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Tonight Sarah Palin joins Sean to sound off on ObamaCare's struggles. Plus will the former vice presidential candidate become Sen. Sarah Palin? And Sen. Cruz discusses his hopes of uniting the party against the Affordable Care Act.
She warned us. Sarah Palin warned us over, and over, and over. The term "death panels", which Palin brought to the forefront of the Obamacare discussion in 2009, was mocked and ridiculed. In fact, the Breitbart article below reminds us that it was Politifact's "Lie of the Year" in 2009.
Okay, to be fair, the death panels are not exactly referred to as "death panels" in the Affordable Care Act but as "IPAB" (Independent Payment Advisory Board). It should be noted that even the American Medical Association supports the repeal of IPAB.
It seems that yet again, Palin was right.
Following is a must-read article written by John Nolte over at Breitbart. In it you just might be surprised at who is now saying essentially what Palin wrote about some four years ago.
In December of 2009, Politifact, a left-wing website that poses as an objective fact checker, awarded former Alaska governor Sarah Palin its "Lie of the Year." Politifact claimed that Palin's use of the term "death panel" to describe the rationing that will come with ObamaCare was the biggest whopper of '09:Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest.
"Death panels." …
[Palin's] assertion — that the government would set up boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care — spread through newscasts, talk shows, blogs and town hall meetings. Opponents of health care legislation said it revealed the real goals of the Democratic proposals. Advocates for health reform said it showed the depths to which their opponents would sink. Still others scratched their heads and said, "Death panels? Really?"
Yes, really.
And Democrat Howard Dean agrees. In a Monday Wall Street Journal op-ed, Dean writes:
One major problem [with ObamaCare] is the so-called Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB is essentially a health-care rationing body. By setting doctor reimbursement rates for Medicare and determining which procedures and drugs will be covered and at what price, the IPAB will be able to stop certain treatments its members do not favor by simply setting rates to levels where no doctor or hospital will perform them.
Here is what Palin wrote four years ago:
The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course.
If what Dean fears comes true, specifically that "IPAB will be able to stop certain treatments its members do not favor by simply setting rates to levels where no doctor or hospital will perform them," it takes no leap of logic or faith to fear which expensive and/or experimental procedures will not be covered.
Of course that kind of thinking is most likely to hurt those seen as the least desirable by bureaucrats -- those unable to "contribute": the elderly, disabled, and sick. (Palin forgot one group: the unborn.)
IPAB is what Palin directly referred to in her "death panel" post. And for spelling out the truth about the obvious human consequence of a rationing problem both she and Howard Dean agree is very real, she was awarded Politifact's "Lie of the Year."
What is important to remember, though, is that Palin was falsely smeared with PolitiFact's "award" in December of 2009. At the time, ObamaCare was still four months from being signed into law and still not a sure thing to make it that far. More
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here's Greg in Nashua, New Hampshire. You're next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Based on what you're saying about the Republican Party abandoning a large chunk of the American population -- including conservatives -- or even being any real opposition to the Democrats on Obamacare and apparently everything else, I'm wondering whether Sarah Palin's recent gambit that if the GOP... I think she calls them the GOP brain trust on the Greta show. If the GOP is indeed abandoning her as well as a large swath of American voters, she's going independent. Palin is a prominent Republican. Even beyond what Ted Cruz or Mike Lee has said, she's broached the topic of going outside the GOP if need be, and maybe she's right on target there. Maybe she can lead the way out of this conundrum of the Dems and the GOP, apparently, being joined at the hip, at least on Obamacare and probably a lot more.
RUSH: Well, you mean by going third party?
CALLER: Yeah, or thing if... Turn the party over to her she'll go third.
