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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (1485)	11/21/2003 9:59:23 PM
From: laura_bush	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

AARP's CEO is bent, just like the rest of them. Former Ad Agency Exec Who Heads AARP Wrote Preface To Gingrich Book On Healthcare: Novelli Lavishly Praised Healthcare Ideas Of Discredited Former House Speaker And Favorite Wing Nut buzzflash.com November 18, 2003 A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS Seniors and Democrats were stunned when the AARP announced its support of the Trojan Horse Republican Medicare bill. The AARP message board is burning up with rage against the AARP and its CEO, William D. Novelli, the former public relations whiz kid. Seniors appear to be canceling their memberships and calling for heads to roll at AARP headquarters. [LINK] But Novelli defiantly dismissed membership outrage at his alliance with the Republicans, who see the proposed Medicare bill as the first step in the privatization and dismantling of the senior health insurance program. In response to [Senator Tom] Daschle's tart prediction that he [Novelli] would face a revolt within his organization over this bill, Novelli said, 'There's not going to be a revolt within AARP. There's going to be a problem if Congress fails to pass this legislation.'"[LINK] Mr. Novelli claims he has his AARP seniors in the bag for the GOP. But is being an enthusiastic supporter of Newt Gingrich's wing nut healthcare plan for America doing the best for seniors? Novelli is such a fan of Gingrich that he wrote a preface to Newt's babbling right wing treatise on how to destroy the healthcare safety net for seniors and other Americans: "Saving Lives & Saving Money." This is what Novelli said in praise of Gingrich's book: Saving Lives & Saving Money Preface By William D. Novelli Executive Director and CEO AARP Writing about health and health care is a big job. Writing about transforming the entire American healthcare system is even more daunting. In Saving Lives and Saving Money, Newt Gingrich has done an admirable job of both. He has clearly and comprehensively described the problems with our current healthcare system, explained why it cannot continue to stagger along, and most importantly, offered his own ideas about how to transform our current mess into a 21st century system that saves lives and money. Gingrich believes that our healthcare system is beyond reform -- that it needs to be transformed into something totally different than it is today. "Reforming," Newt says, is the process of trying to make the current pattern work. "Transforming" is about developing new and very different patterns. Volumes have been written about the problems with our healthcare system, and hundreds (if not thousands) of conferences are held every year with experts discussing how addressing a specific piece of the problem will improve the system. Yet, with all the talking and tinkering, costs continue to rise while quality care continues to decrease. Newt Gingrich has never been one to tinker. He is a big idea person, and moreover, he has the ability to link big ideas into something even larger still. He believes it is time to focus the healthcare debate where it truly belongs -- on people's health. That is what Gingrich does in Saving Lives and Saving Money. The gap between the health and healthcare we should have and what we actually have is appallingly huge, and will only get larger if we don't transform the system. And, in the process of improving our health, the nation can also save billions of dollars if we make substantial changes in the way we practice health and health care. Gingrich is proposing nothing less than dramatically changing one of the largest segments of our economy. His ideas for transforming the system are not academic theories. They are based on real-life examples of entrepreneurial changes people are making across the healthcare system throughout the country, and he offers specific examples to back up his claims and allow people to find out more. Transformation of America's healthcare system is one of the biggest challenges facing our nation. In 2011, the first members of the 76 million baby boomer generation will begin turning 65. This will have a dramatic and lasting impact on our health-care system simply because older people tend to use healthcare more. Transformation does not happen overnight. As Gingrich points out, it took us twenty years to transform our welfare system. We don't have twenty years to get our healthcare system in order. We have to start work on it now. Newt's ideas are influencing how we at AARP are thinking about our national role in health promotion and disease prevention and in our advocating for system change. [Bolding added by BuzzFlash] He writes: "The healthcare debate is not about Democrats and Republicans. It's not about liberals and conservatives. The health debate is about your life and the lives of your family. The healthcare debate is about your money and your family's money." I would only add, it's also about your future...and America's. Whatever your views and your state of health, you will find Saving Lives and Saving Money bold, enlightening, and provocative. While you may not agree with all of Gingrich's ideas, this book will engage you in thinking about -- and probably acting on -- health and healthcare. That's important, because as he observes, transforming our nation's healthcare system will take all of us to make it happen. And, indeed, it must happen. Our health, our families, and our futures depend on it. William D. Novelli Executive Director and CEO AARP Newt liked Novelli's slobbering praise so much that he highlights it on his "transformational" healthcare (to feed business to his consulting firm) website. [LINK] Like all Republican positioning, Gingrich uses Orwellian tactics in his crusade to enrich the insurance companies and shaft the average American, calling his site: "Center for Health Transformation: Better Health, Lower Cost." Who is Gingrich's ally in putting a knife in the back of American seniors? Why it's William Novelli, CEO of AARP.

To: American Spirit who wrote (1485)	11/22/2003 7:28:04 AM
From: Selectric II	Respond to of 90947

Bill Frist's brother runs a major HMO so that's one huge conflict of interest. The diarrhea is supposed to come out the other end, 051. Would you have Frist resign from the Senate, or his brother resign from the HMO? At the same time, should DascHole resign from the Senate, or should his wife resign as a lobbyist for the airlines? And, should Kerry resign from the Senate, or should his wife give up her interest in Heinz foods? And why in the world did the CIA send that guy Wilson to Africa in search of WMD's, essentially to see whether his own wife, a WMD expert, had done her job correctly? Please give us the link to your claim that AARP is losing members "by the droves" for supporting Bush's Medicare plan. Is it the same nonexistent link in support of your entirely false claim that 10,000 American GI's died in Vietnam since '72?