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Can President Obama prove Bill Wrong? AP Photo Alex Brandon
Bill O' Reilly chimed in on the health care debate yesterday with his talking points. While O' Reilly shows more reasoning and logic than his coworker Glenn Beck he still makes many false assumptions. You can watch the full video of O' Reilly's talking points below.
O' Reilly Talking Point #1 - Democrats are out of touch
O' Reilly claims that Democrats are pushing a program the American people do not want. This is curious as 56% of the American public wants health care reform to happen this year. Just one in four Americans say it is not important too them and one 10% trust Republicans the most to reform health care.
Now if you ask Americans the way Republicans ask the question then yes the public will reject the idea. For instance if instead of asking people if they favor a "public option" you ask people if they support a "Big massive bureaucratic government run health insurance industry that will take away doctor choice" then of course people reject the idea. It is ironic that O' Reilly uses this sort of spin when describing health care reform.
O' Reilly Talking Point #2 - Obama's health care reform is already dead
This is talking point being used by more and more Republicans. President Obama certainly has a tough road ahead as demonstrated by the polls but by no means is the bill dead. The fact that the bill is out of the House committees in one piece is a huge accomplishment in itself. In effect, we have a tie ball game in the middle of eighth inning. Republicans would like to call the game due to rain and declare victory but the reality is there is one more inning left.
O' Reilly Talking Point #3 - President Obama's tax is forcing being forced to contribute to Obama's social justice
This is just more spin from the self-proclaimed no spinster. Under O' Reilly theory every tax is not part of people being a community but rather being "forced to contribute" to whatever cause it may be. So when I paid taxes the last eight years I was being "forced to contribute" to war in Iraq and for payments to Haliburton. When O' Reilly likes the tax he calls it a tax but when it is a tax he does not favor it becomes a "forced contribution to social justice." The fact is people have a right to protest their taxes through their elected representatives. We no longer suffer from no taxation without representation so they are not "forced contributions" they are part of our democracy. We consent to the taxes with our votes. Finally, O' Reilly's claim is questionable considering 58% of the public actually favors taxing the wealthy to finance health care reform.
O' Reilly Talking Point #4 - Americans always favor freedom
This sounds nice and the term "freedom" polls very well I am sure. But the truth is Americans many times chose to give up some freedom for what they see as a higher calling. Americans already agree to give up some of their taxes in order to at least pay for defense and roads. Americans give up the freedom to drive 100 MPH in order to have safer roads. Americans give up almost all their freedom in wartime as they subject themselves to draft. So O' Reilly's claim that given the choice Americans will always favor more freedom simply does not hold true throughout much of our history.
Comments
You lack logic. Congress' proposed bill will MANDATE health care coverage for people that don't have it, like me. This means that I, along with other young and healthy people without health insurance (because we don't need it) will be forced to contribute to health care to take care of sickly people. This will be done to even out costs. O'Reilly makes more sense that you ever will. Wise up.
You do not need it right now. But all of us develop health problems at some point in life. The only thing certain after all is death and tax. If you get ill now you will have a number of options. One is to pay privately if you have the money. If you have this option I am happy for you but millions of Americans do not have this option. If you do not have the money to pay for it you will not be able to find insurance because of your pre-existing condition. If you go to the emergency room you increase costs for everyone as emergency room costs are significantly higher than other hospital costs. As it is now you are already paying for other people through taxes that pay for Medicaid and Medicare. Under the current system you will pay more as Medicare costs skyrocket. You may actually pay less for "others" if you support the reform efforts.
"If you have this option I am happy for you but millions of Americans do not have this option."
Do you know who makes up the 46 million uninsured Americans? It consists of illegal immigrants, young/healthy people, and poor Americans who are eligible for Medicaid.
online.wsj.com/article/SB124812571962066393.html
That only accounts for some of them. Millions more are minorities and people making less that 36K a year not eligible for Medicaid. economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/who-are-the-uninsured/
Even if people are young/healthy without health insurance that doesn't mean they should not have health insurance. I am "young" and healthy but I sure as hell would not want the risk of not having health insurance. With health insurance deductions and copays are already high. I could not imagine living under the constant risk of going to the hospital without insurance. Have you looked at the bill insurance companies pay? One trip for a an emergency appendectomy could send an otherwise young/healthy person into bankruptcy given the costs involved.
The young dont need health care insurance? Thats the young for you thinking they are invincible. Your not, there are many reasons why you may end up in the emergency room and most would be because of injury and not old age.
If you do not have health care insurance than you are one of the ones that wind up in the enmergency room and we pay for it.
You know that in order to reduce cost you have to reduce services. I just has an aunt that is 82 years old that would have been denied care ie pg 425 of the current proposal. You say that the Repub have stuped even lower but, the truth can't be spun; they will be denied service. Be honest and quit being a liberal for one moment with us.
I agree we need health care reform, but not to the point of including illegal immigrants in the formula.
The word illegal cannot be spun to mean anything but what it is.
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