Just a comment

To illustrate how frustrating many elements of the ongoing health care debate are, I'd like to share a brief conversation with a friend of mine from church who's a doctor.

This gentleman was trying to convince me that neither side - Democratic or Republican - was being honest in the debate, and the example he drew from was the end of life counseling provisions. He said that such provisions were absolutely essential to long-term and meaningful reform, but both sides swung and missed on it. He said Democrats structured the proposal in a way that wasn't reflective of the realities of the situation, while Republicans, you know, equated such provisions to killing off your grandma.

Now, it's not that his position is without merit, it's just that in an attempt to offer evenhanded criticism he's creating false equivalencies. The criticism of Democrats, arguably a viable one, is grounded in real and substantive debate (i.e. how can we craft this proposal in the best way possible?).

The Republican take on end of life counseling, however, is more like science fiction. There is absolutely no clause or provision in any of the pieces of legislation that would establish death panels charged with a systematic killing of our elderly citizens. There is no argument to justify that take because, well, it's pure lunacy.

Equating a rational critique of a policy proposal with outright insanity makes no sense.