E. J. Dionne: Health Care and the New Civility

[babylonsister]

Health Care and the New Civility

Posted on Jan 16, 2011

By E.J. Dionne, Jr.


President Obama’s call for “a more civil and honest public discourse” will get its first test much sooner than we expected.

snip//

May I suggest in the warmest way possible that it would be an excellent start to a new era if opponents of the law would acknowledge that at no point did any version of the proposed reform include “death panels”?

The sensible idea on which this incendiary phrase was falsely based once had Republican as well as Democratic support and sought only to make it possible for those with life-threatening illnesses to get good information from their doctors—if patients wanted it—on the various treatment paths open to them. Really, nothing in the health care debate was more destructive to honest discussion than the “death panels” charge. Can we at least put that behind us?

As The Washington Post reported, the Republicans plan to argue “that Obama’s health-care promises—including that the legislation would lower insurance costs and help spur job creation—have not materialized.” Could they at least acknowledge that the law isn’t even fully in effect yet?

And perhaps they should explain why it’s fair to hold the 10-month-old health care law to this standard while they insist at the same time on continuing the Bush tax cuts, which, after a decade, still haven’t produced the jobs they were supposed to create. Please note that I could have described the impact of the Bush tax cuts less charitably.

It would also be hugely helpful if the Republicans began to detail what they would put in place of the existing law, and how their ideas would expand coverage, hold down costs and contain the long-term deficit. Constructive alternatives are essential to productive debate.

The president declared that we can all use “a good dose of humility.” Absolutely. In that spirit, the Republican leadership could graciously change its mind on the rules governing consideration of this bill and allow some amendments to be voted on.

more...

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/health_care_and_the_new_civility_20110116/

[rfranklin]

1. You might as well ask a dog to be a cat...

It's an impossibility for the Republicans to stop the incendiary language. It is at the core of their political strategy--stir up the weak-minded and perpetually put upon (in their minds) to hate liberals and blacks and hispanics and the gays. It creates their voter base and distracts from the men behind the curtain--the Koch brothers and their allies.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Totally unfair to require Republicans to tell the truth.

That would completely disarm them.