Obama Admin Fires Back At Right Wing With Detailed Rebuttal Of “Death Book” Claim
In a sign of real concern about the right wing’s latest lurid health care tale, the Obama administration’s veterans agency is hitting back at conservative media with a detailed factual rebuttal of the claim that government is giving veterans a “death book” that urges them to hurry up and die.
The rebuttal includes a detailed fact sheet and a timeline, both of which were sent my way by an administration official and may be sent widely to reporters later this morning.
Haven’t heard the “death book” tale? It got started with this Op ed piece in The Wall Street Journal by a former Bush official claiming that a manual distibuted by the Department of Veterans Affairs sends veterans a “hurry-up-and-die message.”
The claim — the right’s latest effort to frighten the vulnerable about Obama’s health care intentions — is that the manual steers veterans towards “predetermined concluions” about “end-of-life choices.” It’s gotten tons of right wing and even traditional media play.
The rebuttal points out that the manual, which is called “Your Life, Your Choices,” is not an “advance directive” and “does not promote limitation of life-sustaining treatment, assisted suicide, or euthanasia.” Rather, its goal is to help veterans “consider the types of health care they would want to receive if they were unable to make decisions for themselves” and to “think about and discuss their preferences” with family, friends, and doctors.
The fact sheet does note that the manual was determined under Bush to be in need of revision, and that it may be “too negative in tone and not sufficiently sensitive” to pro-life or disabled veterans. But the rebuttal strongly contests the core “death book” claim, and notes that the author of the original Op ed has offered a competing book, which is for sale.
The Obama administration’s detailed rebuttal is yet another reminder of how aggressively the conservative media is targeting the frail and vulnerable with its outlandish health care tales — so much so that real government resources are required to combat them.
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Scaring old people and veterans. You stay classy GOP
greg – I ought to have acknowledged your significant point last night on the request by Wa Po to have readers/citizens aid in research/reporting. I’ve been wondering whether this model might prove helpful to a newspaper enterprise. I see two benefits; free help in gathering news and the possibility of increased loyalty to that paper through readers’ involvement in and with it. For the latter to evolve, I think there would have to be some tangible evidence that such reader-involvement actually matters and has an effect (a common and reasonable grudge against both media and government generally is that we’re locked out and our voices of no significance). But I’m not sure how that might be effected (god knows how many ‘tips’ Josh gets each day).
Camel/straw…
“There is an issue as to whether the VA document inappropriately pressures disabled veterans who forgo critical care by subtly urging them on end-of-life decisions,” Specter wrote
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082403018.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Also pointed out last night on TRMS that the op-ed author has his own book called “5 wishes” that discusses the same things in similar language. Except the “death book” he wrote was passed over for the one currently used.
Bitter much?
edit: not the op-ed author, but the guest on the Chris Wallace show sunday who helped propagate this ****
The sheer fact that this is even being brought up and has to be defended is beyond stupid. its like during the first months of the Obama presidency when everyone kept talking about all those positions they thought President Obama created to expand power come to find out President Bush created them all. Literally why do we have to talk about something like this. You know what Im blaming Liberal bloggers for this. We give to much credence and face time to Sarah Palin and all these other lame old decrepit Republicans and the media says well if liberals are talking about them i will too. Please please please ignore them until they either construct policy or are running to construct policy
The People’s Right to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances
America’s elected officials are hiding out. Especially the Democrats. They want no public forum in which the angry voters have an opportunity to express themselves with the cameras rolling. Better to hide behind conference calls, emails, sequestered letters and “private meetings”
Listen! Elected officals, your fellow citizens are mad as hell about the (Democrats’) Pay to Play Fraud. Specifically the: health care scam, bailout scam, stimulus package scam, Cap and Trade, take over of GM and Chrysler, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the trashing of the peoples retirement funds, the devastating losses in our colleges and universities endowment funds, the Bush-Clinton-Mena narcotics cabal, the Diebold electronic vote machine fraudulent elections, the phony war on drugs, the phony war in Iraq, shipment of entire US manufacturing plants to China, (see what economist Robert Higgs and Ron Paul, MD have to say about these outrageous Chicago/Little Rock/Crawford Pay to Play scams).
No wonder you don’t want open town hall meetings!
WSJ and Fox News are both tarnishing their names as becoming outlets for a bunch of garbage. Anyone who isn’t a partisan hack sees right through them.
I’m starting to think these outlets are overplaying their hand.
I met up with a relative from Ireland and he had seen O’Reilly and Hannity for the first time the other day and couldn’t believe Americans could sit down and watch that one sided garbage. To him, it was blatantly apparent no impartiality remains on Fox. He asked how they can even call themselves a news channel.
