Health-care reform BS roundup for the week

Health and Human Services Secretary (and former Kansas Governor) Kathleen Sebelius worked the Sunday morning talk-show circuit yesterday. The topic was health-care reform. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos thinks the “news” he got out of their conversation was that “the secretary wouldn’t commit to a presidential veto on health care reform legislation that adds to the federal deficit.” He seemed most concerned about how Obama plans to pay for covering everyone. More helpful, however, would be some serious discussion about what exactly the administration means — and doesn’t mean — by a “public plan.”

Stephanopoulos noted that there’s some congressional resistance to “any public plan” — one in which the government would help cover people who don’t have insurance.

Last week, the local Republican talking-point-trio of Reps. Roy Blunt, Sam Graves and Lynn Jenkins weighed in with an “As I See It” opinion piece in The Kansas City Star. Headlined “GOP offers constructive options to improve access to health care,” the piece promised constructive conversation but offered only alarmist rhetoric that Republicans really, really want you to believe.

Oh sure, they spent the first five paragraphs sounding reasonable. But that was only a wind-up for their scary main point: