Pataki Misleads On Life Expectancy Gap

Former Governor George Pataki was on MSNBC today railing against health care reform. He mentioned that in Great Britain the life expectancy of the poorest folks is a decade less than the life expectancy of the richest folks. The first thing I noticed, he never mentioned the US stat. And David Shuster let him go, without asking him if he even knows what the US stat is.

Well, we looked into it. First off, he was wrong about the Great Britain fact. The gap is not a decade, it is seven years. He was only three years off, but that happens to be a margin of error of 30%.

So let us look at the US figures. In the last few decades, the life expectancy gap between the rich and poor has skyrocketed from 1.2 years in the early 70's to 5.8 years in 2001.

What pissed me off more than anything else about Gov Pataki's interview is that David Shuster just let him get up their and spout his views without any real push back. Is it too much to ask that he give a tough question? When someone claims a stat about Great Britain is an argument against health care reform, is it too much to ask that he or she also know the US figure?

Update: Unvanguard commented over at Democratic Underground:

The article the author points to in the British case reads: "The review says health inequalilties have not narrowed over the past decade, with the gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods standing at seven years." But the US graph refers to the difference between people in the top half of the income distribution and people in the bottom half. These numbers are not comparable. The comparable US figure is almost certainly higher than 5.8.

Operation Rescue's President Cannot Explain How Health Care Bill Funds Abortion

(Footage purchased from Sam Sumner)

As you may be aware, this weekend (tomorrow to be exact) marks the 37th anniversary of the passage of Roe v Wade, the supreme court decision that effectively legalized abortion nationwide. We have been working on a documentary about clinic escorts for some time now (tomorrow we will be making a big announcement about the film, sign up for our emails and you will be one of first to hear about it), so this weekend is a big chance for us to get some footage.

When I got back home from volunteering at the clinic, I saw an email from Operation Rescue announcing a press conference at the White House today. Luckily, I was able to track down a freelance videographer who sold us some great exclusive footage of Operation Rescue's President, Troy Newman, failing several times to name a single part of the current health care bills that allows for federal funding of abortion (although he knows for a fact it does, he just cannot tell you how):



We took a little extra time to write up a transcript for the video-impaired among us:

SUMNER: Can you just give us a brief summary of what it is in this bill that allows for federal funding for abortion?

NEWMAN: Well, you know, nobody's really read the bill. And that's the ironic thing, you know, Obama has said that he's going to make this available, it's gonna be on C-SPAN, but nothing could be further from the truth. The bill that was brought through the house was radically changed by the time it was voted on. The bill that was running its way through the Senate and a lot of us had read was radically changed behind closed doors, so nobody really knows. One thing we do know, is that it contains abortion funding. In fact, I have been calling this health care system, this Obamacare, right from the very beginning, nothing more than an abortion clinic bail out fund. It's all about abortion, it's all about eugenics. And one need only look at the history of abortion and eugenics to know that that's absolutely true. The people that are sitting in the White House today the people that are running congress, despise people of what they would consider to be lower means. It's a detailed eugenic program that they're trying to impress upon the American people.

(Note from Sam: "I have to admit, at this point I was a little caught off guard. I hear whacko things all the time, but does this dude seriously believe the Obama's want to kill poor people? I quickly gathered myself, let it go, and continued pressing for an answer, how does this bill fund abortion?")

SUMNER: Okay. When we were speaking to some of the escorts earlier, they said that this bill does not allow for federal funding. I mean, what do you say to that?

NEWMAN: Have they read the bill? The parts I read detail it explicitly.

SUMNER: I don't know if they have read the bill. But can you explain what parts in the bill actually allow for the federal funding then?

NEWMAN: Well, you know, again, the bill has not even been made public, that has been the huge problem in this. But let's take for instance, a hypothetical...

SUMNER: Aren't both the bills available online though?

NEWMAN: ...If you look at a hypothetical situation that, that this bill would not contain abortion funding, there's already been a huge push to call abortion health care. And so it would just be a stroke of the bureaucratic pen to make sure that abortion is included in this health care bill. So any sort of revamp of health care that includes a government option of funding, it will include government funding of abortion. We already have government funding for abortion in every single state through medicare.

SUMNER: But the bills are available online. Do you know what parts in the bill actually allow for federal funding?

