MSNBC's Ed Schultz Justifies Obama Lying About Health Care: 'People Were on the Fear Fence'
The increasingly agitated Ed Schultz on Wednesday both justified lying to Americans about being able to keep their insurance and, at the same time, berated the very concept of "appeasing" the millions who have lost coverage. The Ed Show anchor opened the show by frantically screaming that ObamaCare is about "making the market better." He added, "It's not about appeasing people when they get upset, when they get a cancellation notice in the mail." [MP3 audio here.]
Schultz slammed Bill Clinton for suggesting that the President allow Americans to keep their insurance. Seeming to okay lying, Schultz rationalized, "No. President Obama said that because there were a lot of people in this country who were on the fear fence, worried what's going to happen to them."
Hosting an imaginary conversation in his mind, "Are we going to lose our insurance?' 'Yeah, if it's lousy, you are!' Just say it.'"
A partial transcript of the November 13 segment is below:
5:02
ED SCHULTZ: ObamaCare is about making the market better. Getting rid of junk insurance. There are a lot of Americans in the private market that don't have very good insurance and it doesn't cover very much. And when they get sick, the cost goes up for all of us. This is about reform. It's not about appeasing people when they get upset, when they get a cancellation notice in the mail saying "You got lousy insurance. It doesn't meet the standards. Go to the federal market." Do we need, like, a health care summit so we can get all the good guys around the table to figure out what the hell to say to the cameras? President Clinton, drop me an e-mail. Tell me what good that interview did when you said that there are three things wrong with ObamaCare. There are people out there who were sitting on every word, wondering who do I believe?
"Do I believe the lines of misinformation? Well, is Ed lying to me, or what's going on? Is there really a junk insurance industry out there?" Absolutely, there is. And the whole point of this is that American consumers have had lousy insurance policies. But now we've got President Clinton. Things are so mixed up, he's out there saying, "Well, you know what? If we told people that they could keep their insurance, that's the way it ought to be." No. President Obama said that because there were a lot of people in this country who were on the fear fence, worried what's going to happen to them. "Are we going to lose our insurance? "Yeah, if it's lousy, you are!" Just say it. Instead we're mopping it up and now they're throwing out some possible legislation that might fix this. You know what will fix this? People, go to the website, be patient, sign up, and get after it and get covered.
— Scott Whitlock is Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Scott Whitlock on Twitter.
