here's another 118 of them on the current Health Care debate: Limbaugh Lie #1: "this health care plan and the entire Obama agenda is frighteningly close to the National Socialism policies of Nazi Germany."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081909/content/01125109.guest.html) Obama's health care plan bears no resemblance to the policies of Nazi Germany, and their philosophy was fascism, not socialism.
Limbaugh Lie #2: "Look who is acting Nazi-like anyway? Who is it that's sending out thugs to beat people up at these meetings?...It's the Obama White House."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081909/content/01125109.guest.html) The Obama White House never sent out any "thugs to beat people up" at town hall meetings. Limbaugh Lie #3: "assigning doctors regionally, assigning them geographically. It went so far in Hillary's health care bill as to assign what specialty they would learn. Doctors were going to be totally controlled. And it would be no different in this health care bill if Obama and Reid and Pelosi and Waxman get what they want."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081409/content/01125111.guest.html) There is absolutely nothing in any of the health care proposals about "totally controlled" doctors who would be told where they can work and "what specialty they would learn." Limbaugh Lie #4: "No, there won't be a private doctor for you to go to."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_062409/content/01125110.guest.html) Absolutely nothing in the legislation bans private doctors. Limbaugh Lie #5: "this entire health care legislation is not even constitutional."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081409/content/01125104.guest.html) There is nothing even remotely unconstitutional about any of the health care reform proposals. Notably, Limbaugh doesn't even bother to say what specific legislation is unconstitutional, or what part of the Constitution is being violated; he simply believes that the government is not allowed to pass legislation dealing with health care, which is just insane. Limbaugh Lie #6: Quoting Bernie Sanders, who said, "'Does Barack Obama want to kill off the old people or the disabled?' That is insane," Limbaugh responded, "It's not insane. It's going to happen! It's going to happen."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081409/content/01125115.guest.html) Obama is not going to kill off old people and the disabled. Limbaugh Lie #7: "On page 16 of the House bill, it's right there, and you've heard people quote from it. I'm going to summarize it, page 16: private insurance will become illegal. Insurance companies cannot write new policies, people will lose their existing policy if they change jobs, if they change coverage, or if they change prices. Once any aspect of your private health insurance changes after this bill goes into effect, you can't renew it. You have to go public option."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_080409/content/01125111.guest.html) Limbaugh Lie #8: Limbaugh again referred on August 7, 2009 to "the provision on Page 16 of the bill that would force you out of your private insurance plan."(August 7, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #9: Limbaugh added on August 10, 2009, "you will lose your private insurance and your doctor. It's on page 16 in the House plan."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... None of this is true. Page 16 is an obscure clause for "grandfathered" health insurance plans that don't have to meet the new requirements (such as a ban on discrimination for preexisting conditions) because they're not enrolling new people or changing coverage. Private insurance will still be completely legal, contrary to Limbaugh's paranoid misreading of page 16. Limbaugh Lie #10: Limbaugh said, "Page 22 mandates audits of all employers that self-insure."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... No, it doesn't. Page 22 requires a "study" of how the health care reform will affect self-insuring employers. There is no audit forced on any business, and the word is never used. Limbaugh Lie #11: Limbaugh claimed, "It admits on page 29 that your health care will be rationed."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... No, in fact page 29 provides for payments of specified medical treatment "in accordance with generally accepted standards of medical or other appropriate clinical or professional practice" and "does not impose any annual or lifetime limit on the coverage of covered health care items and services." There is no rationing, and the ban on lifetime limits would end one current form of rationing by private health insurance. Limbaugh Lie #12: Limbaugh said, "Page 30: A government will decide what treatments and benefits you get, and unlike an insurer, there is... Well, there's an appeals process that you don't even want to mess with that."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh was wrong again. On page 30 there was the creation of a "Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced, and premium plans." This is no different from an insurance company developing standards for what their insurance covers. Limbaugh Lie #13: Limbaugh claimed, "On page 42, the health choices commissioner will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice."(August 4, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... The commissioner's job is to establish "qualified health benefits plan standards" like any other insurance plan. People would be free to select any plan with the health benefits they desire. Limabugh Lie #14: Limbaugh said, "Page 58: Every person will be issued a national ID health card."