One of the letters in Tuesday night's paper referred to a list of items in the proposed House bill. I looked up the list as broadcast on WOWO on the Pat White show: www.wowo.com/Programs/ThePatWhiteShow/tabid/82/ctl/Details/mid/737/ItemID/53/Default.aspx
In looking at some blogs on the Internet, I found some of the same statements repeated, word for word. Then I downloaded the proposed bill on line from *docs.house.gov/edlabor/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf*
Paging of a text file is determined by the software used to print it unless the document is formatted in a format such as PDF. I made sure I got the bill in PDF format directly from the House. This is bill H.R. 3200 and is 1,018 pages. The WOWO list gives pages which do not match the PDF pages, which makes it difficult to check the veracity of statements.
There is not enough space to discuss all the points in the letter or from the Pat White Show so I'll just look at a few. I've checked over 20 points and they all fall into a pattern of deception.
The argument that the government will dictate end of life procedures is bogus. All the bill says is that discussion of end of life issues will be paid for. No governmental dictation of end of life routines and there is no requirement to discuss these. Can you imagine a bill being written in such as way as to irritate senior citizens? Ignoring the moral issue, this is a large politically active voting group.
Pat White says, "Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens."
This is section 1222 (starting on PDF page 405) titled "Demonstration to promote access for Medicare beneficiaries with limited English proficiency by providing reimbursement for culturally and linguistically appropriate services." The phrase "linguistically appropriate" is also used in other parts of the proposed bill.
There are a number of Americans whose English is not adequate to deal with the complexities of health care. There is nothing that codes this for illegal aliens. Legal residents from Burma in Fort Wayne fill the description as do legal residents from many countries.
This proposed tax bill is quite complex and filled with legalese and the usual bureaucratic gibberish, but it is not as sinister as the list in the letter or from Pat White on WOWO would indicate. I suspect that this list is a talking list to make the bill look unintelligent or to scare groups of people or to make people think the bill proposes to do something it does not propose to do.
It seems as if some of these statements are being used as hollering points to try and be disruptive and prevent a real discussion of the content of the bill. I will not speculate as to why this is being done - I think you can figure this out. I don't like parts of the bill but I want to hear opponents and proponents discuss things rationally.
