People who failed to turn fear and loathing into winning campaign issues did not go gently into that good November night. They're back with new lies, new conspiracy theories and a desperate bid to gut the election results. Last year, in ads that whispered "Racist ... Elitist ... Socialist ... Terrorist," they suggested Democrats were dangerous. The new in-your-face version of their contempt for Democrats is that health care reform will kill people.

Conservative media and viral emails designed to look "home made" have cranked up the volume of incendiary propaganda. That noise has heightened fears among some conservatives and independents who are genuinely concerned about government steps to avert an economic depression. But it has become evident that efforts to shout down and shut down legislative town hall meetings are being coordinated behind the scenes, far above the grassroots level, for partisan political gain and cold, hard cash.

With $2.3 trillion up for grabs each year, the healthcare lobby has anted up with the Republican Party and conservative Democrats in a classic game of money and politics. Insurance companies are spending $1.4 million a day to lobby for control of health care reform or none at all.

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint demonstrated that obstructing reform is all about politics when he told conservative activists on a conference call last month, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." GOP efforts to derail reform in the House are being overseen by Congressman Roy Blunt, a member of the discredited chorus that has questioned the president's birth certificate. Blunt has received over $556,000 in campaign donations from the insurance industry, $1.6 million from the health sector and is the fourth-highest GOP recipient of industry money.

As part of the broader propaganda campaign, conservatives are trying to scare the wits out of seniors, saying health care reform conceals a nefarious scheme to kill Grandma, Grandpa and Sarah Palin's baby. Yes, the same Democrats who fought to pass Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor and SCHIP for kids now are in cahoots to pull the plug on the elderly, the poor and kids. How stupid do the conspiracy theorists think we are? Colossally stupid.

The non-partisan Urban Institute published a study last year showing at least 137,000 people in the U.S. died from 2000 to 2006 because they lacked health insurance, including 22,000 in 2006 alone. Far from setting up "death panels," health care reform will save lives.

Of course, the cost of our broken system isn't measured in human life alone. For years, health care costs have risen at triple the rate of inflation, squeezing paychecks tighter and tighter to pay for premiums. The costs have crippled American industry's ability to compete while bankrupting our families. We spend twice as much per person as any country on earth, but our system ranks 37th in the world -- just below Costa Rica's and above Slovenia's. Without reform, it will get much worse and much more expensive.

So let's be clear. Not a single one of the reform bills in Congress would allow federal tax money to fund abortions. Reform will let you choose your own doctor and your own insurance plan. Illegal immigrants are not covered. And it won't cut Medicare or Medicaid benefits.

Those who already have private health insurance also stand to gain from reform. It will slow the rise in premiums by making insurance companies more competitive, streamlining paperwork for doctors, and ensuring better preventive and follow-up care to reduce the need for re-admission after being discharged from a hospital.

Reform will bar insurance companies from denying coverage of pre-existing conditions. And no American ever again will face rescission -- the insurance practice of dropping a person's coverage when they get sick and need care most.

The reform plan is uniquely American, not based on any other country's plan. A Public Option will be offered as just that: one option among many. It will not replace private insurance plans. In fact, the government will give employers incentives to keep their private plans.

Powerful interests are distorting the truth about health care reform through mouthpieces such as Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and activist groups such as Conservatives for Patient Rights, run by Rick Scott, the ex-CEO of a company that was fined a record $1.7 billion for defrauding Medicare. Another is FreedomWorks, headed by former GOP congressman Dick Armey, who just last week left a firm that made $2.3 million in the last two years lobbying for Medicines Co., a drug maker.

Health care reform is about keeping people well. Politics and profits have made a sickening racket trying to block it.