Battle of the Bilge

Unfortunately, the Battle of the Bilge is taking a short time off this week due to a very busy MSC schedule, but we continue to receive many versions of an email related to the health care reform bill and would like to refer you to the PolitiFact’s analysis of the merits of the email, which can be found here.

The Email

Dear Friends:

We thought this e mail of some Gems from the Health Care Bill would be of great interest to you. At the very bottom is an article is a video which details the following: On Page 425 of Obama’s health care bill, the Federal Government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session every 5 years with the objective being that they will explain to them just how to end their own life earlier. Yes…They are going to push SUICIDE to cut medicare spending!!! Also, planned denial of medical care for seniors.

*Little gems from the Health Care Bill*
*(Urgent–Seniors see page 425 to 429)

Page 16: States that if you have insurance at the time of the bill becoming law and change, you will be required to take a similar plan. If that is not available, you will be required to take the government option!

Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!

Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!

Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)

Page 42: The “Health Choices Commissioner” will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.

Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.

Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.

Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.

Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (example: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)

Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.

Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)

Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens

Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.

…And so on…

The Most Outrageous of the Claims

While some items are generally true, most are either misleading or fabrications. The most commented on part of the email, predictably, is ‘Page 50′ – ‘All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services’. PolitiFact rates this one a ‘Pants on Fire’:

Page 50, which the e-mail references, is part of Section 152, which includes a generic nondiscrimination clause saying that insurers may not discriminate with regard to “personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services.”

The section says nothing about “non-US citizens” or immigrants, legal or otherwise. In fact, the legislation specifically states that “undocumented aliens” will not be eligible for credits to help them buy health insurance, in Section 246 on page 143.

The bottom line here is the e-mail is making things up. The bill does not say anything close to “All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free health care services.” We rate this chain e-mail statement Pants on Fire!

We’ll Be Back

We’ll return to our own analysis just as soon as possible, and have a few items we’re working on for next week. Sorry for the brief absence.

We present the most annoying, befuddling or just plain strange stories of the week.

On to the ‘honor roll’ (sources are linked in the headlines)…

#5 – Misleading Headline – ‘Military Officials Urge Action on Climate Change’

Just by reading the headline, I expected to find a story about the Pentagon joining up with Al Gore. But the story was a bit different. The ‘military officials’ the story refers to are a group of 11 retired officers called the Military Advisory Board, from the Center for Naval Analysis, a non profit association. The article states that currently active military personnel are reluctant to speak on such issues due to career concerns, but climate change is a military issue. From covering the destruction brought on by increased weather related disasters via the National Guard and the influx of immigrants from devastating droughts, if trends continue, the military will be right on the front line.

#4 – Sarah Palin Invokes Soldiers when Scolding Media for ‘Making Stuff Up’

In possibly the strangest gubernatorial hand-off speech in history, Sarah Palin led off her last chat as the governor of Alaska by attacking the media:

“You represent what could and should be a respected, honest profession, that could and should be a cornerstone of our democracy. Democracy depends on you, and that is why our troops are willing to die for you. So how about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up?”

Speechless.

#3 – Veto Threat on NDAA Over Weapons Programs

The Pentagon had stated that they did not need the weapons systems (including the badass yet not currently necessary given world events F-22), but lawmakers want them. A threat from the White House of a veto if the programs are included in the bill. As usual, politics and money rule the day..

About half of the $2.75 billion will be earmarked to private firms whose political action committees donated $789,190 to House appropriations subcommittee members on defense in the past 2 1/2 years, according to Taxpayers For Common Sense.

I have an idea, let’s keep the money and fully fund concurrent receipt, fix the SBP/DIC offset, and improve TRICARE.

#2 – NGOs Criticize NATO Military Tactics in Afghanistan

There’s nothing particularly striking in terms of bilgeness in this article, but it highlights the competing interests between military and civilian contract work. The headline picks out the most provocative issue and makes that the draw for the web crawlers. The recent change of military tactics from hard to soft tactics (fighting primarily without heavy air support) has lessened the civilian casualty rate and made the Halmud offensive successful to date. A quote from the article:

” I don’t really care what you’re talking about when you start talking about hearts and minds. They aren’t won with a pen or a schoolbag,” she said. “They’re won by not killing civilians and they’re won by being here for the long haul and doing the job properly.”

Which is exactly what the military has been trying to do. Counter insurgency is a tricky business, and often local exaggerations of civilian casualties result in propaganda points. The job the military is doing in Afghanistan is extraordinary, highlighting that would have been a nice balance to the article.

#1 – Leaked Report From Colonel Reese in Iraq Say’s the US Should Declare Victory and Leave

I have no evidence to believe the text of the letter, which is attributed to Col. Timothy R. Reese, Chief, Baghdad Operations Command Advisory Team, MND-B, Baghdad, Iraq by the New York Times, is not authentic. It is just a little too impressive and well thought out to be the product of one memo and not either a combination of multiple sources or a highly ‘enhanced’ memo. History shows that these types of stories turn out to contain some inaccuracies. You can read the entire text of the memo here.

Add your voice

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