Palin: Prez can make up things, but I’m going to call him out

If you wonder why Democrats and their media wing are still going into full defensive mode every time Sarah Palin speaks, writes, emails, or uses Facebook, you only need to look at the ObamaCare debate. While other Republican politicos have ranged from worthless to slightly better than worthless (Senator Jim DeMint excepted—he’s been good), Palin has been fighting back. From the “death panels” remark (after which the bill’s provisions were rewritten to meet her objections) to her analyses of ObamaCare and her attacks and responses to the Obama administration’s feints and falsehoods, she has taken a leading role in rallying popular opposition. Hence, Obama believed it necessary in his latest ObamaCare speech to refer to her, albeit without mentioning her name, as allegedly peddling lies.

It has become known that the administration was peeved about this op-ed piece by Palin in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, in which she challenged rather the whole of Obama’s proposals. She attacked the costs, rationing, and government restrictions on choice inherent in the plan. She backed the free-market, pro-competition proposal by Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, a blueprint for reform that I also generally like:

“As the Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon and others have argued, such policies include giving all individuals the same tax benefits received by those who get coverage through their employers; providing Medicare recipients with vouchers that allow them to purchase their own coverage; reforming tort laws to potentially save billions each year in wasteful spending; and changing costly state regulations to allow people to buy insurance across state lines. Rather than another top-down government plan, let’s give Americans control over their own health care. ”

Obama managed to turn the line about vouchers into another scare tactic in his speech tonight, in an attempt to bamboozle people into supporting his plan. That was right after he denounced the alleged use of scare tactics by opponents.

Then there is this Facebook posting, in which she (correctly) points out that the White House’s attempts to distract from their problems by attacking her Medicare voucher proposal do not refute her other pro-market proposals. Moreover, she wonderfully taunts the ObaMedia: “One last thing: after President Obama’s speech tonight, listen for which pundits use the words ‘false’, ’scary’, and ‘risky’ in describing the proposals I put forward. That’s how you’ll be able to tell who the White House counted as ‘allies’ worthy of receiving its talking points.”

Then there is this rebuttal to the President’s speech, in which she correctly summarizes the plan as being the usual penchant for Democrats to turn over everything to the government. Moreover, she skewers the President’s double-talk and hypocrisy. Three excerpts:

“And it’s hard to listen to the President lecture us not to use “scare tactics” when in the next breath he says that ‘more will die’ if his proposals do not pass.”

“In his speech the President directly responded to concerns I’ve raised about unelected bureaucrats being given power to make decisions affecting life or death health care matters. He called these concerns ‘bogus,’ ‘irresponsible,’ and ‘a lie’ — so much for civility.”

“In fact, after promising to ‘make sure that no government bureaucrat …. gets between you and the health care you need,’ the President repeated his call for an Independent Medicare Advisory Council — an unelected, largely unaccountable group of bureaucrats charged with containing Medicare costs. He did not disavow his own statement that such a group, working outside of ‘normal political channels,’ should guide decisions regarding that ‘huge driver of cost … the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives….’ He did not disavow the statements of his health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, and continuing to pay his salary with taxpayer dollars proves a commitment to his beliefs. The President can keep making unsupported assertions, but until he directly responds to the arguments I’ve made, I’m going to call him out too.”

Go get ‘im, Sarah.