GOP Whines About Health-Care Summit, NY Times Says 'There, There!'
This story reeks of "I'm on deadline, I don't feel like working that hard so I'll just expand this handy list of Republican bullet points and then call a few Democrats for 'balance.'" But then, maybe it's just me:
WASHINGTON — When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month, they will carry with them a fairly well-developed set of ideas intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable, by emphasizing tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net.
Umm, excuse me, Mr. Reporter? What do you mean by "fairly well-developed"? And why are you just taking their word for it that their ideas will make health insurance more affordable? Did you, you know, ask any experts?
It is not clear that Republicans and the White House are willing to negotiate seriously with each other, and Mr. Obama has rejected Republican demands that he start from scratch in developing health care legislation.
But Congressional Republicans have laid out principles and alternatives that provide a road map to what a Republican health care bill would look like if they had the power to decide the outcome.
Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were writing a press release!
[...] The Republicans rely more on the market and less on government.
Ha ha ha! Oh, I get it now: It's a parody of a press release, like Stephen Colbert!
All kidding aside, is this really journalism? Not by any stretch of the imagination. There's no new information, there's only the Republican insistence on their far-fetched version of reality - which we could just as easily get from Fox News. New York Times, maybe you should put some actual work into these stories if you plan to charge us for them.
Must be Obama's fault, like everything else. Including the snow we got last night.
support these lying simian republicans...What is it that drives them to play along with the fools? ---
OH they are part of the dying corporate structure of insider political journalists! If Obama succeeds their access is dead!!! along with their jobs
Just check their palms if you don't believe me.
All it seems to say on their palms is "keep being a greedy, hateful person."
I guess they need to remind themselves of their core values once in a while...
"I could give a flying crap about the political process.... We're an entertainment company."
- Glenn Beck - Forbes interview; April 26, 2010
The headline that I would pull from that NYT article:
Alexander Says Senators Too Stupid to Reform Health Care System.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
to actually look for the news in the article and then criticize the NYT for not recognizing the importance that Alexander has just said it would be arrogant to expect US Senators to be able to do what the governments of the rest of the nations of the world have been able to do.
Is it just me, or do you expect more than 12 lines of snark that mises the juiciest tidbit in the article?
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
EXPECT, may be a tad strong. ;o}
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
If I were being critical of the article I would have savaged the first line: "When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month..." Republicans, and even the article itself, if you read further, have made it clear the first word should be "If" not "When." Based on that, I would have criticized the reporters for not asking the Republicans why, if their "road map" was so well developed and a year has passed, they do not have it in bill form and seem to put conditions on negotiating in pulbic at the invitation of the President.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
of reporters seem to be about as engaged as Bush was - 1/3 of his presidency spent on vacation.
Good point. At least the reporter could have said phrases such as "According to Republicans...," or "Republicans claim that...," or even better, "Republican spokesman _____ said that...."
But let's say this reporter is in a hurry and didn't have time to fact check. Okay, fine. In that case, he should have added, "It is unclear if the claims made by Republicans about their plans are accurate, as no independent study has been conducted."
Is that so hard?
obviously it is:)
is what's killing modern journalism: A complete lack of interest in reporting the truth.
It's about political theatre now. Gotta have a story to tell. Gotta look "fair and balanced". Gotta get the ratings.
So, let's give the GOP credibility where they have none so that we can have another false left/right pundit discussion and fill another hour of air time.
Same goes for the newspapers. Any real news is buried on Page 14 where it will never be noticed. Front page is dedicated to sensationalist crap.
The revolution will not be televised? You're damned right. It won't be. It won't be in the NYT either.
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a Lunatic Asylum. -Havelock Ellis
the internet free yesterday. They only charged people for the print version today.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
You've been around long enough to know how this works.
We post on the hour. We don't do more than 14-15 posts a day because when we do, people miss stories we've done because they drop down the main page.
Susie did this post last night. But there wasn't room for it and it went up today. Does the additional 12 hours somehow make her point (which was the poor excuse for journalism) less valid?
It was one line joke about her closing line. My more detailed critique of her other eleven lines is above.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Meanwhile, no one is noticing that health insurance plans are getting more and more expensive, to offer far less in the way of benefits.
For example, a number of healthcare plans no longer cover diagnostic imaging (X-ray, MRI) or ER without a deductable, which for a healthy person is about a thousand dollars. I used to have a *copay* for insurance. And yet the premiums have gone up by a third since last year.
Insurance companies offer no benefit, and would have any public alternatives shoulder all of the risk. Exactly *why* are we not pursuing a single payer system, either on the state or national level?
This reeks of money changing hands.
...while reading this piece this morning. It was so blatant a statement, given that a few paragraphs down the journalist states that he does not know what the Republicans will bring. bad reporting!
If I say it three times, it becomes truth.
If I say it three times, it becomes truth.
beetlejuice
your name's Lebowski, Lebowski... and your wife is Bunny
Internet problems led to a doublepost, appropriate time for it, I suppose.
on the table for the summit!
I'm quite sure it will be, this time...since Obama has said that, "ALL ideas will be accepted for discussion."
Memo to John Amato: Have you sent Nancy an e-mail asking that she be sure to have "Medicare for All" be a part of the televised summit on healthcare? After all, it DOES meet all of Obama's "requirements"?
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
i operate my retail store until 1 AM pacific time and hear these kind of AP blurbs on a regular basis, piped in even to progressive-formatted stations, that have a tinge of "Obama Administration" vs. "Government-in-exile" as if the Stated Purpose of the media arm of corporations during this time is to consolidate position and make the executive branch irrelevant until they occupy it wholly.
They gave him the scoop on what he Can't Do, Mr O, he aint privvy to whats the haps down the road
further power consolidation, further making of governments irrelevant, presumably
bang we're dead, folks
your name's Lebowski, Lebowski... and your wife is Bunny
We don't need it anymore - not sure we ever did... we have real new outlets like HuffPost, Crooks and Liars, the Humanist, The Nation, Mother Jones. Who needs the pseudo-news now published in the Times. Paul Krugman will find a place where I can read him.
"GOP Whines About Health-Care Summit,..."
Sounds to me like a good reason to cancel it then. But then, the Obama/Baucus plan that has the excise tax on good health plans won't have the political cover of "bipartisanship", now will it? That would be the tax that is dead, if the deal is wrangled out with Dems only.
-Edit (who gave me the idea)
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/02/08/...
The article wasn't all that bad. It left out, of course, that the Republicans would rather obstruct and leave the status quo intact.
What amazes me is that more people don't grasp the concept that if health care is subsidized by tax deductions, then the higher the tax bracket is, the cheaper health care is, so certain proposals make health care cheaper for higher income earners, much as health reimbursement accounts do today.
The reason why the article is helpful is because it recaps the laundry list of Republican approaches. Now, in this spirit of "bipartisanship", where are there any matches in what at least some Republicans and Democrats want? One match-up is taxing, in one form or another, health care benefits. I don't see any other match-ups.
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