin doesn’t seem to have as much common sense about what not to post
on Facebook as the average high school student. Last Friday, Palin published a
posting in which she described
a “death panel” set up by President Obama’s health care proposal that would
have the power to decide whether or not her elderly parents or her child with
Down Syndrome were “worthy of health care.” (She also, coincidentally, followed
up with a note in which she urged supporters not to “give the proponents of
nationalized health care any reason to criticize us.” Lead the way, Sarah!)
Unfortunately, as much
censure as Mrs. Palin has faced following her “death panel” comment, she’s not
the only American helping to spread perhaps misinformed rumors about the White
House’s proposed health care reform. In an effort to curb such rumors, the
Obama Administration has responded with a new website entitled “Health Insurance Reform Reality
Check,” which contains a series of videos addressing issues such as health
care “rationing,” Medicare, veterans’ access to health care services, and your
ability to keep your own policy.
The site isn't exactly a proactive explanation of the president's desired heath reform, as much as a defense against misunderstandings or the criticisms lobbed at it. Presumably, everyone's still reading the thousand-page bill before trying to explain it.
Whatever flaws that exist in the health care proposal and how it’s being presented to the American
public, President Obama’s supposed intention to “pull
the plug on grandma because we decided that it's too expensive to let her
live anymore” is not one of them.
The president’s tendency
to use dry humor to respond to backward accusations, on the other hand, may
continue to cause problems.