Media Matters Is On The Case

A new video being pushed by the wingnut blogosphere purports to show President Obama plotting a secret government takeover of health insurance. The first thing that should be obvious is if this was supposed to be a secret then why exactly was then Senator Obama talking it about it in speeches and in interviews? That was enough to make me call bullshit but I realize that doesn't really qualify as evidence.

Enter Media Matters where they work tirelessly to debunk these kinds of stories before they can take hold. Here is what they found.

Video crops Obama comments to suggest employer coverage would be "eliminated" by his plan

Contrary to cropped video, Obama did not suggest "employer coverage" would be "eliminate[d]" in 10 to 20 years. Obama stated: "But I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out where we've got a much more portable system" [cropped comments in italics].

Obama stated during forum that under his plan, employers "still have the option of providing coverage." Following the remarks included in the YouTube video, Obama stated that under that "much more portable system": Employers still have the option of providing coverage, but many people may find that they get better coverage, or at least coverage that gives them more for health care dollars than they spend outside of their employer. And I think we've got to facilitate that and let individuals make that choice to transition out of employer coverage."

Later in forum, Obama stated that under his plan, pooling options would exist "in addition to the employer based system." Obama stated: "[O]ne thing that I think is important is to recognize that there are a lot of small employers who would like to get health care for their workers but they themselves can't afford it because they don't have access to large enough pools to allow them to save money. That's why I think it's going to be important for us in whatever system that we set up to make sure that in addition to the employer based system that we've got an alternative system that individuals who aren't getting it through the job can access."

I have to wonder if we would even have a President Obama without a Media Matters to help beat back all the lies and smears floating around about him last year. And now with the fight for health care reform they are just as imporatant in helping to keep the wingnuts from taking over the framing of the issue.