How many of you have seen the film Death Race 2000 starring David Carradine? It was released in 1975, so maybe not a lot of my readers have seen it.
The (abbreviated) Plot
Set in the future (2000 A.D.), drivers and their navigators compete in a cross country race where the winner is not only the first to make it from New York to Los Angeles in the fastest time, the one who finishes with the most points wins. The drivers score points by mowing down people along the way. Some fans sacrifice themselves for their favorite drivers. Others are unfortunate enough to get in the way by being at the wrong place and the right time.
Once scene in particular seems relevant to the current American battle for health care reform. Along the race course is a nursing home. The doctors and nurses wheel all the old folks in their wheelchairs out to the highway and in the path of the drivers. Apparently old people are big points for the drivers. After the old folks are all out in the street, the doctors and nurses hide behind a row of shrubs to watch the drivers mow down their free points. Frankenstein (played by David Carradine) approaches the old people. At the last fraction of a second, he veers off course, forgoing the opportunity to score big points, and blasts over the doctors and nurses hiding behind the row of shrubs.
The Right Wing Fear Machine is once again preying on the elderly and the ignorant. Rep. Paul Broun claims that the proposed health care reform is gonna kill people. Rep. Steve King says in places like Canada, United Kingdom and Europe “people die in line” waiting for health care. Rep. Louie Gohmert claims that the socialized medicine countries have about 20% worse results claiming that 1 in 5 people die because “they” went to socialized medicine.
One of the craziest claims that I’ve heard so far comes from Rep. Virginia Foxx who says that the current health care system “would not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.” I suppose the current system of people being put to death by private health insurance companies is preferable?
Of course, this is all fear mongering and simply not true. The big problem is that people are starting to believe the insane claims of the Right Wing. There is no euthanasia clause in the proposed law. Old people will not be wheeled out into the streets to die. Seriously. They won’t be murdered – at least not under proposed reform bill. But I would watch out for those insurance lobbyists hiding behind the row of shrubs if I were you.
I thought the Birthers were way out there in la la land. By the way, if I were a citizen of Canada, the United Kingdom or that place called Europe, I would be insulted that American lawmakers think we kill people.
Get settled in front of your computer and read the Bill for yourself. Patience is mandatory because the Bill is long. Tin foil hats are optional.
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