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Friday, November 8, 2013

Does a Tyrant Apologize?



Yesterday, President Obama apologized for saying the words that might have misled 14 million Americans, who believed they could keep their health insurance plans if they wanted to. It was the right thing to do because he was damned if he apologized and damned if he didn’t. The president’s enemies are now saying that the apology just proves that he’s not up to the task of being president. I can remember the same people saying that the president was a tyrant who  was pushing his agenda without congressional approval. A tyrant does not apologize.

After the president’s apology, John Boehner put out a statement saying that if the president was sincere, he would get behind the house bill to reinstate those cancelled policies. Wait a minute, Congress doesn’t have the authority to reinstate policies; the insurance companies would never go for that. The Affordable Care Act and private insurance companies made agreements before the law was passed.

The GOP won’t be satisfied until Kathleen Sebelius gets fired thus leaving Health and Human Services without a director. The Senate won’t confirm judges; do you really think they would be in a hurry to confirm someone whose job it will be to make ACA a successful program?

On my way back from taking a blood test, I flipped on an AM station to see what right wing radio was saying this morning. The talk show host was playing parts of the apology and started asking leading questions such as “why isn’t the president apologizing for the hardships that are sure to come from Obamacare?” He went on to say that starting next year companies will start dropping their healthcare plans. There’s no viable proof of that but the talk show host doesn’t have to pay any penalty for lying to his audience.

I can understand the president’s frustration with media’s appetite for sensationalism. They will broadcast several people’s hardship stories after losing their health insurance, but they ignore the ones who saved money through the exchanges. Unless pressed by a supporter of ACA the media will not mention that healthcare costs were a major problem before Obamacare. The media will hold the people who are trying to do something to lower healthcare costs “feet to the fire” but will give those who don’t care a free pass. How many times have you heard a pundit asked a critic of ACA “and what is your plan?”

6 comments:

Mike said...

On a slightly different subject but along the same angle...This Benghazi story will never die as long as the media keeps it alive by publishing unverifiable stories.

"In a humiliating retreat from a piece she had staunchly defended, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan admitted on Friday morning that she and the news magazine had made a "mistake" in their reporting of a controversial story about the Benghazi attacks. She apologized to viewers and said "60 Minutes" will issue a correction about the reliability of one of her key sources, security contractor Dylan Davies, on its next program.

"We were wrong to put him on air," she said, adding, "We will apologize to our viewers and we will correct the record on our broadcast on Sunday night."

It emerged on Thursday that Davies, who gave Logan a hair-raising, detailed account of his actions during the 2012 attack, had previously told the FBI that he hadn't even gone to the site where it took place. This was the second occasion where Davies had been recorded as saying that he wasn't at the scene of the crime. He had already admitted to doing so once, but CBS and Logan had firmly backed him, saying that he had lied to his employer to protect himself.

Lying to the FBI, however, is a different matter, and "60 Minutes" pulled the report and said it was "reviewing" the new information to determine whether it had been misled."

http://tinyurl.com/nxp7x49

Edith Ann said...

I kind of like seeing the folks making the 'mistakes' getting called on the carpet. When they are on the record, it is so much easier to use their words to debunk the lies.

Mike said...

Well Jack Trapper and Jonathan Karl did not have to pay a price for printing Benghazi rumors that were not true.

Edith Ann said...

Kind of a recent thing.

Edith Ann said...

The TPNJs are all convoluted over Sebelius not being fired, and Tom Cruise comparing making a moving to fighting a war in Afghanistan.

Mike said...

In the meantime no attention is given to Syria destroying their chemical weapons and the great jobs report Friday,despite the furloughed fed workers being counted as unemployed.