Sarah Palin admitted in a Canadian interview that her family used to go to Canada to receive health care. That would be Canada’s single-payer health care system.
The vocal opponent of health-care reform in the U.S. steered largely clear of the topic except to reveal a tidbit about her life growing up not far from Whitehorse.
“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” she said. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”
Isn’t that twisted, you mean. Palin has railed against the very idea of health care reform in this country, once going so far as to say there would be federal “death panels” who would decide who could live and who would die. But what does she turn to when she needs a doctor? You got it. A public option. In Canada.
Dogs bark. Birds fly. Politicians lie. There’s no real news here. But the monstrous hypocrisy of Republicans like Palin lying to prevent millions of Americans from getting the health care they need to stay alive while guaranteeing themselves good care — even at the cost of a trip to Canada — is beyond the Palin. So to speak.
Nearly half of America — Medicare, military personnel, federal retirees — already receive their health care from a public option. As far as I know, Peoria hasn’t turned to Stalinism. Dr. Trotsky is not performing tonsillectomies. Opponents of health care reform are bought-and-paid for shills of big insurance. They are being paid to turn you away from the doctor. Not really all that complicated a business arrangement.
America can extend health care to hardworking families AND it will lower the budget deficit that’s suddenly all the rage to worry about. Republicans didn’t mind George Bush tripling the deficit, of course. In any case, like I said, improving Americans’ health will lower, not raise, the deficit.
Goldman Sachs, by the way, is telling its clients to buy stock in big insurance companies, because their profits are up and competition is down. These are the same companies that are rejecting your claims or refusing you coverage altogether because you once had the measles.
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About Glenn W. Smith
Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”
Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.
In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.
As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.
Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.
Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.
As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”
I think it takes a certain intelligence to know you are a hypocrite. You have to know what you said or did (rather than read crib notes in your hand), compare and contrast with other things you said or did, then notice a contradiction. Might be too many steps in there for her. Seems she avoided the dread death panels….
She should do an ad for Irony Snow.
lying hypocritical egotistical bigot. oh yeah – and terrorist sympathizer.
Most Americans (most citizens of U.S.A) are fools because they loves those individuals (like Palin the lying hypocritical egotistical bigot)that feed them with butch of lies. Americans should wake up and put those liars in jail for misleading the country becuase these liars are the one destroying the country.
Actually, most Americans have seen through Palin. Our job is to persuade the others, who too often just don’t get both sides. There are some, of course, who live on snake oil. Darwin oughta take care of them eventually.
Hypocrisy at its best.
Go back to Alaska and shut up!