MSNBC's Scarborough Dismisses Importance of ObamaCare Vote

As conservatives rally opposition to ObamaCare in the waning hours of the health care debate, MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough didn't seem to think the upcoming health care vote is such a big deal. On his show this morning, Scarborough concluded that the outcome of the health care overhaul vote will not have a significant impact on the American health care system.

“People just need to take a deep breath,” insisted Scarborough. “We’re going to be fine. Whichever way it goes, we’re going to be fine.”

Scarborough employed hyperbole to mischaracterize those who argue that ObamaCare is fiscally reckless and a step toward a single-payer health care system.

“And I have conservatives ask me ‘Why is it, Joe, that the world’s coming to an end and they’re about to socialize health care and you’re not?—because we every time, you always have both sides screaming ‘if this bill passes it’s the end of the world’,” said Scarborough.

While it’s difficult to find a serious person who honestly thinks “it will be the end of the world” if ObamaCare passes, many sensible Americans are concerned that the dramatic changes proposed in this bill would adversely affect their insurance coverage and quality of health care. Yet Scarborough dismissed those people as frenzied Chicken Littles.

Ironically, Scarborough didn’t mind lambasting President Bush’s Medicare prescription drug benefit a few years ago as a bloated entitlement program. Yet now all of a sudden, those who oppose a $1 trillion health care boondoggle need to “take a deep breath?”

A full transcript of today's show can be found below:

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, co-host of Morning Joe: Alright welcome back— 

JOE SCARBOROUGH: It’s getting tough out there on health care, as we go to the final stretch. Uh, it’s, everybody needs to just relax on both sides. Saw some pictures of some people screaming at a guy on the ground who supposedly had Parkinson’s disease yesterday. People just need to take a deep breath; we’re going to be fine. Whichever way it goes, we’re going to be fine. And I have conservatives ask me ‘why is it, Joe, that the world’s coming to an end and they’re about to socialize health care and you’re not—because we every time, you always have both sides screaming ‘if this bill passes it’s the end of the world!’ And then the bill passes, and we all wake up the next day and we fix the parts that don’t work; we get rid of the parts that are absolutely horrible. And what does work we keep moving forward. People need to relax.

MARGARET CARLSON, Bloomberg News: Prescription drugs, the world was going to end, remember? 

SCARBOROUGH: Well it kinda did.[Laughter]

SCARBOROUGH: As they say, sometimes in Washington if you’re paranoid, you know, you got a reason to be, everybody’s out to get you. That was a bad, bad example. Bush has bankrupted us because of that.

CARLSON: You don’t like your meds? 

SCARBOROUGH: No, I don’t like that. Go ahead.

Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.