Washington Feels the Wrath of Pro-Life
Voters
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs stood squirming on NBC’s Today
Show, as NBC anchor Matt Lauer posed uncomfortable questions about
Obama’s plan for national health care. Lauer wanted to know why
proponents of Obamacare were met by angry, boo-hiss crowds everywhere
they went, instead of by the grateful masses that the White House had
expected.
Gibbs blustered that these were rent-a-mobs, conjured up by angry
conservative talk-show hosts and Republican activists.
Lauer would have none of it. “Isn't that underestimating what
you're
hearing?” he asked. “I mean there are some people who say, yeah,
these
people who are getting up and shouting do not represent any grassroots
movement. They call them ‘astroturf.’ But don't they give voice,
and
maybe even in an inappropriate way, to some real concerns out there?”
Gibbs babbled some more, trying to make the rent-a-mob line stick, but
to no avail. He had no real answer for Lauer.
When even a news-lite anchor like Matt Lauer comes across like a
hard-hitting journalist, the administration is clearly in serious
trouble.
As I sat and watched that segment, I felt a glow of pride. Up to
the
beginning of August, there was virtually no media talk on this
issue.
Instead, the news media seemed obsessed with the sensational death of a
certain pop icon and a certain Puerto Rican Supreme Court
nominee. The
proposed new health care system received scant attention. The
media
didn’t seem to realize—or care—that these changes would fundamentally
change the kind of health care that Americans received, would mandate
federally-funded abortion, and would ration care to the elderly.
Then a massive coalition of highly active pro-life groups including
PRI, called Stop the Abortion Mandate (www.stoptheabortionmandate.com),
swung into action. Led by Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of
America, Stop the Abortion Mandate has led a PR blitz that has helped
make Obamacare so astronomically un-cool.
By mobilizing their bases, pro-life and other grassroots groups have
almost overnight made this into the biggest issue of the year. We
have
shown the administration that, when it comes to the life issues,
America still cares deeply. The results are already evident. This
bill
that would otherwise have waltzed through Congress and landed, on
schedule, on the President’s desk, has become a political
liability.
We—all of us—have turned Obamacare into a political
albatross.
Still, while these developments have bought us time, they have not won
us a clear victory. Instead of backing away from Obamacare, we
find
Robert Gibbs insisting that the president will not pass “health-care
reform ‘lite,’” And we find White House officials, including the
President himself, resorting to a strategy of evasion and deception
that is truly alarming. Rather than meeting real concerns with
factual
answers, the administration scoffs at our fears, and lies about the
bill’s dangers. This needs to stop.
For instance, during a press conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, the
president ridiculed those who compared his plan to the Canadian system,
joking that he didn’t “find Canadians particularly scary.”
Laughingly,
he accused “some of the opponents of reform” of thinking that “they
make a good bogeyman.”
We in the pro-life movement don’t find Canadians particularly scary,
either. But Canadian health care, on the other hand, with its
deadly
rationing and abortions, is a frightening prospect to those of us who
believe in the sanctity of life.
The President also falsely claimed that the AARP had endorsed his plan,
hoping that this would put to rest the fears of seniors that they would
be targeted in an effort to cut costs. The seniors’ organization
shot
back with a statement making it clear that “while the President was
correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would
reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the
major health care reform bills currently under consideration in
Congress are inaccurate.” The White House later admitted that the
President had “misspoken,” which is the same weasel word that Clinton
resorted to when he was caught in a lie.
At this town hall, Obama smilingly insisted that he does not want to
“pull the plug on Grandma,” as if this were something that Americans
could simply take for granted. The trouble is, we honestly
cannot.
One has only to look as far as the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’
end-of-life planning document, entitled "Your Life, Your
Choices."
Nicknamed the “death book,” this document discusses various scenarios
in which patients lives would no longer be “worth living,” ranging from
not being able to "shake the blues,” to being an undue “financial
burden” on the family. Small wonder that, upon review, the
document
was suspended under the Bush administration. That it has found
its way
back to use under the current President is, we believe, sufficient
cause for suspicion.
Obamacare proponents have also continued to throw blame at enemies real
and imaginary, including insurance companies, “blue dog” Democrats,
underground Republican cabals, and, of all things, the media.
They
have done everything and anything but actually meet our arguments
against Obamacare head-on.
To us, this looks—to borrow the President’s own
terminology—“fishy.”
This is why we refuse to take seriously the suggestion that the
President, as well as top officials like Kathleen Sebelius, are
wavering in their commitment to the “public option,” that is, to
socialized medicine where the government calls all the shots. It
is
also why we believe that “health care cooperatives” are just Obamacare
by another name. If the government sets the rules, and pays the
costs,
then such “cooperatives” are just another name for government-run
healthcare. Now, if the government would give tax credits to such
cooperatives, and step aside while people banded together to reduce
costs and provide for their own health care, it would be a different
matter.
With all of its backing and filling, the administration seems to forget
that the health care bill is available in its entirety online. We
in
the pro-life movement have read it, and we don’t like it. We have real
questions; we need real answers. Instead, we get evasion and
secrecy.
Obama needs to drop this bill like a bad habit, if he places any value
on health care that respects the sanctity of life, or even on his own
political career. As a result of the solid, continuing effort put
forward by so many pro-life groups, he just might.
Keep up the good work.
Contact: Colin Mason and Steven
Mosher
Source: Population
Research Institute
Publish
Date: August 25, 2009
Link
to this article.
Send
this article to a friend.
The IFRL is the largest grassroots pro-life organization in
Illinois. A non-profit organization, that serves as the state
coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
society. The IFRL is composed of people of different political
persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
dedicated to restoring the right to life to the unborn, and protection
for the disabled and the elderly. Click here to learn more about the IFRL.
|