Journalist Calls Out GOP Lies on Health Care Reform

Steven Pearlstein, business columnist for The Washington Post, had an amazing article last Friday, where he called out the Republicans for poisoning the debate in this country on health care reform.

The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.

Instead of bringing up any legitimate concerns about the proposed plans, Republicans have instead chosen to dive straight into the over-the-top fear mongering. Whether it is Newt Gingrich siding with Palin and her imaginary "death panels," or John Boehner suggesting that a public option "may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia."

Pearlstein continues:

Can there be anyone more two-faced than the Republican leaders who in one breath rail against the evils of government-run health care and in another propose a government-subsidized high-risk pool for people with chronic illness, government-subsidized community health centers for the uninsured, and opening up Medicare to people at age 55?

Only in the mind of a Republican could this argument make any sense. Unfortunately for the Republicans, the satirist Andy Borowitz may have provided the most coherent argument so far against the Democratic health care plan. His argument is expertly summed up when he fake-quotes RNC chair Michael Steel:

"The Obama health care plan will cost billions upon billions to lie about," said GOP chairman Michael Steele. "The question is, shouldn't we be spending this money to lie about something else, like his judicial appointees?"