Fox News, Insurance Industry Say There’s No Health Care Crisis. Yeah, Right!
Maybe we’ve been ignoring the good news for these past several months as we’ve covered the debate on health care reform.
For example—there really isn’t a health care crisis and everybody is just gosh-darn happy with their insurance providers. Did we mention that the health insurance industry is doing such an above-board, honest job that it doesn’t need any new rules or regulations?
Somehow, we missed those stories, but when you consider the sources—Rush Limbaugh, the insurance group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and Sen. John Kyl (R-Ariz.), perhaps the loudest voice in the U.S. Senate screaming to scuttle health care reform—we didn’t miss much in the way of truthful news after all.
Click here, here and here for more on the dubious claims by Limbaugh, AHIP and Kyl.
The Truth About Taxes
Have you heard about the so-called “tea parties” happening today? Honchos of the extremist right are orchestrating top-down events to protest paying taxes for a proposed federal budget that’s designed to stimulate the nation’s flattened economy and support basic infrastructure and public services. Ironies abound in these protests: In some areas, protestors are urged to take public transportation to the events. Key word here is “public,” as in paid for by taxpayers.
The media talking heads pushing these events are spewing a lot of venom toward a presidential administration they can’t control, one not beholden to special corporate interests. In doing so, their rhetoric is bordering on the treasonous: Fox’s Glenn Beck, who’s holding a $500-plate fundraiser for the San Antonio tea party, has begun advocating secession. (Hat tip to Media Matters for this and all its great work.)
On Fox News, Acuff Cuts Through the Spin About Employee Free Choice
Here’s a delightful surprise from, of all places, Fox News. When Neil Cavuto interviewed Stewart Acuff, special assistant to the president at the AFL-CIO, about the Employee Free Choice Act, he was pleasantly surprised to find that, contrary to corporate spin, the Employee Free Choice Act does not take away the secret ballot process.
Acuff appeared Friday on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” to bust some of the myths and disinformation that has run rampant about the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill vital to restoring the right to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Cavuto—clearly going on what he’s heard from the corporate shills and political spinners who hope to block the Employee Free Choice Act—asked Acuff whether the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process for joining a union would be made illegal or eliminated under the Employee Free Choice Act. Cavuto was shocked when Acuff replied that it wouldn’t. In fact, the only change the Employee Free Choice Act makes is that it puts the decision of whether to use a ballot or majority sign-up in the hands of the workers, not their boss.
