Does Linda Douglass know about this?

Last week White House flack Linda Douglass responded to a video of Barack Obama expressing support for a government takeover of the health care system (i.e., “single payer”) with a vehement denial. Douglass disparaged the video of Obama as “disinformation.” She responded with a video of Obama’s recent poll-tested statements “guaranteeing” that citizens who are happy with their health insurance can keep it under Obamacare. Understand, children?
The White House followed up with a subtle invitation for loyal citizens to report when they receive “an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy” to the official e-mail address [email protected]. It is only a coincidence, incidentally, that Ms. Douglass looks like a cross between Mrs. Lenin and Nurse Ratched. In any event, I duly confessed my own fishy thoughts to the White House.
Now comes Michael Barone with a Moby Dick of fishiness. Barone predicates an entire column on the video below, put together by Verum Serum. In the video three speakers who advocate a “public option” for health insurance explain how it would move America toward a socialized government health care system. “You may not have heard of the first two, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and professor Jacob Hacker,” Barone explains. “But you have heard of the third, President Barack Obama.”
I found Professor Hacker’s lucid 2008 explanation of the government or public option particularly illuminating:

“Someone told me this was a Trojan horse for single-payer. Well, it’s not a Trojan horse, right? It’s just right there. I’m telling you. We’re going to get there, over time, slowly, but we’ll move away from reliance on employer-based health insurance as we should, but we’ll do it in a way that we’re not going to frighten people into thinking they’re going to lose their private insurance. We’re going to give them a choice of public and private insurance when they’re in the pool, and we’re going to let them keep their private employer-based insurance if their employer continues to provide it.”

The Trojan Horse was “right there” too — it was the Greek soldiers concealed within it that were the surprise — but we all understand what Hacker means. The Obama administration’s persistent obfuscation to the contrary notwithstanding, we shouldn’t be fooled as easily as the Trojans were.
Barone concludes: “The video helps us understand how they’re seeking to reach their single-payer goal through government-option stealth.” Linda Douglass, call your office.

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