Murdock has managed to take WSJ, that was a strong brand, and tarnish it with partisanship. I think the guy revels at the idea of toying in other countries politics. It’s a game to him. He has no loyalty to this country and doesn’t give a damn about what happens to it. He does the same in England and is now trying to do the same in Italy.
Patches
I thought it WAS the oped author.
Ugh. Stop attacking the lies. Start attacking the LIARS.
Seriously, this has been such an opportunity wasted. Te Republican party has been *wink*wink*nudge*nudge* about the most ridiculous, slanderous, and dangerous lies we’ve heard in a long time. There’s no such thing right now as a “loyal opposition” in this country.
Stop wasting your time going after each new lie. It’s like killing a weed by cutting off the top. You need to rip of the root. Focus your energy on those who START these rumors, and tying them to the Republican obstructionists in Congress. Republicans can either denounce this bat-s*** crazy stuff, or they can OWN it.
Arlen Specter might have just sealed his fate if he doesn’t do an immediate walk back and I mean post haste because with you know with Sestak’s military background and the fact that he was defending the VA last night on this issue he is going to hit Specter hard on this. Or at least he should if he really wants to win the primary. Seems like Specter forgot which side he was on again.
yeah, Bernie and SG, agreed re Specter. It’s almost as if he picked up his old instruction manual by mistake this morning as he left the house.
Greg
I can tell you this much, Sestak would be a fool to let this slide by. All of the dynamics are there to make this into a game changer for him.
First obviously he gets to remind people of his service as he defends the VA. Second he gets to remind people that Specter was a Republican not too long ago. Third he can point out that Specter is stepping on President Obama’s pushback/message. Fourth he can paint Specter as a DINO who will boy to any right wing attacks. And fifth he can hammer Specter for admitting that he hadn’t even read the book yet but here he is asking the VA to pull it. If I were his people I would ask the question, “Where is Specter getting his information from? RNC talking points?”
But like I said, Specter will probably see this as a problem quickly so Sestak has to come out strong now before the story dies.
Let’s get a little honest here. This is the opposition in America. These aren’t the crazies in the basement. They are actual Bush administration officials, members of Congress and mainstream media spreading this stuff. Not only does Obama want to kill old people and undesirables, lock Christians and conservatives up in concentration camps, he now wants to kill off our veterans!! They are a sick lot. It’s the exact same thing we went through in the 90s. Why not slap this stuff right in the face?? Quit the tea bagging circle jerks and face reality. I’m sick of the whole damn thing.
Sestak had BETTER win the Democratic primary. I mean, really. There’s no reason, at all, that he should lose.
There’s the interview on Hardball where Specter said he thought McCain-Palin was the “better choice”. There’s his flip flopping on EFCA – including helping to rip out Card Check from the bill, there’s the overall mistrust of his decision to jump parties because he was going to lose, his attack on Sestak claiming he wasn’t really a Dem because he didn’t declare a political affiliation while on Duty, and now this.
Joe Sestak would have to have a campaign less competent than McCain’s was last year for Specter to even have a shot at getting through the primary.
“outlandish health care tales — so much so that real government resources are required to combat them.”
Aha! The modified Sarah Palin resignation defense rears it’s head once again.
By now you’ve heard about the great backroom deal that big pharma cut with Obama, but have you heard about the hospital deal?
“The breakdown estimates that the industry will receive about $171 billion in additional money over those same 10 years as a result of reimbursements for newly insured patients who would be covered under the overhaul plan. In other words, the hospitals would give up $155 billion in cost cuts, but take in $171 billion in new money — a net gain of $16 billion.”
Read the gory details at:
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/hospitals-see-profits-in-white-house-deal/
BBQ
I hate to say it but you are wrong about Specter. The people there still support the guy in PA and labor is leaning towards backing him. He will have the full force of the Democratic machine plus the administration. If anything its Specter’s race to lose and Sestak is a prohibitive underdog. In fact to turn your analogy on its head, it would take Sestak matching or bettering the campaign by then candidate Obama for him to unseat Specter in the primary. That’s just the breaks.
the conservative media is targeting the frail and vulnerable
I monitor wingnut radio gasbags and I am saddened by how many elderly people they’ve managed to scare.
sbj – where’s the problem? Increase hospital efficiencies and use those monies to provide funding for those now uninsured.
Your tact is to presume that I or others might find offence at any/all such deals or reorganizations made by the Obama administration if corporate entities are involved. And it’s either merely thinking with a false and simplistic stereotype, it’s dishonest.
