The massive overhaul of our broken health care insurance system started late Saturday night when the US House of Representatives passed H R 3962 by a vote of 220 to 215. While this was a historic day, the victory was bittersweet as an unneeded amendment banning paying for abortion for anyone who buys insurance from the public option or the exchange was added at the last minute. Some believe that amendment will be removed when the House and Senate meet to combine their bills but one never knows.
The “Stupak of Michigan Amendment” showed up in the last few weeks of debate on the bill and, at least to me, was being seriously considered late Friday night when the frame work of debate was agreed on by the House leadership. The fear was the overall bill would fail unless Rep Stupak had his amendment voted on.
64 Democrats, including some women, like Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio 9th District), voted to restrict paying for abortion – effectively restricting a legal right women enjoy at this time.
What is ironic is the current bill includes allowing insurance to pay for “pray healing”.
So freaky religious people who believe praying can heal were more important than women’s rights.
And funny, in a WTF? way, 26 of those Democrats who voted to restrict paying for abortion voted NO on the final bill.
Here is the list of 26 Democrats who voted “Aye” on Stupak but “Nay” on the final bill:
Altmire, Barrow, Boccieri, Boren, Bright, Chandler, Childers, Davis (AL), Davis (TN), Gordon (TN), Griffith, Holden, Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, Melancon, Peterson, Ross, Shuler, Skelton, Tanner, Taylor, Teague
There is still work to be done as the reform debate moves to the Senate. Hopefully a final bill can be introduced and voted on before the end of the year.
An article written by Findlay Courier reporter Joy Brown about Rep Jim Jordan’s (R-Urbana) concern about the economy and jobs during the current health care reform debate is typical of the out of touch Republican party. Not only does it show Jordan’s misplaced priorites but the article also lacked any balance to the untrue GOP talking points included.
During a conference call, Jordan, R-Urbana, said legislators are too fixated on “a government takeover of health care when the focus should be on growing the economy and creating jobs.
“I think the one thing that’s hurting our ability to come out of this recession is that business owners are very nervous about what may be coming next in Washington,” said Jordan. Potential legislation could “make it tougher, more costly to do business. So instead of bringing back (laid off) workers, they’re holding off with that. That’s what’s contributing to the lack of growth that we would like to see in this economy,” he said.
Also on Thursday, representatives were debating a provision in the revised bill to restrict federal funding to pay for abortions.
“Of great concern to me is the idea of federal dollars being used to take the life of unborn children,” said Jordan.
Republicans should be as concerned for the living as they are for the unborn.
I was disappointed that this article lacked any comments or information about the actual reform bill before congress now instead of the usual Republican talking points. Where was the balance?
It just amazes me that in the 21st century someone like Mr. Jordan would politicize health care and show a lack of respect for basic human dignity. I don’t seem to recall a concern for the budget or taxes when spending obscene sums on the military or bailing out the banks who made bad decisions.
How a member of Congress would say there is going to be “government run” health care when that isn’t even true and even if true we already have some programs like Medicare and Veterans health care that are, so any additional programs would NOT be a totally foreign concept. Nothing in the current plan says people have to give up their private insurance.
Why is it that we seem to be the ONLY country which hasn’t solved this issue? Why is it that with a private “for profit” system that spends the most per person and costs the most per person we don’t have the top health care system – we rank 37th – lower than Costa Rica. When will people be outraged because approximately 40,000 people die each year because they either don’t have insurance or can’t afford medical care to begin with.
Health care is one of THE biggest expenses for businesses today and true reform as noted in the current reform package is a long time in coming and will lead to those businesses finally seeing a lowering of their health care expenses for the first time ever. That would lead to more opportunities to grow their businesses which could in fact lead to more jobs.
Doing nothing to reform the health care system is a ticking time bomb that WILL be worse than a terrorist attack.
While on break from work, I was flipping through the channels and came up on one of my favorite episodes of the TV show “Little House on the Prairie”. In a special 2 part episode, first shown in 1981, Albert falls in love with a girl named Sylvia. I do have to admit that the reason I loved the episode is that at the time I had a crush on the girl playing Sylvia so it is a bit creepy because of the plot of the episode is about a pretty girl who triggers the hormones of the local boys and gets undue attention from an older man who ends up raping her.
Here is a 30 sec recap of the entire episode for those who need a reminder:
A quick text recap is Sylvia is a pretty girl who has “developed” a bit more than the other girls in Walnut Grove. That sets off the hormones of the local boys and also an older man who attacks the girl while she walks home from school. We then find out that Sylvia is with child from the attack and Albert tries to “save” her by saying he was the father. The girl’s over protective father forbids the kids from being together so they decide to run away. At an old barn the attacker returns and tries to attack Sylvia again. It is then his identity is revealed which is a shock plot twist. Albert then shows up to fight the guy. Sylvia falls off a broken ladder and the girl’s father with Mr. Ingalls in tow, shoots the bad guy with a shot gun. Sylvia doesn’t survive her injuries leaving Albert devastated.
It was one of the best episodes of the show because it had a memorable actress playing Sylvia, the plot was not something the show usually had on, and if I remember right there was some controversy about it because of the theme of the rape of a child on a usually family show. It did introduce the topic for families to talk about it.
