Before we get started, I would like to take this opportunity to vow that this will not become another blog devoted to the ridicule of one Sarah Palin. First of all, I’m sure I would be entering an already saturated market and secondly, I wouldn’t have the time to keep up with all the crazy shit that vomits out her pie-hole.
That being said, I would still like to draw your attention to Palin’s op-ed piece in today’s Wall Street Journal. The article details Sarah’s “reasoning” for favoring a budget plan set forth by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as opposed to the plan laid out by the president. (I hesitate to use the word reason in conjunction with Palin because the two are incompatible, thus the quotation marks.)
One can always count on Sarah to either ignorantly misunderstand or deliberately misinterpret facts, with results both hilarious and frightening. This article follows that tradition with yet another deployment of her bullshit term “death panels.” Remember Palin making a bunch of nasally noise during the 2008 presidential election about how Obama wanted to kill your grandma and her own baby? 
And remember that, despite the concept being proved to be total fabrication of Palin’s warped mind (and even won her a rather dubious award), that millions of dimwitted “real Americans” believed her?
Well, she remembers. She uses the term again to assert that the president’s plan “implicitly endorses the use of “death panel”-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board—making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare.”
Well, Sarah, that’s just plain bullshit. Because if I’m not mistaken, we already have bureaucrats – in the private insurance industry – deciding who gets what care. So…what’s your point? Oh yeah. Scare the shit out of your fanbase so they keep your coffers full and your ego inflated. Sarah would do well to heed the wisdom of Republican Bob Inglis of Georgia who, in an interview with NPR, stated that “it’s never a good strategy to travel on misinformation. Talking about death panels when there are no death panels is a disservice to the country and, long-term, to the conservative movement.” Amen.
She goes on to extol the virtues of Ryan’s plan with supposed evidence from the Congressional Budget Office. She writes that “According to the [CBO], the Roadmap would lead to lower deficits and a much lower federal debt.” Lower than what? Well, that’s a bit tricky. One might be tempted to assume that Palin is comparing the Ryan’s Roadmap directly to Obama’s plan, but that is not the case. A quick look at the actual CBO document reveals that the theoretical projections of the plan’s impact are compared, per Ryan’s request, to what the CBO calls the “alternative fiscal scenario.” What is this alternative? It is the CBO’s baseline budget projections should current policies remain intact.
Why does this matter? For one, because a careless reading of the article might lead an individual to believe that the venerable CBO thinks Ryan’s plan is better than the president’s. They didn’t even compare them, let alone endorse one. Secondly, it is another example of Sarah’s amazing ability to muddy a debate. Of course Ryan’s plan looks better on paper than the status quo. So does Obama’s. And for that matter, my dog’s pile of shit looks better. Maybe I can smear some of Stella’s stool on a report with CBO letterhead and submit it to Sarah for review…
Finally, I must ask this somewhat unrelated question: who is Palin’s ghostwriter? I mean, come on. Anyone who’s read her Facebook posts knows the lady lacks a firm grasp on the English language (her writing reminds me of some of my old 7th grade students) and is incapable of writing with the “clarity” she does here. I want a ghostwriter, too! 