A Little bit on Fox News and Healthcare
I won’t claim to be a major supporter of Fox News. I haven’t seen a program run by them in years. The only time I am exposed to them is when John Stewart ridicules them on Daily Show (I don’t watch it either, but friends’ post YouTube links). However I believe it was the TV show “30 Rock” that quipped it best.
When a character portraying a news anchor was asked about impartial objectivity on a news piece she responded that in the age of fast news, it was replaced by personal satisfaction.
Long gone are the days when Walter Cronkite could be the Voice of the Nation. Modern news is slanted, and at least Fox is unapologetic about their slant. They pay lip service to objectivity, but don’t advertise it. They promise you up to date information (and deliver). It’s up to the savvy consumer to see through the spin. Don’t like it? Go watch PBS.
Now healthcare. There are three constitutional rights. Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. Everything else is a freedom, granted and taken away by Vox Populi. I don’t like the modern healthcare system. I believe that tightfisted insurance companies and greedy doctors have been abusing the public far too long. But to think that a solution would be a new source of money for them to draw on, would be a tremendous folly. There should have been a price and regulations, or at least an accountability reform. When No Fault laws were struck down in NYC- that was a correct measure. When California offered a voluntary public fund program for small business to consolidate their insurance spending – that was a correct program. In the current law, the idea that consumers can now shop for insurance across state lines – that is a correct program. The idea that you should tax top 1% of your population with the EXPRESS PURPOSE of providing hand outs to the bottom 10% is appalling. I take advantage of plenty social service systems. I also pay for them out of my taxes. As a result I don’t mind that others utilize them – the service is there already. But you start denying me the service in order to provide additional comfort to those who don’t even pay for it, and I will have a problem with it.
