My Letter to the White House's new Reality Check Web Site on Health Care

The White House launched a new web site today called 'Reality Check' to present the 'facts' about the Health Care Bill and debunk myths and disinformation.

Reality Check

While there has been some talk about President Obama’s efforts to have people ‘inform’ the Administration about people spreading disinformation regarding the Government Health Care initiative, I thought it would be great to write the White House through this new site to tell them with out a real Bill it it’s finalized to be voted on form that there is no information that is not disinformation.

Here is my letter.

I urge other ATS Members that feel as I do to write the White House too!

I would like to point out in reality that there is no finalized version of a Health Care Bill to get the facts on.

As a critically minded non-partisan citizen I feel it is disingenuous to claim that this site presents facts when in reality there are no facts to present, since there is no finalized Bill.

While partisan politics allows for emotionally charged public relations efforts that claim to be factual, critical thinkers would actually like facts.

Without a finalized Bill ready to be voted on by Congress and the Senate there is absolutely no credible way to portray these efforts on the behalf of either the left of the partisan political divide to claim anything is factual at this point, or the right of the political divide to claim anything is factual.

I would dare to say that what has caused such rancor that middle of the road Americans and critical thinkers find so distasteful is for either the right or the left of the partisan divide to claim anything based on fact when there is no Bill in finalized form to view, dissect and comment upon.

Both parties are basically just waging a public relations campaign to be either for or against something that doesn’t exist.

It’s just plain foolish and it really does make the claim of ‘change you can believe in’ absolutely nonsensical.

This is not transparency in government as there is no Bill that is up for vote on to present the facts of.

This is a transparent attempt at public relations simply aimed at saying you can trust the Administration to do the right thing.

The people of the United States of America should get to decide what is the right thing based on real facts on a real Bill and the Government really ought to get serious about producing a real Bill first and then presenting it to America instead of simply gauging through public relations if they can simply garner enough support to vote any Bill through, without letting it be dissected by the American public first.

It’s politics as usual in Washington D.C. and in the White House and it really is not change or transparency except in the level of effort being put into public relations and pretending there are some facts involved which are in fact not involved since there is no Bill.

It’s shameful.

Very nice letter and my thoughts exactly. No finalized version for anyone to be debating. However, I am glad people are waking up finally in a small way. I do agree with Obama's vision of the plan. My concern lays with congresses version of the bill, as well as if Obama would veto a bill that doesn't conform to the standards he set for congress. If he is not willing to veto a bill that doesn't conform to his vision, then he has an agenda. I will not accept, well the bill increases our debt further, but it's better than nothing response from Obama.

What was promised by Obama is being mutilated in congress, and there are some in congress with very good ideas that as I understand it are being ignored.

That is awesome, I had that idea myself, but you have acted on it.

This is a very legitimate claim, because if a bill is not written what exactly is there to debunk? Crazy people.

I really am amazed that either side of the partisan political divide or either side for or against the Health Care Bill could lay claim to being able to present facts and to debunk anything at this stage since there is no Bill in finalized form to vote on.

As a critical thinking person who loves to read and devour information and then assess it with my own perspectives and reasoning I do find it absolutely ludicrous that the White House could post such a brazen website with Taxpayer money and to call it Reality Check and the real facts and what’s true and what’s not true when the idea of Government Health Care exists only in theory form and not finalized form.

The new administration has not amassed a good track record of presenting the actual legislation of major Bills like the Bail Outs before conducting rushed votes on 1,000 page long bills that not even enough have been printed yet at the time of the vote for even a majority of the members of Congress to read, or the actual time to read and dissect them to the few members who get the finalized copies before they are then voted in to law.

The Health Care Bill with 3 versions in the House, and 2 versions in the Senate is bound to follow this disturbing trend at this point while the Administration and the Democrats promote and shameless and shameful public relations campaign to make it seem like there is a real plan that has real things in it, and certain concerning things won’t be in it.

Considering the Administration has not kept its promise to post major legislation in its final form for 3 days before being voted on and passed into law, and has consequentially not brought new and higher levels of transparency to Government but seems to be lowering the standards in deliberate and premeditated ways, what has become transparent is sites like Reality Check designed to simply wage a ‘you can trust us’ public relations campaign when clearly we can’t trust the administration or at least shouldn’t trust the administration on it’s mounting track record of abuses of transparency in government.

It’s why I am urging all concerned people regardless of your Party affiliation or whether you or pro Government Health Care or against Government Health Care to write the White House and let them know that there is no Bill and we the people really do want to see a finalized Bill and debate a finalized Bill before it is passed into law.

reply to post by Hastobemoretolife


I strongly urge you to write an email to the White House through the contact form on Reality Check and let them know the Reality of how YOU feel!

This is a tech savy, public relations driven administration and while they will try to spin the 'facts' and the media will help in that regard, privately they can't ignore the facts being presented to them, if enough people are presenting them.

To them it's all a calculated numbers game based on polls and trends.

A trend of letters flooding the White House demanding a finalized Bill before having these nonsensical and damaging to public moral debates would likely cause them to rethink there strategies if the numbers of responses actually dictate it.

