So, here we are in the middle of the summer's dreadful debate on health care.
While it's enlivening what is often the nation's news-free month of August, it's too bad the wattage of the brainpower being brought to bear on the issue could light only a flickering dim bulb.
Corporate propaganda machines have manufactured outrage over provisions in health care reform bills that allegedly would create "death panels" that would kill grandma—even though it's not true.
It has inspired groups of people to show up and scream at their elected representatives at town hall meetings. It has inspired former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to say people should be concerned about the allegation.
The propagandists are smiling, but no one else should be.
The death panels allegation was crafted from a provision in one bill that would have funded counseling on living wills and end-of-life decisions.
Yet, no one is yelling about the very real Corporate Cubicles of Death in private insurance companies where legions of actuaries figure out how to deny care to really sick people, how to price them out of the market for insurance altogether and how to manufacture reasons to reject claims. All in the name of big profits.
No one is yelling about the cost shifting that goes on in hospitals and emergency rooms every single day. No one is insisting that there's a better way to pay for health care than charging one patient $100 for a plastic container that retails for 99 cents while another pays little or nothing.
Few are expressing indignation that too much of health care is being delivered after someone develops a serious condition instead of preventing it.
Few people seem upset about the fact that the U.S. spends twice as much per capita on health care than other developed nations while our citizens are less healthy.
And how about the folks who oppose any kind of public insurance option and who denigrate the federal government's ability to provide services?
These people get mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, drive on interstate highways, get Social Security payments every month and have their health care providers reimbursed by Medicare. (In case it's not obvious, these are all federal government programs.)
With proposed legislation available on the Web and with reliable news in print, online and on television and radio, the debate should be more thoughtful.
When this cockeyed "debate" ends, it will clearly be time to overhaul the American system of education. Why else would citizens fail to look at facts and use reason and be suckered by irrational fears?
Let's hope they leave a light on at night.
