Wall Street Journal Commentary Pushes Lies About Obama Health Care Plan

Unfortunately, to the detriment of the American people, The Opinion Page of The Wall Street Journal continues to spread lies and feebly attempts to scare citizens about the horrors of a national health plan. This time the plan of attack employs Canadian Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, a well funded right wing think tank. Her task is to talk down to the millions of Americans who are depending on Obama and his team to deliver health care legislation into law. Ms. Pipes claims clairvoyant powers by declaring: "we can predict both the strategy and substance of the new administration's health-care reform." This line of false prognostication attempts to charge that Obama intends to "ration" health - not true. She then retreats to the old canard that: "Americans can expect a quick, hard push to build more federal bureaucracy, impose price controls, restrict medicines and technology, boost taxes, mandate the purchase of health insurance, and expand government health care." Instead of discussing her charges in depth she decides to proceed with ad hominem assaults on Mr. Obama and the soon-to-be secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle. Still determined to charge that health care will be rationed but providing no proof for such an absurd charge, Ms. Pipes wallows through the standard right wing attack on Medicare and Medicaid. Then, showing how desperate the right wing is to stop national health care, she proceeds to assault the Massachusetts plan that had been created by Republican governor, Mitt Romney. I guess Ms. Pipes has no problem vilifying a former Republican candidate for president who touted his Massachusetts plan as a model for America. With her ammunition running low, Ms. Pipes charges that: "Mr. Daschle and the Democrats have spent years developing both the policy and political strategy to make the final push for taxpayer-financed universal health insurance. They have the players on the field, a crisis providing a sense of urgency, and a playbook filled with lessons learned from years of health policy reform disasters -- most recently that of HillaryCare in 1994." I guess the temptation to attack Hillary Clinton was too much for Ms. Pipes to neglect. Ms. Pipes ends on a note of sanity though, when she admits: "With employers and most insurers reportedly on board with the new administration's desire for radical overhaul, who will step in to ask the tough questions? Will these issues get raised in time to provoke a meaningful, fact-based debate?" Ms. Pipes is correct, there is overwhelming support for health care reform among employers, insurers and everyday people and there is a need for strict attention to the details of the plan. My hope is for a coalescence of support for quickly moving, constructive discussions to proceed that result in the creation of a world class health care plan for all Americans that avoids the fear tactics and ad hominem attacks of charlatans such as Ms. Pipes.