We all complain to one another and often about one another here on ATS, why not take your complaint straight to the source...the Administration...I have.

It bothers me to think that if the congress ,where the Democrats have a majority and there's nothing the republicans can do, are having a hard time coming up with a final version then how can the gov't be taken seriously to run something as vast and intricate as healthcare? Plus the fact that members of congress won't even follow the plan, if it's going to be such a great plan then why are they exempt?

I have a lot of concerns about this whole healthcare reform and the people who are trying to shape it. I support healthcare reform in general, but please give me a bill that cares for all people of all ages and conditions adn one that doesn't have so many open ended taxes. The house version just seems to be a "god mode" of taxation for the govt (god-mode from video games), more gov't inovlement and more attention on the more productive aspects of the population to the exclusion of those who can't generate as much "tax revenue" as younger healther ones.

Originally posted by ExPostFacto
Very nice letter and my thoughts exactly. No finalized version for anyone to be debating. However, I am glad people are waking up finally in a small way. I do agree with Obama's vision of the plan. My concern lays with congresses version of the bill, as well as if Obama would veto a bill that doesn't conform to the standards he set for congress. If he is not willing to veto a bill that doesn't conform to his vision, then he has an agenda. I will not accept, well the bill increases our debt further, but it's better than nothing response from Obama.

What was promised by Obama is being mutilated in congress, and there are some in congress with very good ideas that as I understand it are being ignored.

I posted this Thread earlier today that you might want to check out.

Obama's Grass Roots Network Put to the Test

It deals with a Los Angeles Times article and interviews some of the people around the country involved with Obama's private network Organizing for America and some of the concerns they have that Obama might be selling out some of the ideals his network supporters cherished to Corporate interests and middle of the road moderate Republican interests to get the support he feels is needed to pass major legislation like Health Care Reform.

While many of his 12,000,000 strong orginization are as ardent as ever in their support for the President a growing number are voicing concerns like yours and some are even defecting and abandoning the orginization and withdrawing their support for Obama.

You might want to check it out.

Thanks for posting.

reply to post by Kords21


A lot of people feel like you do friend, and Health Care really is important to a lot of people in ways that most Government Bills and decisions aren't.

The uninsured and poor have a legitimate need for better protection and coverage, those already on various forms of government health care through Medicare and Medicaide and the Veterans Administration have real concerns how there current government health care coverage might change.

There is a lot of rhetoric a lot of conjecture but no real facts in the absence of a bill. It's starting to tear America at the seams it's such an important issue but frankly it's an important issue being handled poorly by the Administration and Congress and Americans should really stop fighting each other over it, and take that complaint of poor handling and share it with the government and not accept slickly produced high tech web and media imagry and platitudes as fact, when there are no facts.

The more I really think about it, the more I think this whole healthcare reform is a shell game. If there is no final verison of the bill, then 1)How can the Obama administration "debunk" anything. If they say "Rumor A" is false cause in the bill we want to put in "X,Y,Z" and that part gets axed as a concession to the Republicans then how do they look? and 2)The protestors regardless if they're planted or not only have the House bill to go by and it's not final.

At the same time you have the media and various politicians stirring the pot calling concerned (in my book) Americans "Un-American", Obama calling out his union thugs to "push back twice as hard" and telling Americans to "Stop talking and get out of the way". This whole thing is starting to look like a way to get people riled up. The only question is why?

reply to post by Kords21


Your points are all valid and excellent ones, but the better question really should be, 'why are people falling for it'?

I am promoting a strategy of not falling for it and putting the Administration on notice, that we won't degrade ourselves to fighting one another over government's inability to do their jobs first and to feed us bits and pieces of an abstract idea to square us into fighting camps when we are essentially fighting over nothing since there is no real bill.

The only thing being accomplished is how many people will fight against one another based on which camps they allign themselves with, whether it's to the left, the center, or the right is really irrelevant because there is nothing relevant to fight over since there is no Bill.

We should all be fighting against the poor job and tactics of the Adminsitration and Congress for putting us in this position where we feel pressured to react simply to react.

Why? really should be "Why are we falling for it and attacking one another" when in reality we should be calling ALL of government out Left and Right as to why they aren't doing their jobs properly.

What we should be protesting and for is Government producing an actual Bill that we can then debate.

I'm not sure if this whole thing was designed this way from the get go or it's a "Crisis you don't want to go to waste". I think in the start there was genuine outrage at the healthcare bill, Obama's support was waning so what better way to get back some support than to dismiss it as rascist, astroturf. While the media is keeping people focused on the rascist astroturf part, groups like Acorn/Seiu are getting more involved, more visible and reaffirming the President's influence. They already admitted the New York flyover was a way to test people's reactions via social networks. Invoking memories of 9/11 in New York seems like a sick way to test how fast something is covered on the internet.

I think there's something more going on here than what meets the eye. What credible gov't would put out a draft of a bill that would tax it's citizens back to the stone age, put medical research back in the dark ages and then ration care to certian parts of its population? Those are just my interpretations of the bill and not someone else's. The Gates controversy may have been a setup or a situation that created a crisis for them to start the fire and the healthcare bill the gas.

reply to post by Kords21


Basically a credible government wouldn't. Or at least a credibly and responsibly run government wouldn't.

