Fox host Brian Kilmeade’s complaint about the defeat of Trumpcare, “The healthy people are paying for the sick people,” was not just laughable ignorance about how insurance works. It showed a hideousness in his soul that should disturb any patriotic American.Fox & Friends was in a predictably pitiful state over the failure of “skinny repeal”
No one was more upset about the Republicans’ legislative defeat last night than “health insurance is a luxury not everybody deserves” Brian Kilmeade. He described Obamacare as an “out-of-control” “monstrosity.”
KILMEADE: The Democrats could say, “Wow, this is great. They said they were gonna do it and they can’t do it.” And then you’ve gotta turn around and go, “Oh, my goodness, there’s a monstrosity on my left, going to swallow us all. It is like an out-of-control blob that cannot be contained, it has to be restructured. That’s Obamacare.”
They’re not left with a good plan. This isn’t revenge on Barack Obama. This is a plan that needs to be fixed. Now what?
The fact is a majority of Americans approve of Obamacare and do not want Republicans to repeal it. Yet nobody mentioned that. Nor did anyone mention that more than 20 million Americans have gained insurance as a result of it nor that the CBO said the so-called skinny repeal the Republicans proposed would cause 16 million to lose it.
Instead, cohost Ainsley Earhardt responded to Kilmeade’s call for restructuring: “Ultimately, that’s what the American people need because these premiums are too high, this thing is imploding as the president said.”
Except that “restructuring” is not what Republicans want. They’ve been “promising” to repeal. Democrats want to fix Obamacare. Republicans completely shut out Democrats, along with doctors and other medical care experts, during the repeal process.
Yet, just because Trumpcare crashed and burned, that was no reason not to smear Democrats! From the Media Matters transcript:
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): So you heard [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [(D-NY)] say we’re not celebrating, (Doocy gave a contemptuous laugh) yet you see some of the images out of Capitol Hill last night in the middle of the night. People were taking selfies, there was a lot of happy faces.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): There’s Chuck Schumer who said he wasn’t going to celebrate.
DOOCY: Yeah. Then we’ve got [Sen.] Elizabeth Warren [(D-MA)] outside, taking selfies with supporters. Ultimately –
There was even a smearing graphic to go with the griping:
Which is funny, because I don’t remember these three whining about Trump’s victory party in the Rose Garden after the House passed Trumpcare. I do recall them sounding downright celebratory themselves.Brian Kilmeade resents sick people getting good health insurance
Then came Kilmeade’s moronic comment:
KILMEADE: I laugh, too, that these young people are out there celebrating. Congratulations, you now will pay a fine or you’ll have to have insurance. Congratulations, the healthy people are paying for the sick people.
What’s disturbing about this statement is not just that it shows a shocking level of ignorance about how insurance works. But it shows that this rich guy thinks sick people somehow don't deserve the same coverage as healthy people. He is openly resentful at paying a bit more for those less fortunate and – even worse – attempts to justify avoid doing so by suggesting there’s something unfair about it.
And nobody corrected or admonished him for saying this.Earhardt so ignorant about Trumpcare, Doocy had to correct her
Earhardt was just as ignorant:
EARHARDT: Well, congratulations, because now people who need health care can’t afford it because these premiums are astronomical.
In fact, Trumpcare was likely to raise premiums, as even Doocy had to acknowledge, though he prefaced that news by saying the bill was “just a tiny little bit of what Republicans had promised” and “ultimately, though, the whole idea was for the care to be better and for the premiums to go down.” He even said later, “It’s a bad bill.”
And when Kilmeade jumped in to say that the premiums would go down again after the next year (so just manage to stay alive until then, cancer patients!), Doocy added, “Well, they’re not so sure about that.”The politics of Trumpcare trumps all
Doocy did have a GOP silver lining: “The good news is, for President Trump, whatever they were gonna pass … it will not be known as Trumpcare,” he said. “It’s gonna continue to be Obamacare and the people who have been suffering will continue.”
Yes, those of us who have been “suffering” with health insurance will continue. Until Republicans launch the next assault to “free” us of healthcare.
Meanwhile, watch conservative selfishness camouflaged as concern above, from the July 28, 2017 Fox & Friends, via Media Matters.
Originally published at Newshounds.us
