Shep Smith knocks down a favorite Fox myth: The public option doesn't equal 'government-run health care'
By David Neiwert Wednesday Oct 07, 2009 4:00pm
[H/t to Dave E.]
You've gotta wonder how much longer the Fox News brass will be able to tolerate Shepard Smith. He keeps stepping on and debunking his fellow Fox anchors' favorite talking points.
Yesterday, in demolishing Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barasso, he took a wrecking ball to the No. 1 Fox talking point of recent months -- that the public option in health-care reform equals a "government takeover." Here's what Smith said:
SMITH: It’s not a government takeover, Senator! That’s not fair and we both know it. It’s not a government takeover because what it would be is a government option if you have insurance now and you like it you can keep it. … That’s not a government takeover if we’re being fair is it Senator?
Then he launched into an ardent defense of the public option
SMITH: Over the last 10 years health care costs in American have skyrocketed. Regular folks cannot afford it, so they tax the system by not getting preventive medicine. And we all end up paying for it. As the costs have gone up, the insurance industry's profits, on average, have gone up 350 percent. And it's the insurance companies which have paid and which have contributed to senators and congressmen on both sides of the aisle to the point where now we can't get what all concerned on Capitol Hill all seem to [believe] and more than 60 percent of Americans say they support, a public option.
Every vote against the public option is a vote for the insurance companies.
And for good measure, he points out what a travesty it would be for Congress to pass a reform measure with mandates but without a public option:
SMITH: What more than 60 percent of Americans say they support is a public option. This has been an enormous win for the health care industry. That is an unquestioned fact, but I wonder, what happens to the American people when we come out with legislation now which requires everyone to have health care insurance -- or many more people -- but does not give a public option? Therefore millions more people will have to buy insurance from the very corporations that are overcharging us, and whose profits have gone up 350 percent in the last ten years. It seems like we the people are the ones getting the shaft here.
One can only imagine Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck watching this from the fetal position.
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I believe the GOP has come to realize Obama has destroyed them with his style of political judo. They've made themselves look crazy on health care reform, they've staked their identity on defeating it, and it's going to get passed. They're screwed.
What we're seeing here, and with Bob Dole's recent announcement, is the right-wingoverse trying to salvage as much dignity as possible while they scramble to get over to the winning side before it's too late.
Now Fox, a few years later when Obamacare HASN'T killed grandma and in fact has made life measurably better for every American, will be able to defend itself as fair 'n balanced against all the YouTube clips of Beck and Hannity's death-panel'ing.
After the Presidential election I remember he made a comment to one of the Faux pundits to the effect
"yes there has been a lot of political villifying of Obama by cynical politicians who didn't really believe what they were saying. Now that the elections are over, the politicians all go home, but they've mobilized people out there who really believed what they said about Obama and who are truly afraid. What about them? That is very dangerous."
And he was right. We see the crazies being manipulated by Shep's colleagues. I think he has realized that Faux' shit actually stinks.
Olbermann: Health care as basic as life itself
Oct. 7: In a Special Comment Hour, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann points out that there is no higher human priority than health and therefore no more basic government responsibility than ensuring the care of its citizens.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/332172...
Olbermann on America’s widening health gap
Oct. 7: Countdown’s Keith Olbermann warns that America is actually getting worse at addressing the health concerns of its citizens and is on track to surpass even the tragic conditions of Dickensian England.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/332172...
Olbermann: Companies betting on employees’ lives
Oct. 7: Countdown’s Keith Olbermann outlines how the current American health insurance system is so much more focused on making money than making Americans healthy that in some cases companies actually benefit when their employees die.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/332173...
Olbermann: Respecting pain and patient
Oct. 7: Countdown’s Keith Olbermann presents a personal perspective on the pain of illness and the difficulties of end-of-life decision making - physical and emotional pain worlds away from the insulting "death panels" debate.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/332174...
Olbermann: A wake-up call to Washington
Oct. 7: Countdown’s Keith Olbermann outlines his intention to show his support for American health reform by donating to the National Associations of Free Clinics to offer a free clinic every week in the capitol cities of the states of the six senators standing in the way of health reform in the Senate. Details for viewer participation to come.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/332175...
