I take a cheap shot at Obama today by referencing Stalin’s infamous “Plot Against the Doctors” while criticizing the President’s healthcare plan in my latest Talking Through My Hat. But is it such a cheap shot? [Yes, it is.-ed. Okay, but for a reason.] Frankly, this healthcare reform reforms nothing so much as the working conditions of doctors – and for the worse. As you will see if you view the video, I come from a medical family. My father was a doctor and a devoted one. He died of an aneurysm at the age of 70 on the way to treat a patient. My mother found him with his head slumped over the steering wheel, the car still in the garage. Norman Simon was the friend of many distinguished doctors. I grew up around them. I don’t want to say that with Obamacare we will never see the likes of them again – but it’s quite possible.
To view Obama’s “Plot Against the Doctors” click here. For other episodes of Talking Through My hat go here.
Considering that the White House is already accusing its health care critics of spreading “disinformation” (a fine Soviet word), the tone of of the debate is likely to become ever more Soviet. I wonder when the Obama Administration will start accusing its critics of being “rootless cosmopolitans” (безродные космополити).
Excellent and timely subject matter. And I learned something which is always a plus.
I do understand your point. My birth certificate says my first name is “Baby Boy,” because I wasn’t expected to survive long enough to worry about it. The medical profession “rewired” my gastrointestinal system, and not only did I survive, my beautiful daughter starts her junior year in high school in a few weeks. Those are certifiable miracles.
My own theory on this subject is its all based upon the bankruptcy of Medicare and Medicaid. Sooner or later the feds are going to have to start rationing those services, there simply isn’t enough money to keep feeding those beasts.
And the feds can not stomach having to face voters when that happens. So what’s the solution? Ration every one’s health care.
Joseph Stalin was alway anti-Semitic. If pushed to the wall, I suspect that he would have said that their very DNA compelled them to be enemies of the revolution. There is only one really important difference between Stalin and Adolph Hitler: the Communist dictator would never allow ideology to get in the way of practical concerns! The Jews were particularly useful in winning the war. Stalin would simply bide his time until he concluded they were no longer needed.
Doctor/Patient confidentiality will be the first casualty of this casuist propaganda campaign if it were to succeed.
I wonder if your grandfather was on his way to a hospital emergency or a house call.
House calls from a doctor who lives in your neighborhood?
Gone with The Wind.
Where do I make out the check? Those doctors are reputed to have come up with a doctors plot of their own: it bares a marked similarity to the ideas currently espoused by Rahm Emmanuel’s brother concerning “end of life” issues.
Well, at least we won’t have the post office to kick around any more or something like that.
It is beyond ironic that the president says AARP is on board when they aren’t. Perhaps that bit of disinformation could be sent along to the White House.
The Democrats have gone off the deep end with this, they really have.
Soviet medical anecdote: according to Sebag-Montefiore, one of Stalin’s guys had severe insomnia and the doctors prescribed cocaine, creating “one of history’s most unlikely coke addicts.” They also prescribed brisk exercise for Andrei Zhdanov (arguably #2 from ’45-’48) after he had suffered a heart attack.
Obama: “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems”
I wonder if Obama knows he just made the argument against government-controlled healthcare.
EdSki:
Well said!
Mr. Obama, I beseech you in the bowels of Buddha to think you may be wrong.
It’s going to boil down to the trust level people have in Obama. He says categorically that healthcare reform won’t have all the dangers you are afraid of. Those who believe him will support it. Those who do not believe him will not support it. What he says on other matters actually matters here, because it bears on the issue of trust.
“They also prescribed brisk exercise for Andrei Zhdanov (arguably #2 from ‘45-’48) after he had suffered a heart attack.”
Hey, it was just Soviet cardiology! During Soviet times, Moscow had a cardiology clinic on the top floor of a five-story walk up.
(You still see many five story apartment buildings in Russia – the Soviet Union decreed that any building six stories or taller had to have an elevator, so a five story building got around that restriction.)
“I wonder when the Obama Administration will start accusing its critics of being “rootless cosmopolitans””
That will be reserved for critics of his Middle East policy.
I call doctors the artists of the scientific world. What artist-scientist worth his salt would want to spend his career in the straight jacket of government control?
“I call doctors the artists of the scientific world. What artist-scientist worth his salt would want to spend his career in the straight jacket of government control?”
Precisely.
The Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (slipped into the Porkulus and already in place) will determine the “meaningful use” of care and treatment for patients by doctors. Stepping outside federal guidelines in any individual case – even if it results “effective” treatment, ie; healing, curing the patient – could result in physicians feeling the council’s bureaucratic wrath, be it through fines or even jail time. Nice.
Creativity and individual initiative are anathema to these dirty rotten statists. But hey, no rationing here! Trust us!
Lightenin’ —
Where in the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research legislation does it mention fines or jail time?
ricpic –
Who’s proposing government operated health care?
Obamacare will be just like the post office, long lines and shitty service. However, there is one major difference between the two. If the post office screws up, little Johnny doesn’t get grandma’s birthday card she sent him. If Obamacare screws up, you die.
Chack out my take, and stick around for more good content.
http://libertarianhumor.com/2009/08/12/obama-post-office/
R,
I haven’t the foggiest. Someone who does is Dr. Dave Janda, whom I heard interviewed on local Detroit radio, WJR-760′s “Frank Beckman Show” this morning. He discussed his experience as the keynote speaker at a Congressional Dinner this past July, and also having read both the Porkulus and the House health bill we all need so badly. Here is a link to his views from the first source I found on Google:
http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/3714/87/
Much like our Dear Leader, I may not be “familiar” with the exact wording of every particular provision in every piece of legislation so have an “Aha!” moment if you like – I enjoy those myself – but I do know when something stinks and this is a rancid sewer we have here.
LH
“I haven’t the foggiest.” I didn’t think you did. And that goes for Dr. Janda as well. There’s so much factually inaccurate with his column it’s hard to know where to start. He’s literally just making stuff up. If he’s as careless in the OR as he is in his work for the The Mackinac Center, he deserves to lose his license.
“If he’s as careless in the OR as he is in his work for the The Mackinac Center, he deserves to lose his license.”
Maybe you should flag him then.
BigEdsBlog;
Bad analogy.
The post office is over 95% effective and rarely loses letters. It also runs without your tax dollars, subsisting on the sales of services and stamps.
Can you name another government agency that is nearly as efficient?
No one ever talks about what would account for true healthcare reform: The return of house calls!