Former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey leads 'death panel' charge writing up talking points

[seafan]

Former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey leads 'death panel' charge writing up talking points

BY David Saltonstall
DAILY NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

August 13, 2009



Betsy McCaughey

Sarah Palin may have fanned the fire over President Obama's fictitious health care "death panels," but she didn't light the match.
That was New York's Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor most remembered here for oddly standing throughout Gov. George Pataki's 1996 State of the State speech - then running against him after he dumped her from his ticket.

McCaughey, 60, is back as a self-styled expert whose writings on Obama's health care plans are increasingly being cited by agitated conservatives at town hall meetings as proof - falsely, other experts and the President himself say - that he wants to "pull the plug on Grandma."
"I believe it's an important public service," McCaughey said yesterday of her commentaries, which spin snippets of legislative language and medical-journal essays by a few Obama advisers to paint a terrifying picture.

.....

Others say what's shameful is McCaughey's distortions of the Democratic-backed House bill, specifically a section on "end-of-life" consultations that Palin - in a Facebook screed - dubbed "Obama's 'death panel.'"

"Betsy McCaughey's recent commentary on health care reform in various media outlets is rife with gross - and even cruel - distortions," AARP Executive Vice President John Rother said recently.
In reality, the bill section simply aims to provide Medicare coverage for once-every-five-year conversations with doctors over what life-prolonging measures, if any, a patient wants taken in the event of a terminal illness or injury. It's an idea first championed by a conservative Republican senator, Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

But McCaughey took that section and ran with it, providing backup for Palin and right-wing media pot-stirrers to sound the "death panel" alarm.
McCaughey got the ball rolling on ex-Sen. Fred Thompson's radio show on July 16, when she called the bill "a vicious assault on elderly people" that will "cut your life short."
She then wrote a column July 24 that claimed Obama advisers don't want to "give much care to a grandmother with Parkinson's or a child with cerebral palsy."

Days later, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) recited much of the article on the House floor.

Palin then unleashed her "death panel" comment, basing it on Bachmann's floor speech. And the firestorm raged.

The father of a wheelchair-bound son with cerebral palsy recently shouted down 83-year-old Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) at a town hall meeting. He then brandished McCaughey's article on Fox News to explain his anger.

"Every American should pull this up on their computer," Mike Sola said on Fox - and many apparently did.

Today, McCaughey rejects any notion that she employed scare tactics to fight Obama's plan.

.....

Some critics have suggested that McCaughey is motivated by other interests - in recent years, she has collected some $23,600 per year in board fees and options from a drugmaking company, Genta Inc., although she resigned in 2007.
She remains on the board of Cantel Medical Group, a medical equipment company that pays her some $30,000 a year in fees.
But McCaughey - formerly married to billionaire financier Wilbur Ross - dismissed as "ridiculous" any notion that the payments show a conflict of interest.

People like this are consumed by hatred and are motivated by a ruthless push to destroy our President's desire to improve the lives of everyday people, and to maintain their own mountains of wealth.


If that requires manipulating the public and instilling irrational fear just as surely as George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney and Condoleezza Rice did when they tremulously warned of mushroom clouds, they will cruelly do just that.

[Eric J in MN]

1. Any talk show which invites her on at this point is shaming itself. NT

NT

[slampoet]

2. Why wait for her to surface on TV. Here is her Email and phone number.

Phone: [phone] • E-Mail: [email protected]

Source - her resume

http://www.hospitalinfection.org/Betsy%20McCaughey%20Resume.pdf





Maybe she deserves to hear what people think (of her)