All we have to fear....is the politics of fear

Today president Obama went on Television to bang the drum and keep up the cadence for his "quick pass this now" health care reforms. Just like the beat of a drum, he stayed on message with the same rhetoric.

1.

We have a system that works better for drug companies and insurers than it does for patients.

2.

We must change our health care system now, or it will never change.

3.

unless we pass these reforms, the American people will be spending more and more money for less and less health care.

(quotes are para phrased from the notes I took during the speech)

Wow! pretty bleak and dire! A couple of days ago (Fear and Loathing of Lost Wages) I tried to explain this paradox of using the bully-pulpit to scare the shit out of people and then in the next sentence accuse all the critics and any doubters of fear mongering. "Pandering to the politics of fear" I believe is the phrase he likes to use. But, here again, we see Obama bludgeoning the press with a chicken little 'sky is falling' and 'we must do something now' message.

Until the president comes out and explains in great detail how these reforms could never slide into health care rationing, and lays out the mechanisms put in place to insure that health care rationing never happens, this march to socialized medicine will slow to a stagger.

One of the more poignagnt quips was when Obama said

"so that kids can get the care they need, when they need it"

Cute children, and fuzzy bunnies. How can anyone say no to that? The reality is that the American public wants to be reassured that their kids, and their families can get "the care they need when they need it".