The Simplest Explanation for Why Palin and Gingrich Are Wrong

You don't have to know a lot about our health care system, or even be a close follower of the recent debate to know and explain how incredibly wrong Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich are.

Two of the leading contenders for the 2012 Republican nomination have said health care reform will lead to "death panels" and "turning power over to the government, when there are clearly people in America who believe in establishing euthanasia...."

Palin said bureaucrats will pass judgment on whether her elderly parents "or my baby with Down Syndrome... are worthy of health care." Gingrich defended her statements (albeit in less bold terms) by talking about "selective standards" for who will be covered.... Therefore, if you're disabled, sick or old, you don't want government health care.

This is equivalent of, "Up is down. Black is white."

The two groups that government seeks out to care for -- not kill -- are the elderly and the disabled. Private insurance companies are the ones who do their best to minimize risk and thereby try to keep these people from joining their rolls. This is Civics 101 -- a principle function of government is to take on needed services the private market deems too costly to provide.

Again, you don't have to know a lot about our health care system, or even know which side of the argument you fall on. But if someone doesn't understand or acknowledge that the government goes out of its way to make sure the disabled and the elderly are cared for, they're irrelevant to this debate. And they're irrelevant because not only do they refuse to accept facts, they believe in the opposite of facts. Gingrich and Palin included.