Sarah Palin weighed in on health care reform last week by accusing the Obama administration of wanting to kill her parents and her baby. So, what do other conservatives have to say about Palin’s thoughtful addition to the health care debate?
Newt Gingrich and Howard Dean went at it on health care this morning on This Week. Especially over Sarah Palin’s claim that Obama’s health care plan will create “death panels” that would encourage euthanasia.
“Communal standards historically is a very dangerous concept,” Gingrich told me.
“You are asking us to trust turning power over to the government, when there are clearly people in American who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.”
I’d say that’s a second vote for death panels (Palin is vote #1). What do other conservatives say?
On “Meet the Press” this morning, David Brooks called Palin’s attack “crazy,” adding that “the crazies are attacking the plan because it will cut off granny. That is simply not true, that simply is not going to happen.”
Similarly, Rep. Jack Kingston (R) of Georgia, who no one has ever considered a moderate, told Bill Maher there’s nothing to Palin’s attack. “It’s a scare tactic,” Kingston said. “No question about it.”
How about Republican Representative Bob Inglis?
As we told you earlier, Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) was viciously booed at a town hall Thursday for telling the audience to turn off Glenn Beck.
Now, Inglis is pretty right-wing, and opposes the president’s health care reform plans. But, as he told local blogger Jason Spencer after the town hall, he finds Beck — a pretty strong voice for conservatives these days — a fear-monger.
I don’t listen often to Glenn Beck, but when I have, I’ve come away just so disappointed with the negativity… the ‘We’ve just gone to pot as a country,’ and ‘All is lost’ and ‘There is no hope.’ It’s not consistent with the America that I know. The America I know was founded by people who took tiny boats across a big ocean, and pushed west in tiny wagons, and landed on the moon.
The America that Glenn Beck seems to see is a place where we all should be fearful, thinking that our best days are behind us. It sure does sell soap, but it sure does a disservice to America.
That’s 3-2. Any other conservatives care to weigh in? What about you, former Bush speechwriter David “Axis of Evil” Frum?
The problem is that if we do that… we’ll still have the present healthcare system. Meaning that we’ll have (1) flat-lining wages, (2) exploding Medicaid and Medicare costs and thus immense pressure for future tax increases, (3) small businesses and self-employed individuals priced out of the insurance market, and (4) a lot of uninsured or underinsured people imposing costs on hospitals and local governments.
We’ll have entrenched and perpetuated some of the most irrational features of a hugely costly and under-performing system, at the expense of entrepreneurs and risk-takers, exactly the people the Republican party exists to champion.
Not a good outcome.
Even worse will be the way this fight is won: basically by convincing older Americans already covered by a government health program, Medicare, that Obama’s reform plans will reduce their coverage. In other words, we’ll have sent a powerful message to the entire political system to avoid at all hazards any tinkering with Medicare except to make it more generous for the already covered.
It sounds like mutiny in the ranks! These RINOs obviously must be purged from the party, stat!