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Page 58 says the proposal "may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card."(http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3200ih. txt.pdf) There would be no national ID health card because people would have different health insurance plans, and because everyone gets an insurance ID card, the only difference under this bill would be the option to include a bar code to speed up authorization of medical services. Limbaugh Lie #15: Limbaugh asserted: "Page 59: The federal government will have direct real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... In reality, the bill refers to a requirement to "enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with the related health care payment and remittance advice."(http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3200i h.txt.pdf) Nowhere is the government given the power to steal money from individual bank accounts. This simply makes it easier for doctors to get paid more quickly for their work. Limbaugh Lie #16: Limbaugh claimed that the Obama health reform would result in "direct deposit access to every individual's bank account."(August 6, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... As a headline on Limbaugh's website put it, "Will Obamacare Access Your Bank Account Via Direct Deposit?" Limbaugh is a little unclear on the concept of direct deposit: it gives someone the power to deposit funds, not to withdraw them as Limbaugh alleged. Limbaugh Lie #17: Limbaugh said, "Page 239: The bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid, meaning there will be Medicaid cuts. The president is out there saying that there won't be."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Page 239 says nothing about Medicaid cuts.(http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3200ih.t xt.pdf) Limbaugh Lie #18: Limbaugh claimed, "Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment. Government dictates how your life ends."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Absolutely nothing on page 427 says that government will dictate how your life ends; in fact, it explicitly protects "enabling orders for life sustaining treatment." The provision allows for Medicare to pay for end-of-life counseling such as living wills. Nothing is compelled, and nothing is controversial about this provision.(http://mediamatters.org/research/200907310051) Limbaugh Lie #19: "I will be damned if it's going to be become federally mandated law that the government hires a bunch of counselors that has these death care -- as you call it, death care -- discussions, 'end-of-life discussions.'"(July 30, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #20: Limbaugh asserted, "That's what the counselors are preparing these people for: end of care, 'cause they're getting old and it isn't going to be worth of investment. It's right in the House bill! People to want try to deny all these things that are right there. People have read it. They're in the bill."(July 30, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Once again, Limbaugh was lying. There is nothing about hiring counselors in the House bill. There is nothing about imposing "end of care" in the House bill. Limbaugh can claim, "They're in the bill," but it's interesting that he never quotes anything in the bill itself. Limbaugh Lie #21: Limbaugh said, "Page 429: Advanced care planning consult will be used to dictate treatment as patients' health deteriorates. This can include an order for end-of-life plans. The order will be from the government."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Nothing on page 429 says that the government can order death. In fact, it requires that a doctor's order "effectively communicates the individuals preferences regarding life sustaining treatment."(http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h32 00ih.txt.pdf) Limbaugh Lie #22: When a woman at a town hall meeting told Sen. Arlen Specter that the House bill would let a 74-year-old man with cancer die without treatment, Limbaugh agreed: "she's reading from the bill. She's got it there, and he says it's a 'malicious rumor,' and it's not."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081109/content/01125108.guest.html) Limbaugh knows that this little dystopian fantasy isn't anywhere in the bill, but he doesn't care about the truth. Limbaugh Lie #23: On August 7, 2009, he falsely claimed that the power to "garnish your bank account" was found on page 435, and falsely asserted that "end-of-life" counseling was found on page 401.(August 7, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh didn't seem concerned about getting the page numbers wrong, and never corrected his error. It's doubtful that any of his listeners actually looked up any of his references. For Limbaugh, citing page numbers gives a false appearance of specificity, even when everything he says is inaccurate. Limbaugh Lie #24: Limbaugh declared, "there are people who are actually fearful that if they are Republicans they will be discriminated against in terms of health care because this is such an ideologically political administration that does have a bunch of enemies."