Correcting the guests on Meet The Press

I caught the last few minutes of this past Sunday’s episode of Meet The Press, and I have to say, it was frustrating to watch. Not because of the opinions that were expressed that I disagreed with but because there were so many things that were poorly expressed in just the few minutes that I saw. So today, I introduce a new concept where I will attempt to correct mis-information, or more precisely, poorly stated information given out by mainstream media.

My first correction was on this statement by E.J. Dionne referring to the two health care bills, one in the House and one in the Senate that Congress must now reconcile.

“The whole plan got discredited in the, in the minds of some people because the legislative process looks really awful. And the more the focus was on the legislative process, the more people said, “What’s going on here?””

No Mr. Dionne, the whole thing got discredited because of the costs, the bureaucracy, lack of any good examples of a similar system that actually works well, lack of any reason for people that have insurance to support this program, fear of transferring this much economic power to the federal government (no matter the party in power) and fear of transferring control of health care to the federal government (no matter the party in power).

The really “awful,” looking legislative process that you perceive Mr. Dionne, is due to a combination of the failed leadership on the part of the President and leaders of Congress that resulted in very different information coming out to Americans – i.e. The public option is dead but the public option is alive but the public option is not included in this bill so rest assured there will be no public option except that this bill is merely a stepping stone toward a better proposal that will include the public option.

So whom and what do I believe, Mr. Dionne?

I said that Dionne called the awful looking legislative process was a combination of things, the first being failed leadership. The second issue leading to an “awful” looking legislative process is the failure of the mainstream media, Congress, and the supporters of major overhaul to understand or even consider the concerns of those opposing the bill. This was the source of most of the anger surrounding health care. The opponents could not join in intelligent debate because supporters, those with the political power, refused to even attempt to listen to, let alone understand and justify. Much of this refusal to listen and understand was deliberate. That deliberate ignorance angered people. That deliberate ignorance raised fears that the government would do things We the People don’t want done – Why shouldn’t we be concerned when we could not be heard? That made for a messy legislative process. Health care needs to be reformed but there are better ways.

In the same statement, Dionne went on to say, “Once they pass a plan, you can actually talk about a plan.” So we are supposed to wait until we are saddled with one of these monstrous proposals to look at the plan? No chance. Fight now.

Doris Kearns Goodwin pointed out that are many good things in this bill and that Americans agree with those good things.

“Is it a good idea to be able to have pre-existing conditions and still have insurance? Is it a good idea to have your kid protected in that way? Is it a good idea to make sure that the insurance companies can’t cap you? They agree with those things.”

No doubt that there are many good things in this bill, but these good things appear to have been arrived at via very bad means. Remember folks, Sarah Palin just might be our president one day. Think about President Palin in charge of your health care, with all of these vast powers, as you consider this legislation.

Goodwin goes on to make the false implication, as President Obama did during his health care speech to a joint session of Congress (you remember, the night Joe Wilson became a hero/villain depending on your perspective) that since several presidents beginning with Teddy Roosevelt have tried to get some sort of universal health insurance into place in the United States it must be a good thing for us to have.

Well Ms. Goodwin, isn’t it possible that universal health care reform has failed so many times because it’s a bad idea?

Next time on Mind Your Own Damn Business Politics: Mr. Gregory’s statement on Meet the Press, “a lot made about the notion of this being a lost decade,” is not at all true.

Tagged as: congress, david brooks, e.j. dionne, Health care, health care reform, health reform, insurance, medicaid, medicare, meet the press, nbc, obama, senate health care bill, single paye, tea parties, universal health care