Sunday, August 01, 2010

Selling "Health Care Reform"

I think this is just hilarious. “Feds run cable TV ad touting health care law.” Really, if the “health care reform” was really and truly the most stunningly reformative piece of legislation in several generations, why in the hell is the government having to run advertisements to convince people that the damned thing even exists at all?

Things that are truly reformative, things which create “fundamental change,” are readily visible without advertisements telling people about them.

This “fundamental reform” changed things, for instance, by issuing a $250 check to resolve a $3,600 “hole” in the Medicare prescription medication plan. That’s really “fundamental” isn’t it; eliminating 6.9% of the cost that seniors pay for medications. When a senior is going without food in July to pay for medications, it’s pretty hard to remember that silly $250 check he got back in April.

Whether Medicare Part D is a good idea or not is beside the point, and no doubt 7% is better than nothing, but to call that "fundamental reform" is idiotic demagoguery of the worst sort, and it is small wonder that the federal government is having to run ads in an attempt to convince people that health care in this nation has undergone any kind of significant change.

Besides which, did not the Bush Administration come under heavy fire from progressives for spending federal funds on what amounted to propaganda? Something about it being against the law for the government to engage in propaganda? I guess, like many other things, it's okay if it's Obama doing it.

1 comment:

  1. And a lot of the benefits don't take effect for years. But please, feel free to vote for us now... Um, no, thank you.

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