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_062409/content/01125110.guest.html) The Obama Administration already directly provides health care to veterans, the elderly, the disabled, and the poor through various programs. And how many proven cases are there of anti-Republican discrimination in health care? None. Limbaugh Lie #25: According to Limbaugh, "You are going to get treatment based on how much some government agency or bureaucratic thinks you're worth. Who knows how that's going to be decided, the degree to which you have a sickness or an illness or a disease, your age, are you working or not, are you a drag on the system anyway? Did you vote for Obama?"(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_062409/content/01125110.guest.html) The notion that only Obama voters will receive adequate medical care is among Limbaugh's craziest conspiracy theories. Limbaugh Lie #26: According to Limbaugh, "The national coordinator of health information technology will monitor treatments that your doctor gives you to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost-effective."(Feb. 9, 2009) Nothing like this was proposed at all. The bill would have improved electronic medical records "to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care." Everything Limbaugh said about a national coordinator monitoring medical treatments and telling doctors what they can do was completely invented in Limbaughs twisted imagination. Limbaugh Lie #27: "this kind of fear that's arrived, invasion of privacy, they'll know everything about me. They're going to know that when they get your medical records digitized, which is going to be part of national health care under the guise of facilitating your care. But the purpose will actually be for them to know and to be able to blackmail you or use whatever information they have about you and your treatment."(June 18, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... The government already has the medical records of Medicare patients, soldiers, veterans, and many other Americans. There's never been a single case cited by Limbaugh of any government blackmail using these records. Limbaugh Lie #28: "What aspect of your private life aren't they going to be into? Well, I don't imagine they'll be in your bathroom. Not with cameras. They might be, who knows."(June 18, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh manages to spin an amazing, alarming tale of government bureaucrats videotaping Americans in their own bathrooms. Limbaugh Lie #29: Limbaugh declared, "national health care is the single biggest intervention in liberty this government could conceive. Because every aspect of your life can be regulated on the theory that it will control costs of health care."(June 8, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #30: According to Limbaugh, "If the Democrats get national health care, the concept of individual freedom and liberty will have been obliterated."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_060309/content/01125110.member.html, June 3, 2009) Limbaugh Lie #31: He told Sean Hannity, "if they get nationalized health care, they are going to be able to control every aspect of our lives because you get in a car the wrong way, it can impact health care costs. If you eat popcorn with coconut oil, it could impact health care costs. If they get that, then people have no idea the control over their lives the government will exert."("Rush Interviewed by Sean Hannity, Part Two," Fox News Channel, Recorded: June 3, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #32: Limbaugh added, "Think of virtually any activity you engage in with your kids that might put them at risk. You take them outside and play. You drive on a snowy road without chains. You fly in an airplane. Anything that could risk injury, which is practically everything you do, could be regulated or taxed because of the impact your behavior will have on the cost of health care. After that takes place, the actual quality of health care we all get is going to hit the sewer." Of course, no one has even remotely suggested a ban on eating popcorn or getting in a car the wrong way or letting kids play outside. It doesnt make any sense: such bizarre rules, in addition to being incredibly unpopular and pointless, would be impossible to enforce. Limbaugh Lie #33: Limbaugh declared that the survival of insurance companies would be based on politics: "It depends on how the insurance company voted. If the insurance company voted for Obama, then they'll probably get some sort of a participatory role in administering the whole government-run health care plan."(June 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... It's absurd to imagine that an insurance company's status under Obama's health-care plan would depend on how much it supported Obama. After all, the government, not private insurance companies, administers the public option in health care. But there's a larger problem with Limbaugh's conspiracy theory: insurance companies don't vote. Individuals vote with a secret ballot. So there's no way an insurance company could have "voted for Obama," and no way of knowing how a company's employees voted. Limbaugh Lie #34: Limbaugh claimed that concern about the swine flu was a conspiracy by the Obama Administration to conceal some unspoken evil deed: "What are they doing with the other hand when you're not watching?"(5/4/09) Limbaugh Lie #35: Limbaugh even endorsed Sarah Palin's bizarre claim that "death panels" would decide whether to kill her son: "Sarah Palin has rocked 'em with that one because she's dead right. They are death panels."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081309/content/01125107.guest.html) Limbaugh Lie #36: Later, Limbaugh tried to backpedal from his lie: "I have not used the word 'death panels' except quoting Sarah Palin."