Thanks much for posting the links.
That comment was exactly the right thing to say.
It needed to be said.
Too bad it WON'T MATTER...
This thing is lost. America is bought and sold.
I left years ago and that's the last of it.
I'm going to miss Shepard Smith, he was the only thing good on all of Faux, except the reality is that I never watched him, the only clips I have seen are here on C&L and I don't know what he really stands for.
But I'm sure after he said this, he will no longer be employeed by Faux.
Maybe he can get a gig at MSNBC. I'm surprised that Limbaugh and Beck and the other assorted hatemongers haven't attacked Smith ove his comments
When Clusterfox fires Shep for daring to have journalistic integrity, there'll be such a humongous bidding war for him between CNN and MSNBC! I can't wait!
-- Rob
They will use (and abuse) him as proof they are "Fair and Balanced"
out to prove that government doesn’t work. Let’s put people in that know how to make it work!
is that the senator keeps saying that working people will be hurt if they are penalized for not buying insurance. and I don't disagree with that one point.
but NOT having a robust public option will guarantee that people will be hurt in this way. WITH the public option, we wouldn't need to penalize people in the first place (and in my opinion, all such language should be removed from the bill)
why can't these people be honest and say that they are defending the insurance companies?
"why can't these people be honest and say that they are defending the insurance companies?"
That's not the way they play the game. That would indicate that the $$ he took from the insurance companies was a bribe instead of "campaign contributions". American politics is above such petty things as bribery, that's what they do in "banana republics". Here it's more refined as "campaign contributions" and "lobbying". We wouldn't want to suggest that the contributions of cash and expensive gifts would influence our legislators! (Wink,wink,nudge,nudge).
Until this country puts in place some real campaign finance reform and much stricter controls on lobbying the corporations' money will always outweigh the needs and desires of the citizenry.
will probably have him liquidated.
...and $4.25 will get me a venti latte at Starbucks.
submitted his resume' to MSNBC. This is the most truth to come from Faux "News" since only God knows when. Welcome home, Shep............
"What? What did he say? Did he just contradict every other high priest I've submitted my faith to for the past 10 years? Hang the blasphemer!"
He must be suicidally despondent over something to speak the truth like that.
He was right on one thing before (not snark) - Every once in a while even some of the craziest people say something sane.
Maybe the stopped clock rule?
Well, I'm glad Shep made two valid points: a public option is not a government takeover, and that the polls indicate that the majority of Americans want the public option. However, all in all this was one weak exchange and seemed perhaps calculated to remain so. He is an interview with yet another talking head for the right with their pathetic plan that really amounts to a further victory for the insurance industry. Not just once, did Shep let him iterate these lame points, but twice while eating up almost all the time. Why not challenge him on the abysmal idea of opening the state lines for insurance corporations where the they will flock to where the regulations are the weakest, and the nonsense about tightening the laws to make it more difficult to sue doctors and insurance companies, as if that was what is really contributing to the massive super profits. Why not challenge him on the nonsense about penalizing one out of 10 doctors 5% of their salary and the same old tired lies about cutting into the services, rather than bureaucratic waste of medicare. Weak.
This is hardly going to have anyone in a fetal position.
How long is left on his contract? :-)
Also, is anyone else watching Keith right now?
How the hell does he stay on the air over there? Christ, I'd have expected him to be sleeping with the fishes at the bottom of O'Reilly's koi pond by now.
This crap about 'rationing' if there is a Single Payer system is pure bull. I live in Australia (US Citizen living abroad) and everyone pays 1.5% of their gross income. If you're sick, you see your doctor. You need surgery, you get it. You get injured, you get treated. There is no rationing.
I think every politician who has been taking donations *coughbribes* from health care industry should be disqualified from voting on health care reform as clearly there is a conflict of interest.
perceptions. And obviously Frank Luntz, or someone of his ilk, has focus-grouped Americans to find that they perceive there would be "rationing" of services if a single-payer system were put in place.
All they have to do is step across the border to realise this is false and that Canadians actually like their single-payer system. But that's irrelevant.
