The United States has been called a bailout nation, following the passage of TARP in 2008 and the government takeover of the auto industry earlier this year. However, that may ring true in other, more controversial areas, as well.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J, took President Barack Obama and proponents of his style of health care reform, along with the news media that cover the issue, to task, in a video posted on Sept. 21. He explained to the Washington News Observer the bill would do harm to sick people and called it the worst bill he had seen as a member of the U.S. Congress.
"Well, the Republicans are very clearly standing against bogus health care reform - that which will do grave injury to those who are very sick, those with cancers, unborn children and their mothers," Smith said. "This is I think the worst piece of legislation that I have seen in my 29 years as a member of Congress."
According to the Republican New Jersey congressman, the bill and its proponents have made the bill intentionally confusing.
"It's filled with duplicity," Smith said. "It's complexity is designed to confuse and the way people are talking about it, including the president of the United States, is classic art of misdirection - talk about it as if it does one thing, while it does precisely the other."
But Smith also explained what the legislation could mean for social conservatives - those who might oppose abortion on moral or religious grounds. He said this bill would enable abortion providers by providing a subsidy for the procedure and he deemed it "the abortion industry bailout bill of 2009."
"This is the abortion industry bailout bill of 2009," Smith continued. "It will cause hundreds of thousands per year additional abortions because it will market it, provide new venues, new abortion clinics and public subsidies, public funds will be paying for abortions. And the evidence, the empirical evidence is when you pay for it, especially for vulnerable women who feel they have nowhere else to turn - someone standing there with cash and saying you can get an abortion - at that point of vulnerability it helps tip the scales to have the abortion rather than go to a pregnancy care center, affirm mother and baby. There are people who will help you."
Smith also had a low opinion of the way the mainstream media has handled the coverage. He gave a firsthand account of how his efforts to show another side of the debate have gone ignored by media.
"We don't get the coverage," Smith said. "I held four press conferences on ObamaCare, three of them in July, early August and one just a couple of weeks ago. Other than one or two media outlets, nobody else came. We had a broad section of members of Congress - Democrats and Republicans at a couple of the press conferences, a number of non-governmental organizations, you know people who wanted to speak out - they just don't show up."
He specifically named four networks as the culprits - the same four networks the president appeared on to push the bill on the Sunday morning Sept. 20 talk show circuit.
"So to a very large extent, our message doesn't get across by many in ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and I find that outrageous," Smith continued. "They ought to be covering both sides, which is the American way, and let people make informed decisions. But it's very heavily skewed towards Obama."