Any rational human knows that Fox News isn’t a real news network. They blur the line between opinion and news reporting to the point that it all seems the same to them. The White House was only expressing the consensus of the rational people in pointing it out in public and on the record. Like any other right wing group Fox now claims to be a victim. The facts just don’t support Fox News.
Those of us who watch mainstream news programs and the cable networks have known for years that Fox News has been the mouth piece of the Republican Party. The media watch dog site Media Matters even has a video clip showing how Fox opinion bleeds into its news reports:
Fox and other conservatives have come back and said well President Obama and the Democrats have MSNBC as their official voice. The problem with that false equivalency is that a rational person can see a distinct difference between MSNBC’s news reports and their opinion programs. The other proof against such a charge by Fox is that on some of the shows like Hardball and Countdown the hosts and guests disagree with the current administration and say so but that doesn’t get passed on in the news reports like we see time and time again with Fox News.
A more recent dust up involved a reported exclusion of Fox to interview a Treasury official. Fox was crying all day about censorship and then claiming the other networks came to its defense and refused to interview the guy unless Fox was included.
Like most everything coming out the mouths at Fox, the incident didn’t happen the way it claims.
The version Fox has pushed all day is that the network was excluded from an interview roundtable with Feinberg yesterday, and that bureau chiefs from ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN came to Fox’s defense.
TPMDC dug into it, and here’s what happened.
Feinberg did a pen and pad with reporters to brief them on cutting executive compensation. TV correspondents, as they do with everything, asked to get the comments on camera. Treasury officials agreed and made a list of the networks who asked (Fox was not among them).
But logistically, all of the cameras could not get set up in time or with ease for the Feinberg interview, so they opted for a round robin where the networks use one pool camera. Treasury called the White House pool crew and gave them the list of the networks who’d asked for the interview.
The network pool crew noticed Fox wasn’t on the list, was told that they hadn’t asked and the crew said they needed to be included. Treasury called the White House and asked top Obama adviser Anita Dunn. Dunn said yes and Fox’s Major Garrett was among the correspondents to interview Feinberg last night.
Simple as that, we’re told, and the networks don’t want to be seen as heroes for Fox.
But this is also why a news network with only about 3 million viewers can have an effect, good or bad, on a national discussion.
The other networks live inside the same beltway bubble and so when Fox harps a story for many days the others think there is a story there and end up picking it up too – even when it is false or not what it seems.
Take the above incident with the Feinberg interview. Even though it wasn’t a case of the White House saying “No Fox” the CBS Evening News had a story about the non-story and used Fox’s view of it.
(CBS) After months of taking incoming fire from the prime-time stars of Fox News, the Obama White House is firing back, charging that FOX News is different from all other news.
“FOX News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican party,” said Anita Dunn, White House communications director.
“If media is operating basically as a talk radio format, then that’s one thing, and if it’s operating as a news outlet, then that’s another,” Mr. Obama said.
And the White House has gone beyond words, reports CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield. Last Sept. 20, the president went on every Sunday news show – except Chris Wallace’s show on FOX. And on Thursday, the Treasury Department tried to exclude FOX News from pool coverage of interviews with a key official. It backed down after strong protests from the press.
“All the networks said, that’s it, you’ve crossed the line,” said CBS News White House correspondent Chip Reid.
It also needs to be pointed out that the White House has never tried to censor Fox or prevent it from covering the White House, it just hasn’t favored it on equal footing to NBC, CBS, or ABC.
Its not like an administration has never tried to freeze out or isolate a network before. In the last administration the Bush Whit House went after MSNBC and NBC while holding meetings with only right wing talk show hosts:
Again the problem with Fox is that it is more a talk radio style program rather than a real journalistic news organization. They pass off lies, rumors, and smears as facts and it bleeds into their “news” reports. The other news programs thinking they are missing a story then report on those lies, rumors, and smears which give them a “creditability” it couldn’t gain on its own just by being “reported” by Fox.
That’s what Fox does – blow up lies, rumors, and smears into stories that don’t deserve to be stories and wouldn’t be if real journalism was being practiced in this country.
Iadmit I am not a fan of media personality Carson Daly nor have I been a fan of his late night show Last Call. I may still agree with Jimmy Fallon’s old parody from SNL that Daly is a tool but I have started to like his show a bit better now that it is a magazine format.
Last Call was Daly’s attempt at a traditional talk show with guests, and joky bits. He was trying to play off his popularity from his hosting duty on the old TRL show on MTV. Frankly it was lame. The guests were fine and he had on musical guests who were either new to me or just breaking in the US, but his impression of Jay Leno or Conan O’Brien came off stiff and lame.
A few years into the show it moved to Los Angeles and actually became more lame with the addition of a house band and really unfunny sketches. I watched less and less.
In 2007 the show was forced to go back on the air during the WGA strike or the non-striking members of the show would be fired. I boycotted the show after that.
Then one day I caught an episode. Basically I was writing on the computer and left the TV on after Late Night and Daly was in Seattle or some place touring the best hang out places and what not. His guests were interviewed in a bar or hotel restaurant and sometimes in a studio. The musical guest was filmed playing live at some club and they would spend a short time letting them speak to a camera about themselves.
Basically due to budget cuts Last Call became a magazine style show rather than the old lame talk show format.
Carson Daly is a good host in this style of show where he introduces the segments and interviews the guest.
