Memo to NBC: If your top DC pundit guy can't be bothered with facts, perhaps you should replace him with someone who can. Rachel Maddow would never have let Lindsey Graham get away with the fiction in this clip from Meet the Press yesterday without correcting him. But Gregory just lets Graham go on with the nonsense and never once corrects him. Not even a small offer to clear the record:
DAVID GREGORY:
Okay. Lemme move on to health care, which you also raised. Is there a chance for actual health care repeal? Or do you see room for compromise? All this talk about the individual mandate, making individuals buy insurance.
SENATOR GRAHAM:
Right.
DAVID GREGORY:
You had talked about compromise on that--
SENATOR GRAHAM:
Right.
DAVID GREGORY:
--early on. Do you disagree that it's unconstitutional? A lot of Republicans believe that.
SENATOR GRAHAM:
I think the problem with the individual mandate is that everybody's gonna be in a government-run plan. I was with several Republicans and seven Democrats that required everybody to be covered. You did away with employer deductions, and you allowed individuals to buy health care in the private sector across state lines. And it was revenue-neutral.
I think you're gonna see the fight on Obama-Care across the board in the House and the Senate to try to de-fund the Obama-Care bill and to start over. One thing I'm gonna do with Senator Barrasso is allow states to opt out of the individual mandate, the employer mandate, in expansion of Medicaid. The expansion of Medicare under the Obama Health Care bill is gonna bankrupt South Carolina. So I think this fight's gonna continue to 2012, and it's gonna move from Washington to the states. It will be one big fight over the role of health care and should Obama Health Care be-- be in existence in 2012 the way it is today.
Lie #1: Everybody's gonna be in a government-run plan
There's only one scenario where this would be true. If Republicans succeed in bankrupting the middle class and throwing us all under the poverty line making them Medicaid-eligible, while rich people are all over age 65 and eligible for Medicare.
In any other reality-based scenario, it's just a lie. We all know this. Listen up, David and Lindsey: Private insurers are NOT in any way, shape or form government-run. In fact, some of us argue they run over government routinely.
Lie #2: Buying health insurance across state lines is revenue-neutral and therefore good.
Sure, if you think that Premiere credit card you got with 79.9% interest is a deal. Then yeah, it's just grand. Otherwise it's a fancy way of saying they'd push insurers to the state with the least regulation and everyone could buy their health insurance there. Of course, it wouldn't insure anything, and it certainly wouldn't solve the problem of access to health care, or rationing like Arizona's experiencing now (under THEIR government-run health plan, by the way).
It's also not revenue-neutral. It sounds pretty to say that, but when more people declare bankruptcy because of medical bills it simply vaults the economy into another recession and possibly depression, which means the government then has to spend in order to stabilize it and re-start it.
Lie #3: The expansion of Medicare (Medicaid) will bankrupt the states
Again, just simply not true, because at the same time Medicaid is expanded, federal Medicaid subsidies increase to states so that the federal government is covering 90% of Medicaid costs. Of course, I'm assuming Senator Graham mistakenly referred to Medicare instead of Medicaid, since the states do not contribute to Medicare.But it IS a Federal government-run health care plan that everyone loves, at least.
We can argue about whether or not changes should be made to the Affordable Care Act that make it more efficient, but let's at least get the facts right before undertaking the argument. I noticed today that all the new Republicans are chafing at the bit to have their "ObamaCare" repeal vote, and they're all very, very serious about that "entitlement reform" as proposed by the Catfood...um...Deficit Commission, but only to the extent that cuts are involved. If they were really serious, they'd take the whole package of reforms proposed which included a public option.
And as much as I respect Rep. Dennis Kucinich, I think he's dreaming if he thinks repealing the Affordable Care Act would somehow advance the cause for single payer health care, because the truth is as plain as the sh*t-eating grin on Graham's face: They don't care if we die. They're totally ok with large groups of us dying and "decreasing the surplus population."
Death, bankruptcy, begging in the streets. None of it bothers these douchebags one bit. All hail the power of commerce and the almighty market, while David Gregory stands by the lies, smiling all the while.
