“They’ll send me to jail if I don’t sign up for Obama’s health care,” an 89-year-old woman said at my family holiday gathering last week. She was agitated and angry. “Imagine sending someone to jail – at my age!”
Even the Republicans in the room rushed to reassure her: “You’re covered by Medicare. You’re already signed up. Nobody is going to jail.”
“Well I don’t like it one bit,” she said, still upset.
She’s an intelligent and well-informed person; where did she get this idea?
From Fox News, of course.
Greta Van Susteren interviewed Arizona Republican Rep. John Shadegg during the debate on the House bill. He said, “If you don’t buy government-approved health insurance, then they will impose a tax on you,” and “if you don’t pay the tax . . . we can put you in jail for up to a year.”
Van Susteren didn’t tell him, “that’s not true.” Instead, she asked, “did you ever say, like, to Speaker Pelosi, Hey, what’s up with this? You’re going to send poor people to jail because they can’t buy the health insurance!”
ENEWSPF blog post.
