Senatae majority leader Mitch McConnell (cc photo: Gage Skidmore)
This week on CounterSpin: Senate Republicans are hiding in plain sight as they let everyone know they are crafting critically important healthcare legislation in secret, away from the scrutiny of even congressional colleagues, that they hope and expect to force through—over what they know would be public objections. It’s an obvious crisis for democracy, but elite media are used to taking their cues, for what to write about and how, from politicians. So how do they react when those politicians tell them outright to look the other way?
We have an extended conversation about the need to shift the perspective of reporting on healthcare with someone who’s been doing just that for many years: Trudy Lieberman is a longtime contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review and lead writer for CJR’s healthcare desk. She also blogs for Health News Review and is contributing editor of Remaking Healthcare at the Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California. She joins us to talk about what we need from reporters on healthcare right now.
Transcript: Millions of People Will Lose Their Coverage Under Whatever Comes Out
Plus a look back at recent press, including the British elections and Megyn Kelly.
I see you are not about to counterspin all that propaganda that false flag attacks to bolster imperialist policies and intentions (war) simply does not exist. Tied to the military industrial complex, are we?
ObamaCare — TrumpCare
(1) Upper-half of society owns all the land, wealth and good healthcare. As they are the voting majority, the 51% most wealthy and deliberately keep the lower-half impoverished so that they never have the funds to hire the politicians needed to gain liberty and equality.
(2) Laboring-class lower-half of society, having always been impoverished, has little to no healthcare. And as they have always been over worked, poorly fed, required to do all the manual labor and endure the most unhealthy working and living conditions, if they were to be given quality healthcare equal to the upper-half, it would increase the total cost of healthcare from $3.5 trillion a year to $7 trillion. And as the upper-half deliberately keeps the lower-half impoverished, the $7 trillion would have to be taxing the upper-half. For the lower-half pays no income taxes.
(3) Healthcare industry produces 20% of GDP, which is $3.5 trillion each year and four times the amount of wealth consumed by the military. Actually 20% of workers in America are employed in the healthcare industry.
(4) As a 30% decrease in illness would put so many people in the healthcare industry out of work, unemployment would increase by 7% and GDP would be reduced by $1 trillion a year. That is why not a word is being said about preventive healthcare by mainstream media, healthcare industry, insurance industry or our high-fat processed food industry.
(5) Average American diet is 50% fat and this is the root cause of over 95% of illness, as it clogs up every internal organ of the body.
(6) So, as a first step, if free healthcare were given to only those who lived a healthy lifestyle and ate a 10% fat diet, then in a year when most doctors and hospitals were going bankrupt, then everything could be seen in its proper perspective.