NEWMAN: I don't have the bill, the bill's 2,000 pages long.

SUMNER: So you haven't read it?

NEWMAN: I have read portions of it, and it does detail that... both the house bill did before the Stupak amendment, and the Senate bill did, the parts I read. But again, this has been revamped, it's been rewritten and it is not available right now."

There you have it: "One thing we do know, is that it contains abortion funding..." although... "the bill has not even been made public..." although... "I have read portions of it" although... "the bill has not even been made public."

So this super-secret bill that hasn't been made public absolutely funds abortion and he knows it because he has read the super-secret bill that hasn't been made public but is an attempt to kill poor people.

What Conservatives are Really Afraid of (hint: not death panels)

We have all heard conservatives tell us how afraid they are of death panels, end of life care, rationing... etc, etc. They scream about how horrible the public option would be, how babies will be put down, and old people will be told to take their own lives. And we progressives sit here and question, "How the hell could anyone ever, ever, ever, ever possibly believe this horse crap?" They do not. Conservatives are not afraid that there will be death panels. They are not afraid of the government getting involved with health care. They simply are not afraid that the public option will fail. They are afraid that it will work.

They are afraid that a strong plan to reform our broken health care system will be my generation's social security. They are afraid of what that means politically. But, why, you ask? Let us take a look at the political landscape real quick. The Republicans are coming off of major electoral loses, on the back of what was possibly the greatest failure of leadership in our country's history. Conservative "solutions" (if you can call them that) have been tested and proven to be disastrous. A new President, a Democrat, and mixed race too, won by huge margins specifically running to change, chart a new direction away from the conservative principals that so failed us. This new President entered the White House with the blessings of a large majority of Americans, and has retained an above average approval rating. This new President has reversed major policy decisions, such as torture and stem cell research. This new President has taken action to address the conservative-caused economic disaster and managed to avoid a depression. This new President has helped the auto industry to avoid utter collapse. This new President instituted a cash for clunkers program that was a success, saving thousands of jobs. (But the number 1 bought car was a Toyota, you cry? Well, what is less talked about is that the number 2 bought car was the Ford Focus) This new President is succeeding, and all the while in direct response to the failures of conservative leadership.

What the conservatives fear most right now, is a health care victory. As I stated before (and I was nowhere close to the first to do so), health care has the potential to be our Social Security. Social Security is, not only a huge success, but a disaster of a campaign issue for conservatives. Running against Social Security is a sure fire way to win an early retirement. And health care takes us to a whole new level.

Millions of Americans, uninsured and under-insured, are relying on us to pass these reforms, and will remember it well if we do. Millions of Americans that run the gambit. Poor, rich, young, old, inner city, rural... etc. Millions of voters, and millions of disenfranchised or uninspired. Millions of people that, after directly benefiting from a drastically improved health care system, will likely vote to keep it that way. And that is what conservatives so deeply fear. They fear the building of a massive constituency that, for once, can say "My government helped me." They deeply fear that. There is one thing they do not fear: the last time the Democrats failed on health care reform, the party lost for a decade straight.

A Couple Health Care Myths to Look Out For

So there are tons of myths, and flat out lies, floating around about the health care bill. I will try to run through a few of them for you. (You will notice that I actually put a link to the bill so you can check for yourself, unlike most people that are criticizing it)

Myth 1: Page 16 outlaws private insurance.

Truth: Page 16 details how regulations on private insurance will take effect. These regulations relate to affordable coverage, essential benefits, and consumer protection. In other words, these are the same regulations that President Obama campaigned on and Americans voted for. Page 16 states that these regulations shall not apply to current plans, there is a 5 year grandfather clause, but that they do apply to future plans.

Myth 2: Page 416 forces end of life care on seniors every five years.

Truth: This is a complete and utter lie. First off, page 416 does not say a single thing about "end of life" care. It's page 425-426 that does. But when you actually read it, it does not sound so ridiculous. It does not mandate that they receive end of life care every five years, it says that if it has been more than five years since the last time they received "advance care consultation" than they shall on their next visit. And it is definitely not euthanasia, as the right is most certainly attempting to imply. It is not like a doctor kicks your door down after five years and demands that you get the consultation, but that it will be provided on the next regular check up. And this is to prevent situations like Terry Schiavo that can rip families apart.