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081709/content/01125109.guest.html) Of course, that wasn't true. Limbaugh agreed with Palin and said (without quoting her) that they were death panels, even though they didn't exist. Limbaugh Lie #37: Limbaugh claimed that under Obamas health care reform, the government will order people not to eat certain foods: "You have the public at large, mom and pop, Joe Six-Pack, Mary Botox, and they're out there living their lives and they're going to have all these restrictions on what they can eat, what they can't eat."(July 31, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... There are no restrictions on eating certain foods in the bill, and no mechanism for compelling it. No one has ever proposed restricting what people on health insurance can eat. Limbaugh Lie #38: Limbaugh declared about the House bill, "the government will be able to dictate when you can and when you can't have children."(July 31, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #39: "the real reason they want to control family planning, you could throw in, yeah, they want to limit the number of potential Republicans born..."(July 31, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Of course, there is no government control over having children. Limbaugh Lie #40: "universal health care would lead to bans on swing sets and flat-screen TVs hanging on the wall"(5/13/09) because they might fall on people. Limbaugh Lie #41: "they're gonna be able to regulate -- you know, they call you a risk based on, do you smoke, do you not smoke, how far do you drive to work, do you wear polyester -- it's more flammable -- I mean, it could get ridiculous."(July 28, 2009) When the leading radio show host in the country claims that health care reform will lead to a ban on wearing polyester, it's already ridiculous. Limbaugh Lie #42: "They have been talking a fat tax or some way of dealing with obesity. Suppose that you have lived a lifestyle they don't approve of that in their minds has increased your health risk and they don't want to pay for it or they want to charge you additional through the roof and so forth. This is the kind of thing they want. These are kind of statists that want to control every aspect of people's lives, and they want to certainly not have to spend money on people who have reached a certain age, just to put it bluntly, where it's not worth it in their mind."(August 7, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #43: "This health care bill, if it ever passes in this present form, gives them unlimited power to regulate lifestyles and behavior, in every way possible."(August 7, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... How can Limbaugh claim that a bill which gives the government zero power to regulate lifestyles and behavior actually provides "unlimited power"? Limbaugh, of course, never quotes from the actual bill whenever he makes these absurd assertions, perhaps because he knows that the words do not exist. Limbaugh Lie #44: Limbaugh quoted from Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope: "'Not many Americans would feel comfortable with the government monitoring what we eat, no matter how many deaths and how much of our medical spending may be due to rising rates of obesity.' Yet he's doing it. Well, he doesn't say he's going to do it, he just knows we don't feel comfortable with it, but screw it. Our behavior must be constrained."(July 30, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Only Limbaugh could take a quote from Obama opposing government regulation and use it to prove an absurd imaginary regulation that Limbaugh invented. Limbaugh Lie #45: "so we're going to get some kind of fat tax, right? Some kind of fat tax. There's going to be a fat tax, an obesity tax, right?"(July 30, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Wrong. There is no fat tax. It was made up by Limbaugh. There are no politicians proposing a fat tax, and absolutely no chance of one passing, but Limbaugh wants to scare his fat audience into thinking that the government is going to get them and health care reform will come at their expense. Limbaugh Lie #46: "we're going to get rid of your old clunker grandparents with Obama's health care. Cash for clunkers. Death for clunkers."(July 31, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #47: Limbaugh also posited that it would be the Republican elderly who would particularly be in danger of murder by Obamacare: "I've heard that this fear from so many people who have called this program, that whatever the rules in this bill are, that if you're a Democrat it's going to be a little easier for you to be massaged through the system, you're going to be punished less, your wait list will be shorter if you're a Democrat. A lot of people have this fear. It tells me that people know who this guy is and what he's all about."(July 31, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #48: When a caller claimed the Obama plan was "generational genocide," Limbaugh declared, "you're damn right."(August 7, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #49: "there are provisions galore for factoring your death when you reach a certain seasoned citizen age. There are facts and proposals and pages galore of how health care is going to be rationed."(August 10, 2009, http://mediamatters.org/... There are no provisions for murdering people who reach a certain age. There are no facts and no pages at all that say health care is going to be rationed. Limbaugh was simply making it all up. None of this existed, none of it was real. Limbaugh Lie #50: Limbaugh endorsed a caller's fear that Republicans would be denied health care under Obama: "if you want to look at yourself as perhaps being discriminated against, it's that you're elderly first and then maybe Republican second..."