Becky Zhao | Student Life

The major piece of President Obama’s agenda being discussed in Congress and town halls across the nation is health care and the best way to accomplish reform. Progressive Democrats are striving to insure as many Americans as possible through a variety of methods, including a public insurance plan that would compete with private options. The conservative Blue Dog Democrats seek cheaper reforms that would exclude this public option and prefer cooperative plans—localized, member-operated groups that progressives fear would lack the national coordination and power to compete against private health-care companies and to bring down costs for the average citizen. Various Democratic proposals call for mandates that would either require employers to offer health care or require individuals to have it.

From the Progressives to the Blue Dogs, Democrats of all political leanings have come out with proposals for health-care reform because they want to fix a deeply flawed system under which insurance rates are projected to rise 94 percent by 2020. Many in the political world wonder about this simple question: What is the Republican Party’s response?

Obviously, working in the minority leaves the Republicans with limited options for legislative work. Proposing their own plan would likely not result in legislation but would show the American people that Republicans have plans to help them. Opposing the Democratic plan is another logical step for Republicans. yet the Republicans have chosen neither option, but rather went a third route: to oppose an imaginary scary health-care system they want Americans to believe Democrats endorse.

The leading claim Republicans make against Democratic proposals is that health-care reform will establish “death panels” to decide who lives and dies by providing health care only to those deemed worthy. This charge was originally made by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. This rebuke would be terrifying if its claim were true, but unfortunately for former Governor Palin, the “death panel” concept does not appear in any Democratic proposal. The made-up concept of death panels draws from a perversion of a provision of the main proposed House bill that allows reimbursement to medical professionals providing voluntary counseling on living wills.

Despite the complete inaccuracy of this claim, many Republicans, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Reps. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., and Virginia Foxx, R-Ga., continue to use its fear-evoking propaganda, causing some citizens to reject reform. Republicans enjoy this falsehood so much that conservative activist groups like FreedomWorks, led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, have created fake grassroots events and shouted at members of Congress at town halls about euthanasia. Democrats want to make reform bipartisan, but when senators at the deal-making table like Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa., of the Senate Finance Committee say that the government plans to “pull the plug on Grandma,” many begin to question Republican motives.

Do Republicans want to debate health care by giving Americans facts, or do they prefer to assault it with lies? The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, illustrated the Republican plan for health care when asked his opinion on the death panel claims: “I think that’s perfectly appropriate.” In doing so, the official leader of the national Republican Party choses to attempt to defeat progress with lies rather than by arguing honestly with facts against a plan Democrats actually support.

Last November, the American electorate voted for change because they had had enough of politicians who only care about their own reelection, playing games and lying to the people, and now as Democrats debate with facts and Republicans debate with fantasy, it is clear which party listened.