Joe Conason Cuts Through Some of the Hackery on Lou Dobbs' Show
By Heather Wednesday Oct 28, 2009 11:00am
I really don’t know how Joe Conason can manage to sit through these panel segments on Lou Dobbs’ show, but it’s nice to see him on there to dispel some of the right-wing talking points being thrown around by Dobbs and the other guests. He does a good job countering KellyAnne Conway on the Republicans' newfound love of Medicare, and Dobbs for downplaying some of the profits of the larger insurance companies.
He may not have known that Dobbs was parroting Glenn Beck at the end of the segment. Dobbs needs to just move on over to ClusterFox and get it over with.
CONWAY: The opt out is a canard because if you really want people—if you really want to provide an opt out, allow small business owners to opt out. This administration's policies have been an assault on small business owners, believe me, and or allow seniors to opt out of the cuts in Medicare which are currently on the table.
CONASON: Cuts in the private Medicare.
CONWAY: But Joe it's huge. When people hear it, they think it’s mostly a bad idea.
CONASON: We should discuss what that really is.
CONWAY: Go ahead because, again—explain the differences.
CONASON: It's the $500 billion in cuts. It’s to cut something called Medicare Advantage…
CONWAY: Right, which a lot of seniors rely on.
CONASON: No, it’s a subsidy to private insurance companies to try to compete with Medicare because they can't compete with Medicare. When people complain about a government-run health care program Lou, they're complaining about a program that is very like Medicare which the Republicans now claim to be defending. So it's a very interesting contradiction in their positions. On the one hand, they're trying to save Medicare, that government run program. On the other hand, they don't want anyone else to have it…
