Letters: Santorum's propaganda is all about his politics

Philadelphia Inquirer
Jul. 13, 2009

I believe it is important for papers like The Inquirer to present diverse opinions on the Commentary page. However, there is a big difference between opinion and propaganda. Rick Santorum's column "Obama's plan? Or yours?" on July 2 was just one distortion and outright lie after another. He claims President Obama's health plan would replace private insurance with a government plan, ration care based on a patient's utility to society, and limit access to expensive therapies. These ideas are not from Obama's plan; they are from focus-group testing by Republicans to identify the ideas the public is most uncomfortable with. Santorum and his cohorts are trying to pin these ideas on Obama to frighten people.

The truth is that Santorum and his party are desperately afraid that if Obama and the Democratic Congress produce successful health-care reform, it will make it much more difficult for them to regain power. Propagandist Santorum next set his sights on global warming, saying the "climate-change bill attempts to solve a problem that is in dispute." Never mind that it is "in dispute" only among Republicans and the scientists on the payroll of the oil companies.

Randall McCann
Philadelphia

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20090713_Letters__Santorum_s_propaganda_is_all_about_his_politics.html