Health Care Debate Heats Up
August 21, 2009
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Posted by Michael S. Langston
Well, the debate is heating up and President Obama has come out swinging. As usual in politics though, he’s using faulty appeals to emotion and logical fallacies to push his views. Even though it is normal, I still believe it’s wroth noting as we all deserve better from our representatives in DC when they are asking the people to trust them with the magnitude of health care reform.
He starts with his new call to health care by arguing morality. A few nights ago in an interview when discussing opponents of the current health care reform Mr. Obama stated (here):
These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation. That is that we look out for one other, that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper. And in the wealthiest nation on earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call.
Whether you believe this or no in really inconsequential to the health care reform as it is currently taking place. I will say that if the President truly believes this, then that is a good thing. We need empathetic leaders, however it’s a false appeal to emotion. Because whether you believe this or not, has nothing to do with whether the government should or should not be pushing a public option in the current health care bill.
Of course he didn’t stop there, he’s now threatening to go it alone, meaning without Republican support (here):
While continuing to argue he wants a bipartisan bill, President Obama today for first time publicly blamed Congressional Republican leaders for seeing health care reform in only political terms. And for the first time he acknowledged Democrats might go it alone….
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“I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, ‘Look, let’s not give them a victory. maybe we can have a replay of 1993-94 when Clinton came in. He failed on health care and the we won on the midterm elections. and we got the majority.’ And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out of that playbook.”…
Giving us a very nice example of a logical fallacy known as the false dichotomy. By framing the debate in this way, the President is basically stating, “Those who don’t want a public option and against reform” as if only two options existed.
In effect, Mr. Obama has paraphrased the former President when Mr. Bush said, “You’re either with us or against us.”
Mr. President – I humbly submit that wanting to kill the current health care bill is not the same thing as wanting to kill health care reform.
Categories: Politics
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Tags: False Dichotomy, Health Care Reform, Obama Administration, Politics, Public Option
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