Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, the new Al Franken-like star of the Democratic Party, claims that Republicans want people to die quickly. Grayson’s proof? Republicans oppose Democratic plans to restructure the U.S. health care system, including getting government further involved in health care decisions.
Grayson has been doubling and tripling down on his comments, like a child who gets attention by rolling on the floor kicking and screaming, and who soon figures out that kicking and screaming works. Overnight Grayson went from nobody anybody had ever heard of, to darling of the left-wing blog money-raising circuit. Only time will tell if Grayson gets 15 minutes or more of fame.
So what to make of the fact that compared to nationalized health systems, the U.S. has higher cancer survival rates? Even the not-so-non-partisan FactCheck.org had to admit this fact, although it tried to spin it so as to lessen the impact in the current health care debate:
It’s certainly the case that we have higher survival rates than the United Kingdom and other countries with nationalized health care. Across the board, the United States boasts a higher five-year relative survival rate than the European average, according to a 2008 study in the British medical journal Lancet. For breast cancer, for instance, the U.S. survival rate was 83.9 percent, the U.K. rate was 69.7, and the average European rate was 73.1.
So using Grayson’s logic, since Grayson wants to push us towards a British-style system, and under such a system cancer patients die at higher rates, Grayson must want to kill cancer patients.
Hoisting Grayson by his own hyperbole and fuzzy logic is so easy, it may become habit-forming.
(Psst, in case you were wondering, I don’t think Alan Grayson wants to kill cancer patients, but I would like him to stop accusing people with opposing viewpoints of being killers.)
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Comments
The Republicans for months have been "accusing people with opposing viewpoints of wanting to kill people" with imaginary "death panels" and all sorts of other ridiculous claims, but only NOW it bothers you?
False comparison. The public option is nothing even remotely similar to the British system.
I disagree. He is more than willing to kill some for the good of all. Isn't that the mantra of the communist left? We drive smaller cars to save the environment and get killed in wrecks that shouldn't kill us.
We use products, forced upon us by government regulations, which turn out to be dangerous- light bulbs for one.
No, I disagree. They are more than willing to kill off a few, if that gives them greater power.
Cartoons like Alan Grayson are the LEAST qualified to touch the subject of Healthcare reform when his PARTY barely recognize the government's mounting failure and impending financial disaster with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Not even the staunchest Liberal I've encountered is able to look straight in my eye when I show them my most recent SS. annual statement which explicitly states that these agencies will go bankrupt by 2017 and 2047 respectively at the current rate of imbursement. Basically, I won't be collecting a dime come retirement despite the neatly tabulated amount of taxes the government has exacted from me over the years. There won't even be enough to ration the imbursements. So the sheer gall of these buffoons to keep peddling this PREPOSTEROUS idea that a BROKE government who can't (or is unwilling to) control the cost of Medicare/Medicaid is somehow infinitely qualified to run the sham that is 'Public Option'. But by Alan Grayson's cartoon reasoning however, 'Public Option' can do more than just lower cost (and Obama’s assertion – generate jobs)! It can also cure cancer and EXTEND life!
This may be true in the cartoon world which Grayson and Liberals inhabit. But indie voters like me (who wasted his vote for Obama) aren’t impressed. This is jus the kind of histrionic that further confirms the Administration’s and the Dems’ DEFICIENT grasp of basic economics… or just about anything else.
Our government has been seized by the Party of Saturday Morning Cartoons!
Time to switch channels in 2010 and 2012.
I really have trouble taking the man seriously.
For one thing every time I see the him I can't help but think back to the the story of him deciding that all Americans should be given free trips to Disney Land (World???) after riding the teacups.
And as much as he tries to be Joe Wilson he's not going to be able to:
-First of all he did it during a regular work day so only political junkies know about it.
-Second his remark doesn't have the same charm as "You lie"
-Third this was obviously planned while Wilson's was simply most likely planned. Yes that's splitting hairs but even a whiff of spontaneity goes a long way.
-Finally he's from florida and seniors are opposed to all of this by a margin of 2-1. He just accused a major voting group in his region of wanting people to die and being Nazis.
I can't say what his chances are next year but given that his re-election is considered a toss up despite having no actual opponent just yet I think he may come to regret this.
It's too bad you didn't take the time to actually read the article you cite:
"[S]urvival rates in Canada, Japan, Australia and Cuba were all comparable to or higher than U.S. survival rates on all types of cancer that the Lancet study examined, except for prostate cancer. Those countries all have some form of government-provided health care coverage. Prostate cancer often doesn’t require treatment, so the aggressive screening common in the U.S. turns up both early cases and cases that would never need intervention. This leads to an inflated survival rate in the U.S., where asymptomatic patients are more likely to be diagnosed.
Furthermore, simply comparing survival rates isn’t necessarily an accurate measure, and it certainly isn’t a simple reflection of health care quality."
In another article on the site, which you must have seen while you were at Factcheck, they examined Grayson's claim about deaths due to being uninsured and found that he had the medical studies to support his statement.
Death panels,rationing boards, health care decision facilitators, call them what you will. There are not enough doctors to go around today as things now stand. Add 10 million, 12 million, 37 million (insert your favorite number here), and de facto rationing will result. Who will it affct? Those who are getting sick: heart patients, cancer patients, the elderly, accident victims. It's coming, Guav.