A/l/a/n/ C/a/r/u/b/a/ Milt Shook Explains It All

Ken Houghton notes the obvious corollary to Bruce Webb’s post on the 1st: if you don’t “read the bill,” the obstructionists will lie about it. UPDATE: And now corrects his misreading (see Bruce’s update below, following on Mitt Shook’s comment).

Milt Shook demonstrates in detail that, even if you do, people such as Alan Caruba of ChronWatch will lie about it anyway. That this post is even necessary is saddening. And that he has to point out fundamentals such as

[Annual Limitation] is on how much a patient will have to pay, not a limit on the health care the patient receives. Watch how many times these tools bring up the “rationing” canard. It’s almost as often as they mention ACORN. (I kid you not. Just wait.)

or my favorite: that maintaining a market depends on people being able to make informed choices:

[Alan Caruba at ChronWatch] Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.

[CarubaShook] This is a phenomenally stupid complaint from a right wing ideological perspective, and it lays bare the moral bankruptcy in their arguments against universal health care. These are the same people who are always touting competition and choice as the most important aspects of capitalism. The point of the insurance exchange is to give people an obvious and transparent choice of health insurance options. A private insurance company can participate and offer their wares alongside the public option, if they so choose. If they don’t want to participate, they’re free to conduct business as usual, and they won’t have to conform to any government rules. Well, except for the ones they must already conform with….They’ve always had to conform to government rules to participate in Medicare, and I don’t see any of them dropping out of business for that. [italics mine; snark omitted]

Go Read the Whole Thing. And think about all the good things Alan Caruba could have been doing if he hadn’t had to waste time dealing with deliberate misreading and outright lies.

(Update by BW: the second link actually goes to a web-site called Please Cut the Crap run by a blogger named Milt Shook. Milt in comments points out that it is he deconstructing Caruba and not the other way around. The lines in italics are Milt, the plain text is from Caruba. ChronWatch=Caruba, ‘Caruba’=Shook for the full Caruba: http://www.chronwatch-america.com/articles/5297/1/Page-After-Page-of-Reasons-to-Hate-ObamaCare/Page1.html)