(July 30, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #51: "they save money two ways when elderly people die. One, you don't get health care anymore, but also you are no longer on the Social Security rolls."(July 30, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... It's rather sickening to claim that Obama is trying to kill the elderly to save money on health care and Social Security. Limbaugh Lie #52: "what the Obamacare plan contains is end of life. Forget end-of-life counseling. It does have end of life. It's right there in the bill. He said it himself a number of times."(July 30, 2009) Obama never said that. It's not in the bill. Limbaugh Lie #53: When Obama held a press conference on health care, Limbaugh claimed it "was chock-full of some of the most blatant lies a president has told the country or the press corps, and he was not called on one of them."(July 23, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... But Limbaugh didn't identify a single lie told by Obama; he simply assumed that his audience would believe him without evidence. Limbaugh Lie #54: "he admitted he's going to wipe out private insurance."(July 23, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... No, he didn't. Limbaugh Lie #55: under Obamas health care plan, "27 million people would be thrown off insurance rolls and have to go public option. You would lose your choice of doctor."(June 16, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaughs "27 million" figure is made up out of thin air, and his claim that a public option would ban doctor choice is false. In reality, the Obama plan to tax employers that fail to provide health care might cause more companies to offer health insurance. Limbaugh Lie #56: Limbaugh invents all kinds of excuses for the poor global ratings of the US health care system: "about the World Health Organization rating French health care at the top and United States 34th. I did some digging on this, and let me tell you the two interesting factors that go into the World Health Organization's rating of health care. One thing they take into account is military people killed in action. (snorts) When you start comparing United States troop commitments around the world to those of France, you'll find that the frogs are in very few places getting shot at. And another thing that they take into account... No, seriously, they do that, folks."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081309/content/01125112.guest.html) In reality, the WHO rankings don't give any special bias to military deaths, although life expectancy is one factor. The last WHO rankings, where the US was rated 37th in health care performance, not 34th, came in 2000, at which time America had not lost a substantial number of troops in military operations for a quarter-century.(http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html) So Limbaugh's argument about the WHO ratings was entirely fictionalized, and used solely to insult the French troops, who have been American allies in the war in Afghanistan and more deeply involved in foreign peacekeeping operations than the United States.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_France) Limbaugh Lie #57: When a caller challenged Limbaugh's defense of the status quo on health care, accurately pointing out the high cost of insurance premiums, he was immediately cut off after referring to Rushs drug addiction following failed back surgery. Limbaugh declared later on in the broadcast that "he was a fraud all the way around....His point was trying to discredit me. He was probably calling from Rahm Emanuel's office, maybe from the Oval Office."(June 25, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #58: Limbaugh declared about health care in America, "There is no crisis. The crisis in health care is in the UK. The crisis in health care is in Canada. The crisis in health care is in Cuba. The crisis in health care is with the ChiComs. The crisis in health care is with a lot of other places. The crisis in health care here has been manufactured. My point is, folks -- just ask yourself in your own circle of friends, your family, community, your neighborhood, whatever -- how many people do you know who are actually walking around daily in fear, constantly fear of an auto accident or a major disease is going to wipe 'em out?"(June 16, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Of course, many Americans do fear that a medical emergency will wipe them out, and it happens to many more people who dont understand the financial threat. If that fear is the definition of a health care crisis, then clearly the United States is facing a crisis and other countries with national health care do not. Limbaugh Lie #59: Limbaugh said, "Most employee health care coverage comes from the employer. If the employer says, 'I'm outta here,' they have no choice but than to go government option."(August 10, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... That's completely untrue. Anyone who loses their employer-based health insurance would be perfectly free to purchase any insurance on the private market. The only difference under the House bill is that they would have an additional public option. Limbaugh Lie #60: "you have the President of the United States telling private citizens who want to be doctors where they can go and where they can't go."