EDITOR:
Mr. Sullivan's latest diatribe is yet another example of the progressive/liberal tactic of falsely accusing conservatives (ie. Republicans) of everything that he, in his "enlightened" opinion is apparently in favor of.
He denigrates any attempt to consider reasonable alternatives to health care bills, which Democrats in Congress and Obama want to rush through before the true economic costs and extent of compromising our freedom of choice can be assessed.
Mr. Sullivan, I deplore your derision aimed at millions of Americans, many of whom are not even the dreaded Republicans.
These "Tea Party" people are average Americans who are rightly concerned about the form and substance of the proposed legislation, and the process being used to force it down our throats.
I find it interesting that you feel compelled to prove your point using the "community organizing" practices of misrepresenting facts, attempting to trivialize opposing views and engaging in personal attacks as outlined in Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals."
You, along with Obama's administration and the liberals (so-called) in Congress, are using those tactics against thousands of Americans who are exercising their Constitutional rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.
It seems that liberals only want free speech if you agree with them.
You seem to think that attempting to insult 46 percent of the Americans, who did not vote for your candidate or his views, by calling them stupid is a smart tactic which will win public sentiment over to your views.
As for your "facts" regarding U.S. health care, you are flat wrong on several key points in your argument.
1. The current estimated life span for Americans is 78 years, not 69, which is on par with most of the developed nations. The only reference I could find that lists the U.S. life expectancy you quoted as 69 years is the World Health Organization, based on their report from the year 2000. They no longer produce that report "due to the complexity of the task."
2. The ranking of countries that you quote is really lying with statistics. The ranking of life expectancy is not an indication of the quality of health care, (see Wikipedia.org, list_of_countries_by_life_expectancy).
The fact is that rankings are irrelevant, as they prove nothing about the quality or availability of health care. Longevity is greatly influenced by genetics, in which many of the European nations differ substantially from the U.S.
3. Your argument totally ignores the huge increase in taxes and/or denial of coverage that the current proposals will require.
The costs could saddle the U.S. with the same tax rate as Sweden which is nearly 50 percent of the gross national product, and has a top income tax rate of 57 percent.
If you spent less time disparaging opponents and actually read the bill, perhaps you would see that this is simply bad legislation being rushed through without regard to the costs.
James White
Gardnerville
