Wednesday, August 15, 2012

This is why you watch Fox News

The Daily Show with Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
It's Not Delivery, It's D'Economies of Scale
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11 to 14 cents more for pizza? Outrageous, isn't it? And only to make sure people have health insurance when they need it? How dare they!

Of course, if people don't have health insurance, they won't just crawl into the bushes and die without bothering the rest of us. No, they'll go to the emergency room at the hospital, and we'll all have to pay for that. So maybe without that extra cost we could all buy a little more pizza occasionally, huh?

You can't get something for nothing. If you're gullible enough to believe otherwise, well, maybe that's why you watch Fox 'News.'

And, er, "socialism sucks"? As every informed person knows (not Fox 'News' viewers or commenters, apparently), 'Obamacare' isn't socialism. In fact, it was originally the Republican health care reform plan, developed in a right-wing think tank as the free-market, insurance company-friendly alternative to the single-payer model I'd quite frankly prefer.

It was widely supported in the GOP - not just by Mitt Romney, either - right up until the moment when the Democrats decided to compromise and adopt it, too. (Note that that's usually how the Democrats 'compromise.') Instantly, it became "socialism" to the right-wing.

But you know all that, don't you? How could you not?

And what about global warming? Pretty much 100% of climatologists accept the reality of global warming, and something like 98% of them agree that it's mainly caused by human activity. A "hunch"? Um, not exactly. How about "a conclusion based on clear evidence from careful scientific research."

But if you're upset about the prospect of paying an extra 11 cents for your pizza, I'd be really worried about global climate change! However, that's not Republican Party dogma, is it? This isn't about reality. This is about politics. This is about political ambition, nothing more.

But I loved Jon Stewart's final comments: "Yup, that's why they watch Fox. You know why? 'Cause it's so much easier than literally sticking your head up your own ass to shut out reality.

"So to summarize, if pizza costs a little more, but in return everyone gets health insurance,... outrageous! But if it costs a lot more, because human activity is burning our planet to an uninhabitable husk,... eh, what the fuck. Right?"

2 comments:

Jim Harris said...

I can't believe even the most conservative of conservatives wouldn't willingly pay 14 cents more for anything to get healthcare for everyone. Are they that damn cheap? Is 14 cents for compassion that damn expensive? Why do they even claim to be Christians?

Bill Garthright said...

Jim, remember the cheers, during the Republican presidential debates, at the idea of someone dying because they didn't have health insurance? That's what we're up against.

Of course, even most conservatives wouldn't want people without health insurance to die, I suspect - or not to die where they have to take notice, at least. But they fail to recognize that we're going to pay for that, one way or another.

This whole 'Obamacare' debate is just nuts, especially since that's the Republican health care plan. As usual, Democrats bent over backward to 'compromise' with Republicans, and ended up discovering that you can't even get them to agree to their own policies, not if it means letting the Democrats share in the credit.

There doesn't seem to be the slightest shred of integrity left in the Republican Party these days.