‘Hardball’ pundit grills FreedomWorks, fawns on Union leader

These green peppers aren't as hot as Bhut Jolokia, adjudged the hottest peppers in the world by researchers at New Mexico State University.Chris Matthews went to bat for the Democratic healthcare plan I call ‘Crat-care’ and Matthews’ leftwing political libido was as hot as a Bhut Jolokia. Matthews was allegedly interviewing Max Pappas, vice-president for Public Policy at FreedomWorks, and Gerald Shea, assistant to the president of the AFL-CIO. Matthews went into attack mode as he grilled Pappas and fawned over Shea.

“I’ve never met a person in the world who wants to get rid of Medicare,” said Matthews. He should read my columns. Medicare was one of the many misguided ideas President Lyndon B. Johnson had. The program removed millions from the private sector, increasing costs for those who aren’t on government plans. Like every other leftie I’ve met, Matthews doesn’t talk specifics about the legislation Dems are trying to sell, even though most of them probably haven’t read HR 3200 either. I’d be willing to bet union orgs are intimately familiar with the bill.

Nor does Matthews address the constituency within the alleged “45 million” without health insurance. If reform is what you’re after, HR 3200 isn’t going to give it to you. That is my opinion, freely expressed in accordance with my constitutional rights.

Matthews, former “spinmeister” for the late Tip O’Neill, icon of Democrat New Deal socialism, not unsurprisingly gave the union guy a pass. “Are you gonna’ back this bill?” O’Neill asked. That’s like asking my hound dog, “Do you really want this doggie biscuit?”

Of course the AFL-CIO is backing the bill. A position paper on the AFL-CIO website shows the union organization marches alongside Dem leaders on one key issue—a public health insurance plan.

Matthews of course didn’t bring up the fact Medicaid and Medicare lose millions and millions to fraud, and the US cannot realistically afford another big government program. Matthews and his political brethren want to grow the government even more despite the fact the only thing that will save us fiscally is real government reform starting with cutting budgets and slashing spending. There’s not a soul in the current Washington power structure brave enough to tackle what really needs to be done.

The AFL-CIO paper said, “In order to get health reform done, we cannot rely solely on savings in the system; we will need to identify additional revenues…To begin, we support the major elements of the President’s budget proposal for more than $600 billion in savings and revenues, half of which comes from savings within Medicare and Medicaid and half of which comes from limiting the itemized deductions for households in the top two tax brackets.”

If you’re in those top two brackets, you might want to get your tax planning in order. I’m fairly confident the Dems will give the unions anything they want—that relationship is as old as the world’s oldest profession. Both by the way have much in common.

It’s obvious who is heavily influencing our legislature and it certainly isn’t FreedomWorks. Mattnews fired on Pappas, implying he's a lobbyist. Meanwhile, sitting in a chair beside Pappas is Shea, representing what may be the most profitable de facto lobby in US history. How fast can you say the  word hypocrisy?

If you read parts of HR 3200, and then read the AFL-CIO position paper, it appears the union lords had quite a bit of input into that bill.

Matthews really should run for office. Or MSNBC should come up with a new title for ‘Hardball.’ Maybe they could just call the show ‘The Dem Hour’ or ‘Hardball for conservatives; ice cream for neo-liberals’—something like that, because I don’t see any hard balls aimed at Matthews’ fellow neo-liberals. Matthews kept asking what Republicans had done, but he never brought up the Medicare Prescription Act or HSAs. Matthews never brought up efforts by the Bush administration to address fraud in government health programs. And he never once mentions the fiscal disasters created by Johnson and what those will mean for healthcare in futures near and far.

Despite all the criticism of people who attend town halls in an effort to learn more about the various healthcare plans Dems are pushing, Matthews never once asked Shea about the organizational machine the AFL-CIO employs. There’s an entire page at the AFL-CIO website about “grassroots” union organizing. “The Alliance for Retired Americans also is mobilizing to recruit members to attend town hall meetings with lawmakers and plans a series of events highlighting the need for real health care reform…Working America canvassers will be out in neighborhoods across the country talking to families about health care reform.”

The worst thing about Matthews and his media kin rests on the disinformation strategy they’re employing—bash those who show up at town halls, bash anyone who disagrees with union demands, bash anyone who believes government should downsize rather than expand. And not a one of these pop pundits will talk specifics and cite page numbers from sections in HR 3200.

As he wound up his angry diatribe, Matthews looked at Pappas who deserves a medal for manners and self-control, and dispensed his final insult: “I should be nice to you but I disagree with your whole crowd.”

I’m hoping Pappas took that as a compliment. I did.

Note to government monitors: This column is about HR 3200. If you think there’s something fishy here, notify The White House by emailing flag@whitehouse.gov.

'Hardball' pundit grills FreedomWorks, fawns on Union leader
by Kay B. Day
The US Report, Aug. 7, 2009