Battle of the Bilge

Please Note: The commentary in this article is not necessarily the position of MOAA, except where specified near the bottom.

‘Three minutes thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.’ – A.E. Houseman

Update

After Palin’s statements detailed below and the public outcry that followed, she has done a complete about face and is now calling for ‘civil’ discussions on the subject.

Her statement according to MSNBC, from today:

Palin now says there are many disturbing details in the bill. But she says people must stick to discussion of the issues “and not get sidetracked by tactics that can be accused of leading to intimidation or harassment.”

Amazing. A weekend of facepalms can have a strong affect on our political outlooks.

From August 8th

Wait, what?

Yesterday, the world was treated to an exceptionally uninformed statement via Sarah Palin’s facebook page:

Segment from Sarah Palin’s Statement on Health Care Debate
The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

For the entire statement, go here.

We’ve scoured the health care proposals and nothing contains mention of ‘Obama’s death panel’, or even a remote euphemistic example. One proposal (and remember that this process is a long one and there is nothing close to a consensus on what the final reform bill will contain) that might be the basis for her claim that the reform is ‘evil’ and would result in bureaucrats deciding who would live or die based on ‘level of productivity in society’ is the proposed ‘Health Care Commission’ that would evaluate public and private options to ensure consumers are getting the proper benefits and coverage for the price they are paying. To help describe the proposal, Politifact enlisted Jennifer Tolbert, an independent analyst from the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, who said “This is designed to protect consumers from plans that have outrageous cost-sharing or really limited benefits”.

Regardless of where the former governor received her misinformation, this type of language is dangerous and extraordinarily non-productive. When your base of followers interprets the concept of evil as a tangible enemy, it only adds to the possibility of violence.

Town Hall Disruptions, Violence

All across the nation this month, as Congress is in recess and representatives and senators head home for vacation, the plan on both sides of the aisle was to hold town hall meetings on health care reform. The intent of each member of Congress was to discuss the virtues and problems with the multiple competing bills that will eventually converge to form the health care reform program. But other people had different plans. There have already been disruptions of speeches, threats against elected officials and physical altercations at several forums.

Part of these disruptions are, I can only assume, from well intentioned and passionate people that may be misinformed about what health care reform is (like anyone receiving the email outlined here) actually going to look like. But there is evidence that these disruptions are being organized and whipped up by partisan forces. FreedomWorks, an organization that was also heavily behind the ‘tea parties’ movement, had an internal memo leaked (pdf format) which showed how much of an effort was being made to disrupt the meetings.

Following a list of instructions on how protestors can meet up and how they should proceed to the town hall meetings, the memo outlines what they should do at the event:

Inside the Hall
Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with our questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington. They need to leave the hall with some doubts about their agenda. The other objective is to illustrate for the balance of the audience that the national leadership is acting against our founders’ principles which are on the other side of the debate – and show them that there are a lot of solid citizens in the district who oppose the socialist approach to the nation’s challenges. We want the independent thinkers to leave the hall with doubts about the Democrat solutions continually proposed by the national leadership.

You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early. If he blames Bush for something or offers other excuses — call him on it, yell back and have someone else follow-up with a shout-out. Don’t carry on and make a scene – just short intermittent shout outs. The purpose is to make him uneasy early on and set
the tone for the hall as clearly informal, and free-wheeling. It will also embolden others who agree with us to call out and challenge with tough questions. The goal is to rattle him and get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions.

When the formal Q&A session begins get all your hands up and keep up – be persistent through the entire session. Keep body language neutral and positive to improve chances of being selected. When called on, ask a specific prepared question that puts the onus on him to answer. It can be a long question including lots of statistics/facts. You will not be interrupted from readin a solid question. If you ramble on too long without a focus, you will be stopped. After the Rep answers, or more likely diverts or dodges, be prepared with a follow-up – take the initiative and you will be able to follow-up. The balance of the group should applaud when the question is asked, further putting the Rep on the defensive. If the Rep tries a particularly odious diversion, someone from the group should yell out to answer the question. These tactics will Clearly rattle the Rep and illustrate some degree of his ineptness to the balance of the audience.

Note: Emphasis added

The point of town meetings is to discuss issues and for reps to get the true feelings from their constituents on major issues. Attempting to coordinate a disruption of this process is an attempt to undermine representative democracy, an ironic twist to an already strange situation. But the question keeps coming up – why? What is FreedomWorks connection (besides being a right wing group opposed to President Obama)? ThinkProgress has a disturbing peace on the corporate lobbyist ties to all of this that can be viewed here.

What This Means for TRICARE, VA, TFL and Medicare

As I’ve stated before, for true non-partisan, realistic and experienced analysis of legislative issues, look no further than MOAA’s Government Relations department. The President has given assurances that whatever the bill ends up as, TRICARE and VA funding/benefits will be protected. This week’s Legislative Update goes in to the subject of health care reform in depth and explains the process well.

The seasoned Government Relations team also provides a ‘bottom line’ for members of the military:

• Congress is not going to “kill Medicare” or “kill TFL”
• Seniors are the most powerful voting bloc in America, and legislators aren’t going to flagrantly disregard their interests
• Many things in the health care reform legislation are positive for Medicare/TRICARE beneficiaries and seek reasonable cost constraints that minimize impact on beneficiaries
• There also are some things that cause justifiable concern, such as (a) the risk of putting significant power in the hands of a commission or set of administrators who would be empowered to take action that might or might not be draconian at some point in the future, (b) the potential for extending means-tested premiums ever-further down the income scale, and (c) using some Medicare savings to fund universal health care, but applying cost-constraint “hammers” (e.g., a future commission) only to Medicare
• There’s no denying that something has to be done to constrain Medicare cost growth, as the alternative (much higher taxes) won’t fly, and that will almost certainly necessitate some “lesser of the evils” choices
• There’s no free lunch, especially coming into a new decade in which the country faces massive economic challenges and rising deficits. If something isn’t done now, the task will only get tougher later
• Part of the challenge to understanding is that some in both parties and their supporters use rhetoric aimed more at scoring political points than providing factual perspectives
• MOAA will keep vigilant to protect members’ legitimate interests, and MOAA members need to respond with grassroots action when those interests come under attack

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