Public Discourse

As a life long liberal the on-going debate about health care has been frustrating.
Anyone who knows me know I love a good debate.
And I try to be straight with my facts.

And I find it incredibly frustrating when the people I am debating don't seem to care about facts or truth.

As an pundit inside the beltway will tell you, support for health care reform and for a public option has dropped.
And it has. But why??
Not because the opponents have many facts, but because the insist on lying and then when their first lie is disproven moving on to a new lie.

Death Panels
The VA manual that supposedly supports suicide or euthanasia
Now Rush is claiming that the new bill mandates circumscision
And it will ration health care
And the public option will put all the private insurance companies out of business
And health care reform will strip so much money away from Medicare that seniors will be denied care

And those are just the ones that come to mind now.

But real debate is being drowned out by lies
By lies shouted out by angry people in town halls who more interested in being disruptive and angry than in actually asking real questions and getting real answers.

There are lots of things in Health Care reform to debate
Tort Reform?
Philosophically, SHOULD the government compete with private industry?
Will a public option really help to constrain costs?
Will effectiveness studies really help to constrain costs and improve care?
Can we really significantly reduce the fraud and waste in the Medicare system?
Should small and mid-sized employers be required to provide Health Insurance for all their employees
Should we require all citizens and legal residents to have health insurance?

There are real issues to debate.

But the opponents of Health Care Reform don't really seem interested in debate.
They feel more comfortable in lies and shouting and disruption.

I find it all so frustrating