Don’t let sbj get this off topic. The fact of the matter is this is the opposition party in America. There’s no sense in letting sbj or anyone else ignore it and gloss it over by bringing up one of his pet peeves.
Do like SG says and call them on it. This is entirely out of hand.
sgwhite, BBQ et al…take a look at this piece over at Dem Strategist…
“…It therefore makes no sense to view independents as a homogenous bloc of floating voters. Independents are sharply divided along party lines just like the rest of the American electorate….The major goal of modern political campaigns is not appealing to a mythical bloc of independent voters, but unifying and mobilizing partisans.”
“Are Independents Overrated?” http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/
sbj | August 25th, 2009 at 10:23 am
By now you’ve heard about the great backroom deal that big pharma cut with Obama, but have you heard about the hospital deal?
“The breakdown estimates that the industry will receive about $171 billion in additional money over those same 10 years as a result of reimbursements for newly insured patients who would be covered under the overhaul plan. In other words, the hospitals would give up $155 billion in cost cuts, but take in $171 billion in new money — a net gain of $16 billion.”
…………………………
Wow,
Yesterday you were all worked up about the Hospitals getting hurt by having to treat undocumented immigrants, for free, and you wanted to know what the Democrats were going to do about it, to protect the hospitals from having to swallow such expenses. You never would explain what the Republicans would do about it, or why the never have even tried to do, when they were in charge of everything.
Now you are whining about the fact that the hospitals will get paid for treating more sick people. Make up your mind. Do you want the hospitals to have to treat those legal residents and citizens, for free, or not.
greg – if you’re still tuned in here… on the subject of newspapers and interactivity, it seems the NY Times did it too! http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=25936
Because the congressional and senate Republicans had fallen in such disrepute, as well as Bush/Cheney, a lot of Republicans are now trying to pass as Independents. They are still Republicans, but they are ashamed to admit it.
This is SBJ person fits that profile. He keeps telling us that he is an Independent, but all his talking points are from the Republican Party’s propaganda play book.
You also have people who are calling their selves Independants, because even the far right positions of the Republican Party is not extreme enough for them.
In some ways, saying one is an Independent, is an oxymoron, because they all end up taking sides. A real Independent would not get involved.
Can we PLEASE just ignore the idiots and GET OUT IN FRONT of the Health Care Debate?!?!
For example, how about talking up the Health IT? That alone will save tons of money.
What about talking up the BENEFIT of having a CHOICE with the public option?
We need to stop playing footsie and start HAMMERING HOME the POSITIVE aspects of the bill.
When Obama takes the lead on re-framing the debate to a positive one in the press, the media will follow. Just as they did in the 2008 campaign when Obama looked like he was down and the progressives were screaming at him to reframe the debate in his favor, and he did, and he won. That’s exactly what we need. The sooner people here and TPM and FDL, Kos and everybody can re-focus and re-double our efforts on RE-FRAMING the debate, the sooner this whole shindig will END with a win in the D column.
When will the Obama administration stop being polite and genteel with these people. Michael Steele, Jonah Goldberg, Charles Grassley, are all flat out liars and the White House should start saying so.
What are they waiting for?
The WSJ Op Ed author and the Chris Wallace guest on August 23 are the same person, Jim Towey.
Lazy reporters simply presenting to us as news what other people think the different proposals about health care reform are. I doubt that more than a few of the reporters have cared to actually read any of the bills passed or circulating in the different committees of Congress. Instead, corporate media and their reporters act today more in the mode of entertainers and comedians than hard-nosed reporters of the news. They lack investigative competence and show little desire to dissect the news and tell the truth. They do not therefore inform or challenge; they are just like mouthpieces of corrupt special interests. What a shame! Because, back in the not so distant past, journalism used to be regarded clearly as a noble profession.
Hmmmm….A former Bush Administration official…..And this as Cheney debases Obama for daring to investigate abuses at the CIA….Is he scared of them finding out what he had to do with all of that? Now why am I NOT SURPRISED……? Why won’t these guys give up….? Or just die…..?
OK, I’ll believe obama he would never lie to the american people. Old honest abe obama, or should I say pinnochio.
Once again republicans have proved there is no place too low for them to go… not the elderly, not veterans..anyone they think may be fearful, unsophisticated or trusting enough to believe them.
Shame on them…
Somehow I think veterans know better from the gitgo…
I don’t think veterans were particularly supportive of republicans the last time around, and I bet they don’t get more veteran votes the next time around.
Such sleaze… republicans are just such sleaze