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_062509/content/01125107.guest.html) Absolutely nothing in any health care proposal would tell doctors where they can go and ban them from going elsewhere. Limbaugh Lie #61: "after this bill becomes law, nobody in the insurance business can offer anybody and you can't buy private medical insurance."(July 16, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... In reality, the provision does not ban private health insurance at all; it simply requires new health insurance plans to participate in the Health Insurance Exchange, which is a marketplace allowing consumers to comparison shop.(http://mediamatters.org/research/200907160040) If there actually were a ban on private health insurance, one would imagine that the private health insurers might speak out against it. The fact that they didnt indicates that this is just another right-wing conspiracy theory spouted by Limbaugh without bothering to read Sec. 102 subsection (c) of the actual legislation. Limbaugh Lie #62: "You can't stay in business if youre competing against somebody that doesn't have to make a profit."(July 20, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Thats an odd sentiment from someone who successfully competes with noncommercial public radio stations on a daily basis. Limbaugh Lie #63: Limbaugh promised "the utter destruction of the United States private sector as a result of President Obama's health care plan."(July 16, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Even if America went to a single-payer, government-run health care system, how could that possibly destroy the entire private sector? Limbaugh Lie #64: Limbaugh claimed, "this health care plan is nothing more than the subprime mortgage debacle ready to happen all over again." (July 20, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... The subprime mortgage crisis was the result of a bubble: too many people bought houses they couldnt afford justified by speculation about rising prices. By contrast, health care will never cause a bubble; you cant sell your own good health to another person. Its not a transferable good. The money spent on health care is a necessity, but its not an investment. No one ever goes into a hospital expecting to come out richer, unlike real estate. Limbaugh Lie #65: "Centralized, digitized health records won't be any more confidential than our military secrets leaked to the media."(July 28, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... In reality, military secrets are almost never leaked to the media. And having electronic records doesn't make any difference in whether they're leaked to anyone. The fact is, the military already has a central record of health and other records about individual soldiers, and there's never been a case of these military health records being leaked to the media and published. So Limbaugh's paranoid fear-mongering about "centralized" health records has been proven false by the example of the military which he invokes. Limbaugh Lie #66: "the United States Government and the state governments that have run this system into the ground and bankrupted it. They've made it unaffordable for you."(June 25, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... The government hasn't caused higher private insurance rates. Limbaugh Lie #67: "people are going to the doctor too much."(June 25, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Limbaugh Lie #68: "it used to be that medicine was a pay-as-you-go thing....Now we have insurance for medicine. You know what it is. It's just totally out of control, and it's people like Hillary Clinton who have made it this way!"(October 17, 2007, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... The notion that Hillary Clinton invented health insurance and HMOs is insane, especially since Limbaugh helped defeat Hillarys health care reform. But Limbaugh, who likes to pay for his medical expenses out of his very fat wallet, imagines that government created every problem in the world. Limbaugh Lie #69: "There's only one way to save money in our current health care system, and that's: Stop spending as much money on the sick, because we don't spend any money on the healthy."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081309/content/01125109.guest.html) In fact, Limbaugh has it all wrong. One important way to save money on health care is to spend money on basic health care and prevention, rather than waiting until an illness progresses to the point where treatment is much more expensive. Limbaugh Lie #70: Limbaugh claims (without offering any evidence), "It has been established that there is no cost-benefit to preventive care."(http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081309/content/01125116.guest.html) The opposite is true. As Newt Gingrich twittered, "preventive care has largest benefits relative to cost for those most likely to suffer from specific medical problem."(August 12, 2009, http://twitter.com/... Limbaugh Lie #71: Limbaugh said about Obama's health care plan, "Every poll shows the American people do not want what he's pushing."(July 27, 2009, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/... Actually, every poll showed the opposite. A Washington Post poll in July 2009 found 49-44 approval for Obama's handling of health care reform, but 54% approved of the legislation.(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071902176.html?hp <<<Additional te ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:303494 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