RUSH: Now, wait a minute. I think I mighta missed something. Nobody is gonna turn the party over to anyone. More
Tune in to "On The Record" tonight at 10:00 p.m.Eastern when Sarah Palin will join Greta Van Susteren to discuss all of the president's "phony scandals"
From Palin's Facebook page:
I'll be on Greta's "On the Record" tonight talking about Obama's "phony scandals" claim. The Democrat Party's leadership is obviously a lost cause, but take note that the GOP's out of touch hierarchy is disappointingly not doing the job of calling Obama out and holding the media's feet to fire, and consequently Obama gets away with claiming that these very serious government scandals are "phony." They have the mic, but they selfishly don't use it to call out corruption and incompetence. They'd rather be "liked" by the media. This is a business to them, not a cause. Of course, ten second soundbites aren't conducive to explaining all of this, but I'll try.
- Sarah Palin
You won't want to miss this great interview with Sarah Palin conducted by Mark Judge. Mr. Judge asks Palin some atypical questions but they are worthy questions that conservatives need to address.
From Acculturated:
There is a common trope used in movies and TV, where a character discovers that someone is in love with her and has been for years. “But you never said anything,” the stunned woman says to her long-silent suitor. “You never asked,” usually comes the reply.
That scene comes to mind when thinking about conservatives and popular culture. While liberals talk about movies, books, music, and other arts as part of their general everyday being, conservatives get asked about taxes, abortion, and immigration. We love popular culture, but no one ever asks.
Acculturated is trying to change that. Last year I briefly encountered Sarah Palin at CPAC, the annual Conservative Political Action Committee meeting in Washington, and took the opportunity to ask her an important question: who’s your favorite band? The verdict: Van Halen. As you’ll see in the video, Governor Palin seemed surprised, but then a little delighted, to be asked about rock and roll. Everyone just assumes that that’s Jay-Z wingman President Obama’s turf.
I've always wanted to follow up with Governor Palin, and I recently sent her some questions about popular culture. She was kind enough to respond. Here are her answers, followed at the end by a couple of my own observations.***
Gov. Palin, what is your general philosophy about modern popular culture?
Culture matters. As Andrew Breitbart liked to say, politics is downstream of culture. If you wonder why a civilization is in decline, you have to look at the culture first.
We were both teenagers in the 1980s. Did you have a favorite band or genre—heavy metal, pop, English bands?
My favorite bands as a teen were Van Halen, Boston, and AC/DC.
Do you think conservatives are engaging the popular culture effectively today?
Good question. No, conservatives aren’t infiltrating and influencing pop culture enough, and we’re missing the boat. That’s why I’m fine with, for instance, Bristol being on the shows she’s been on and why I preach against preaching to the choir.
For years, conservatives have glumly waved the white flag when it comes to influencing popular culture. Defeat has been declared many times. But the civic values that conservatism cherishes—like courage, honesty, integrity, hard work, patriotism, faith, fortitude, individual liberty—are values that civilization depends upon. So, if conservatives lose the culture, the culture will collapse and take civilization with it.
For years we have been focused on November election nights, and perhaps not focused enough on Oscar night, or Emmy night, or script buys, or production deals. We have been focused on sending our brightest and best to Washington. But we also need to send them to Hollywood or to the Columbia School of Journalism. We need to take back Hollywood and the mainstream news media. We need to step out of our comfort zones. We can’t allow ourselves to be pushed to the margins. We can’t allow the principles upon which this nation is founded to be ignored or undermined.
Posted to Sarah Palin's Facebook page in celebration of our nation's birthday.
Shared by Governor Sarah Palin on her Facebook page July 3rd, 2013.
Posted to Palin's Facebook page:
I sure respect Greta Van Susteren's work ethic, independence, and ability to stay on top of so many current events that viewers count on her covering. (Check out gretawire.com to see what she's keeping up with, just today!) I look forward to joining her tonight on her Fox show "On the Record" -- I'll be interviewed from Alaska (10pm EST, 6pm Alaska time). Greta's so good about inviting feedback; you have opportunity to sound off on gretawire.com
- Sarah Palin