While Glenn Beck and Rush LImbaugh pump out Red Scare propaganda like Fox pumps out bad reality shows, America has become the thing it fears the most: where the media is controlled, power is consolidated in a few monopolies, cronyism rules, corruption is legal, and a handful of rich and powerful are untouchable.
You hit the nail on the head. America is now like a third world country as you described. Broke, crooked, and no public option for health care.
Hannity and Beck are despicable.
it's fuedal, and fatal for the rest of us...
hannity must feel compelled to be even more idiotic.
doucey and the douchebags are gonna have to work extra hard at being
dense and ignorant.
Shep is a conservative, but he was always a rational, truthful, respectful conservative - a holdover from the old days of Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller. He is becoming more and more isolated in the Republican party, as they drift rightward, first to Bush's kleptocracy and lately, to sheer insanity. I rarely agreed with him, but I always respected him. Since the last election, however, Fox became so unbearable that I know of it only from the Daily Show and this blog.
I wuld never watch Fox and haven't for years. But I always had the impression that Sheppard was the only one who wasn't batshit crazy and completely psychotic.
Either that, or he's the only one at Fox who takes his meds before going on air.
You say you NEVER watch Fox but you know the difference between Shep Smith and all the other anchors on the network. Amazing. Could I get the winning lottery numbers?
I would think you'd at least make up your own mind about something before declaring in public that you don't watch.
Reminds me of Obama's "I don't know the whole story, but the police acted stupidly" comment.
I guess some of Fox's batship must be getting in the koolaid.
There's this website called "Crooks and Liars," they show all kinds of fox douchebaggery practically every day. You should check it out.
...that comes out of the mouth of this POS contains at least one huge lie.
or to the rest of the american people. But it's very clear that he listens very closely to the insurance lobby and his other health care donors. And, he lies very freely. Feels very comfortable lying. Is it ok with the people of Wyoming that their senator lies through his teeth? Tisk tisk. His motto might as well be, "I might as well profit as maximally as possible in this health care reform "debate". It suits my donors well and makes me richer. Sounds like a win win situation for me. And, it keeps me in good standing with my other lying, lobbyist and special interest preferring republican party colleagues." Lying and fabricating "what this bill will do" in this video clip is what I found most creative about what Senator Barasso said. He came up with some new whoppers (lies) that I haven't heard before. I'm sure he will scare the bejesus out of his most vulnerable and gullible and insecure constituents. And they will be the ones who lose the most by believing his lies.
Say what you will about Fox, but I thought Shep did an excellent job in this interview. Sen. Barasso looked like a deer in the headlights; I guess he expected to coast through an easy interview since it was on Fox. Not only did Shep do an excellent job in honestly describing the public option and eviscerating the fake arguments against it, he also did it to the audience that most needs to hear some truth...as Fox viewers, they get it so rarely.
The GOP is now the party of obstruction. Is it just me or this guy say many contradictory things? Starting out he said several things about Medicare which were little negative nancy talking points. So Smith said 'it would be like medicare' of the public option. And Barasso says Medicare is going bankrupt. He has already implied that he opposes Medicare or anything similar to it but he then proceeds to protest the cutting of Medicare costs in order to balance it's budget and laments the harm that will befall the elderly as a result. However, his philosophy is that these elderly people should have either no insurance or extremely costly private insurance. So...WTF is he talking about?!
In some small way this reminds me of six or seven years ago and what the Democrats were going through at the time. People in the media posited the question "Is the Democratic Party dead?" People say it now about the Republicans. That tells me something about human nature. And I think it means that the Republican party is not dead, and will probably take over again in ten years (I'm getting mentally prepared now so that I don't lose my effing mind on that day). Democrats couldn't say "the war on terror is bullshit" after 911. So it was a lot of little things. The Republicans can't say what they really want to say, that we need to scrap all social programs and that we all need to kneel before our beneficent corporate masters. They hate medicare, they'd get rid of it if they could but they can't because it's hugely popular. So, they're reduced to undercutting it at every opportunity.
Whoa! A guy at FOX supporting the public option???? Better start the countdown to how soon Smith gets fired, hung from the nearest tree, or defects to MSNBC.
