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Astroturfing Facebook for Obamacare

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Earlier today, just before heading out for a hike with my brother and sister-in-law in Boulder, I caught the same Facebook “status” from a number of my left-leaning friends:

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.

Wonder who’s been pressing them to do that.

So, I responded to a few, saying something like that’s why the President should drop his big-government approach and pursue free-market alternatives.  Then, I hacked out a quick “status” post of my own:

B. Daniel Blatt believes it’s time to abandon Obamacare and press for free-market health care reforms like those John Mackey has proposed.

I encourage you all to respond similarly, to let your liberal friends know that we on the right do favor reform, just not the statist solutions proposed by the President.

UPDATE:  At 7:48 PM mountain time, 18 of my Facebook “friends” posted the “spam” quoted above (or something nearly identical) as their status update.

UP-UPDATE:  By midnight Mountain Time, even more friends have posted said “spam” while some of my conservative and libertarian friends have added a new “status update”:

No one should sacrifice their liberty and tithe the fruits of their labor to see the government fail at something a private charity would succeed at

Comments

  1. I’d prefer something along these lines:

    “No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, reach into your own pocket and pay the full cost of another person’s health insurance rather than trying to use the law to force other people to contribute.”

  12. Yes, one friend of almost twenty years posted this as well. When I told him that it would kill my HSA and I could not support it, he assured me that I could always go on the dole.

    Good grief, what pinheads!

    Best wishes,
    -MFS

  13. I like it sierra!

    I’ve posted this on my page, ” No one should die because they were wearing their iPod while walking along the Metrorail tracks. No one should go broke because that damned roulette wheel is cursed or something. If you agree, well that’s just lovely!”

    I think making fun of it is the best response.

  14. How about, “No one should die because a bureaucrat decides they should and no one should go broke because a bureaucrat has drained their bank on behalf of someone else. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.” It’s all in fun right?

  16. livewire, I’d love to be your friend on FB, I’m simply Leah Kabaker
    I posted something similar, immediately got a response from a lovely liberal. I responded to him civilly, explaining that I am in favor of healthcare reforms, just not government takeover.
    I mentioned tort reform, open markets in buying health insurance.
    Interesting, no response back.

    Another one wondered why I am so angry. To her I responded privately that after being maligned for 8 years I’m done being nice sweet quiet Leah.

  19. There is a poll on Facebook which asks are you in favour of govt healthcare. I have been posting there…. The majority is against the Obamacare… but hey I am coming from the perspective of what we have in Australia. Yes, I do know the difference because I remember what was in place before Gough Whitlam forced govt healthcare upon us. Now I get a lot of out of pocket expenses…..

    Anyway the Astroturfers keep turning up to the discussion. They have the same dull boring memes, one after the other. One of their favourites is to mention the fire department, police, army and roads… the morons who post off the meme do not get it… they are talking about different things!!!

    For example, take the fire department and the police department… in your country these are local. The function belongs to local govt. You also have a state level for the police but not sure about the fire department. In any case you cannot have a private police force running around competing with each other to catch criminals. There has to be some kind of cohesion. On top of that firemen and police perform a civic duty, which is why their pay comes out of local and state taxes. Oh yeah, there is the FBI…. they can be a joke at times… get nothing done… and exist for purpose of pursuit across states or at national level….with them around it does get messy.

    Then there is the roads, and again, you have public access roads that have been built and paid by state and local govt, even though some funds might be provided by the federal govt. In Australia we are supposed to be paying a few cents extra to the Federal govt for our petrol which is then supposed to go back into upgrading the roads…. (I wonder if that is really happening)… then there are the roads built by private contractors rather than govt, for which we pay a toll to use those roads…. The govt is the one that actually agrees to the building of the road.

    Well, these dodos argue that these things are “socialized” but the comparison is false.

    There is a difference and that difference is very stark when you understand how it operates in the UK and in Australia, as well as in Canada.

    The NHS in the UK is in a bit of a crisis at the moment. I think that Australia’s system is working out a lot better, but we have more out of pocket expenses.

    Most of the Astroturfers mention the magic 45 million who are “dying” without healthcare but that is just total bull.

    Of those who do not or cannot get insurance there would be a very small number who require some kind of medical attention. These are people not eligible for medicare or medicaid. The remainder believe that they do not need insurance…..

  22. I think that if you combine Mackey’s ideas with a senior’s bill of rights (which prevents health care from being rationed according to age) and protections for the unborn, you’ve got good health care reform.

  24. I am going to on a daily basis keep changing my status with a lot of the suggested comments. We need to remember what kind of society we want, one that is dependent or self-sufficient. I think it was at this site where I saw this and then printed it up – “Promoting self-sufficiency is about removing abstacles to it and removing incentives not to pursue it. … we will have more independent, productive citizens when we have policies in place that encourage them. …”

  30. I didn’t use FB for the longest time. Then I discovered that I could find old friends and HS buddies. It’s far better than the insipid Myspace.

    Does anyone here play Mafia wars?

    I watched a co-worker play that for an hour once. Didn’t look like the kind of game I’d be interested in. A friend is trying to get me to play some gay looking farm game.

  31. FB has some utility as a means of communication. My sons and I can give each other updates during the day when we’re apart. Last night, my sister and I chatted and began coordinating to buy our mother a new car, which she badly needs.

    (See, this is how society is supposed to work; families taking care of each other. Not calling up the welfare office and demanding that some bureaucrat give my mother a car.)

  32. #31: Of course that is how it is supposed to work, V the K. But to Leftists, generosity is not measured by one’s willingness to take care of their own family members. They measure generosity by one’s willingness to support and campaign for government to take money away from others by force so that it can be used for “the greater good.” Anything less than enthusiastic participation in their sick and twisted version of philanthropy means you are categorically greedy, selfish, and heartless.

    Your comment reminds me of a statement that Sarah Jessica Parker made several years ago that I will NEVER forget because it’s a perfect illustration of the Left’s mentality when it comes to generosity:

    “I’m very, very concerned about the Bush presidency. I’m worried about the kinds of cuts in domestic programs that mean something to a lot of people, including members of my family, who depend on certain things from the government.”

    Keep in mind, she said this the same year that her annual income was estimated to be $35 million. So, when the white trash fringe elements of SJP’s extended family can’t make ends meet, she expects US to pick up the slack, and she sees nothing wrong with taking that position. It not only didn’t occur to her that she was saying something incredibly tacky, she clearly thought she was doing something that she and her liberal friends considered heroic–taking on that evil, George W. Bush. Unbelievable. She got a little flack for it from the right-wing blogs and on talk radio, but not nearly enough.

  33. Yeah, I saw this making the rounds on my FB circles. My response was to post:

    Bruce F Webster is wondering: what _are_ the acceptable reasons for (a) dying and (b) going broke? Shouldn’t we somehow prevent all of them? Can we? And what are the implications for both society and the economy if we try?

    This seemed to go over the head of most of my FB friends. However, my friend Alan Scrivener went one better and posted:

    No one should die and no one should go broke.

  34. Mike Sierra believes that no one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. Mike also believes the only reason such moral declarations are now floating around is because the CBO made short work of the whole “fiscal discipline” argument months ago.