That's why I think it's a good idea to let them know we don't think it's credible!

S & F. Great post!
I think that perhaps inherent in the WH Reality check is the Freudian admission that they KNOW what will be placed in the bill, once both houses pass it, and it goes to committee for reconciliation. What many people (I'm sure you know, but many don't) don't know is that unless the house and senate both pass identical bills, it will go to a committee, which is controlled by Democrats, to "reconcile the bill". This is where very nasty things can happen. Since the Democrats completely control the Senate, and since Biden presides over it, any question as to the applicability of the Byrd Provision will be decided in favor of the Democrats. That will essentially allow them to rewrite the bill any way they like, and then a simple 50-yea vote makes it law. So worrying about what is in the bill now is meaningless. It is what OBama and the radicals have promised will be in the bill that should concern all of us. With only 20 hours of debate in the reconciled bill, and no filibuster possible, the Senate will certainly pass whatever the majority of the Democrats want. Obama knows this, and so does everyone in Congress.

....and just think... most people don't have a clue as to what will happen... all of this debate is to keep your eye off the ball...the process will kill all of us. Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain....He is just pulling all the strings.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus

....and just think... most people don't have a clue as to what will happen... all of this debate is to keep your eye off the ball...the process will kill all of us. Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain....He is just pulling all the strings.

I have been thinking that's for sure Professor and it sure has me concerned. We absolutely have no idea what so ever what is going to actually end up in that Bill as you so masterfully have pointed out.

We ought not to accept such shoddy treatment from our government regardless of parties or personalities, loyalties or affiliations.

Democracy only works when the citizens are informed and involved and we are clearly not informed and what we are really being involved in is little more than a shell game and distraction to create the illusion that we are engaged in the process.

It is just an illusion though as there is no Bill that is finalized and ready to vote on, and the way government has been doing business as of late there is little chance we will see the real Bill before it's voted on...

Unless of course Americans start speaking out that they really just want one thing, to be informed with real answers and for all of our government representatives to be accountable and responsive and responsible to the citizens who can only make democracy work as it should if they are informed and involved.

Clearly many people all over the nation want to be involved.

Now it's on the government to give us real information.

It's on us to insist upon it!

Thanks for your insightful as always post Professor.

Well the White House must be very busy or not respond to criticism well.

I checked the response requested box on their Email form but alas neither the President or anyone of his 12,000,000 volunteers has had a chance to get back to me yet.

I wonder if they ever will?

I wonder if they will just sent me some peppy form letter telling me how excited they are for my support showing how oblivious they are to what people write them like my congresswoman and Senators usually do...

Or if they will offer a specific reply based on what I specificly wrote?

Odds anyone?

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

I checked the response requested box on their Email form but alas neither the President or anyone of his 12,000,000 volunteers has had a chance to get back to me yet. I wonder if they ever will?

I never received a response to any of the emails that I sent to the WH early in Obama's administration (February timeframe). I don't think they ever respond to them, although when Bush was President, I actually did get responses, even though I know they were pre-canned responses. At least they acknowledged that they received the emails.
I'm sure that all the Obama administration did was put me on another red list. I'm on so many already, that I think they use a rubber stamp with my name on it.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


I am guessing I will get an email response in about a week and it will be a form letter.

I did another thread earlier today on an article in the L.A. Times that covered Obama's grass roots orginization. He in theory has a 12,000,000 person email data base of volunteers from his campaign that have pledged to help him with policy initiatives throughout his administration.

A number of them stated in the article that the orginizational efforts are slow and sloppy and that many of them are frustrated waiting for direction from the group which is now being run as a seperate part out of the DNC.

When Bush first got elected to his first term I was working at a business owned by a black man very into democratic and black politics and prominent in the endeavor. He was a control freak that loved to read all incoming mail regardless of who it was addressed too for security reasons.
So enjoying the twisted sense of humor I do, I applied online for a job in the Administration knowing that they would snail mail the reply to work and he would read it. Talk about funny! He was actually worried and I got a raise out of it.

It's nice to have a responsive White House!

I don't know what the Obama die hard supporters feel/think, but it seems to me that on some level they think this Healthcare bill is bad, but I think that Heatlhcare is the last peg they have to hang onto that would make Obama a "success" and they don't want to be wrong about him despite his list of broken promises (the war, lobbyists and such).

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

So enjoying the twisted sense of humor I do, I applied online for a job in the Administration knowing that they would snail mail the reply to work and he would read it. Talk about funny! He was actually worried and I got a raise out of it. It's nice to have a responsive White House!

That's great. I think you've given a lot of working people ideas. Too bad I'm retired and can't pull that one.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


I don't know when they start floating your name for Secretary of Education you might find a lot of job offers enticing you out of retirement.

Oh wait you can't be Secretary of Education you actually pay your taxes, have no criminal record and are a highly respected academic!

Sure doesn't seem to be the kind of qualifications this administration looks for!