Despite the ecstatic ramblings of the anti-Fox crowd here, Shep Smith's commentary only parroted the standard Democrat talking points about healthcare. He no more "Shot down" anything than Barack Obama brought the Olympics to Murderville, USA.
If you WATCHED the ENTIRE SEGMENT instead lf reading what someone else TOLD you, you would see that Smith also challenged some of the favorite myths of those who SUPPORT the public option. Also in the segment Smith acknowledged that what is REALLY driving the opposition to Obama's plan is the INTRUSION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT that will result.
What seems to have been lost on most people is that the segment highlights the difference between FOX and every other network. Can you name me ONE ANCHOR of another network that would keep his job two minutes after similar treatment of someone who SUPPORTS Obama's plan? Try it. Rather than get fired or reassigned, Shep is probably MORE secure in HIS job than Brokaw, Gibson, Couric or whomever you wish to name. Everybody who watches Fox with regularity ALREADY know that Smith is likely a liberal, especially since he regularly refers to supporters of the president as "supporters" and opponents as "right wing opposition", but Fox viewers would leave in droves if we NEVER heard opposing views, because we formed our opinions bases on the COMPLETE information we get on that network.
Shep's not going anywhere. Where would he go? Do you seriously think he would have such freedom to do what he does on any other network? Are you kidding me? All you people who are so sure that he "shot down" something or is going to lose his job must be either college freshmen or you just never watch Fox news.
Even if you keep your koolaid, tune in to something other than the fringe media now and then. And include Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck and the rest. You may not see or hear anything that will change your mind but at least you will be fully informed about the issues. For once.
Fox knows the public option is coming, now they'll be able to show clips showing that they backed it all the way. In a year they'll be claiming it was repug idea all along.
If we had the same attitude towards primary education as we do with healthcare, only the wealthy would be able to afford to send their kids to school.
I propose a Prisoner Exchange:
Shep Smith for Lou Dobbs.
This is the first time I've heard a Fox interviewer that acted like he had a brain. He better be careful though. Telling the truth on Fox will get you fired.
That when health care is concerned the onus is on the consumer,the patient-to not smoke,yet it is the GOP( with their corporate backers in mind)who ardently defend "smokers rights" when elections roll around.This Barasso insect,predictably, made sure to smear Canada's HC system.Our Canadian system obviously isn't perfect but as I've stated time and again,every Canadian I know is happy with their care.
I wouldn't trade it for an American plan for all the tea in China.
It occurred to me the other day that I could not name a single government program that required a direct purchase from the private sector. I may be crazy or stupid, but I still can't think of one, and it occurred to me that the reason is because it is most likely unconstitutional, as in the Constitution does not allow the Federal Government to enact such a corrupt mandate.
Thus, I ask anyone to name a single government program that requires the purchase of anything from the private sector. Mind you, I am not talking about a quid pro quo either (as in I voluntarily enrolled in a government program that has as one of its requirements the purchase of a product, which may be produced by a private company, etc.) It may be a stupid question, but after giving it some thought, I seriously doubt Congress has the ability to enact such a program (I would argue the same for the so-called privatization of social security for the same reason). The government cannot pass a law requiring us to give money to a private company, even if there is choice among companies. I wonder why no one else is asking this, but then again I'm not surprised given that none of our so-called leaders think for anyone but themselves.
mr smith, also gave it to the man during katrina.
Having been a Canadian citizen all of my 30 years, I am insulted when ignorant people use our health care system as an example of how terrible a single payer system is. Don't get me wrong, our system is far from perfect (wait times at emergency rooms, wait times for certain procedures). However, in Canada, people are not denied treatment. For any reason. Yes, ideally, you would want a system where a person gets the treatment they need AS SOON as they need it. However, our doctors, support by our imperfect system, treats everyone as best as it can.
I believe that health care is a basic right of any human being - no matter how rich or poor you are. And I would rather live in a country where I can go see my family physician within two weeks notice than a country where I may be left to die of a deadly illness simply because I forgot to mention I had bronchitis when I was 15.
No, I don't expect Fox will can Shep anytime soon-- I think they like having at least the appearance of diverse opinions, and being able to point to Shep gives them that.
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