Ignorant Tea Party outrage: Sarah Palin’s latest Obamacare lie
Sarah Palin, Ben Carson and others who compare Obamacare to slavery don't know much about either
BY ANDREW BURSTEIN AND NANCY ISENBERG
The Republicans who attack the Affordable Care Act are so twisted in their vulgar logic that they trip themselves up whenever they seek justification from history. At that warped assembly misnamed the “Values Voter Summit” last week, Dr. Ben Carson, an African-American neurosurgeon and Fox News contributor, literally called Obamacare “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.” Recognizing how odd these words must have sounded coming from a person of color, he doubled down: “And it is slavery, it is, in a way, slavery, because it is making all of us subservient.”
When outspoken conservatives look for historical analogies in support of their “Obamascare” tactics, they always seem to herald their imagined outrage over American slavery. Former Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives William O’Brien has compared healthcare reform to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Is granting Americans the right to buy health insurance as destructive to “personal and individual liberty” as federal agents being forced to recapture slaves and return them to their southern masters? When asked to defend his remarks, O’Brien later added that both laws allowed the federal government to “go into states and order individuals and state governments to enforce federal laws in the states.” (He foolishly thinks that states can pick and choose which federal laws they will enforce.)
Both Dr. Carson and Speaker O’Brien reflect the conservative impulse to exploit people’s fears by making anathema what is actually humane progress. They routinely deny actual historical experience and abandon coherent logic. In his speech yesterday, Carson casually segued from slavery to Leninism–yes, it was Lenin, he stressed, who pronounced that socialized medicine was the “keystone” to full-blown socialism.
Whatever smacks of “government takeover” is fair game for these guys, knowing that fear is currency and media distortions their sure-fire means of controlling minds that are the most susceptible. Which is why they accuse the president of doing what they, in fact, are doing. Carson railed: “It was never about healthcare; it was about control.” Really? That was President Obama’s motive in 2008 and 2009?
full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/14/ignorant_tea_party_outrage_sarah_palins_latest_obamacare_lie/
= new reply since forum marked as read
or one of the only things, is always contact our local media and straighten them out.
As painful as it is, I have started watching the local evening news upon occasion, and whenever (like every day) they make these ridiculous claims at trying to present 'both sides,' I call them and complain.
I also call local newspapers, and write letters. Even if they don't usually get printed, maybe it starts to put a bee in their ear.
I'm not sure how much longer I can stand to watch. 
I'm from Germany. We have a network of state-controlled non-profit health-insurance-companies, each dubbed "AOK" (abbreviation for "general local health-insurance"
plus the name of the state. It's fairly easy to transfer from one to the next when you move.
The plan for a healthy, young male costs €90 (about $120) a month and covers basic treatments and examinations. Seriously, I have never had to worry about paying medical bills.
E.g. silvery dental filling is covered, pearl-white dental filling costs extra; for glasses the lenses are covered, the frame costs extra (there is an ugly-looking free standard-frame) ...
There is a two-class-society in Germany when it comes to healthcare, because the private insurances cover more (and cost extra). And doctors prefer patients with private insurance, because they are easier to milk.
It's far from perfect, but it works somehow.