With all the trash talk from Republicans in Congress about how Democratic health reform will gut Medicare and shave years off the lives of Grammy & Gramps, the dark little musical comedy video right below this article represents a little grassroots feedback, courtesy of the South Florida branch of the international activist organization, Raging Grannies, founded in 1987.

GOP fear-mongers in the U.S. Senate like Mitch McConnell and Orrin Hatch are desperately trying to give their party something in the way of get-out-the-vote leverage with seniors in 2010 and beyond. The deceitful strategy already in full swing is this: Incessantly unnerve the elderly by repeating half-truths and outright lies about the factual and constructive nature of proposed Medicare cuts in the Democratic reform legislation - then spin all that muck into a tidy little disinformation campaign targeting seniors in future elections.

his, from the Republican Party with a decades-long history, a proven history of trying to slice and dice Medicare into a state of obsolescence, with no replacement or redeeming goal in mind - unless you can find redeeming value in taking the health care safety net away from millions of seniors so that the private health insurance industry can build on its current $817 billion dollars in annual profits.

This, from the Republican Party, which worked so hard and - sadly, shamefully - so very effectively in concert with the health care industry to keep Single Payer "Medicare For All" health reform on the farthest margins of this great debate, instead of at the center of it, where it belonged from the beginning.

This, from the Republican Party that wants to preserve and protect those outrageous profits of insurance monopolies like UnitedHealth, WellPoint, Aetna, Humana, and Cigna, which spend only about 81 cents out of every incoming insurance premium dollar on actual medical care - as opposed to the Medicare program model, which spends about 97 cents out of every premium dollar on care.

The short and to-the-point article linked to just above, by health care industry insider turned whistle-blower, Wendell Potter, is required reading for anyone interested in the health reform debate. If the statistics in the story make you sick, then before you call the doctor ( who of course will need to check with your insurance company to see if you're really covered for such an illness), first get in touch with your congressional representatives, and demand that they support the health reform amendment being introduced by Senators Al Franken, Jay Rockefeller, Blanche Lincoln, and others, mandating that 90 cents of every private insurer's incoming premium dollar be spent on actual health care.

And now, after all we've had to hear from blowhard Republican dissemblers in recent days, here is this, from the South Florida Raging Grannies.