Ed Schultz debuted his MSNBC show this evening by calling for universal health care, saying "I don't care how much it costs." There was one area, however, in which Schultz did show more guts than his new colleague, Keith Olbermann.
View video here.
ED SCHULTZ: I want to say something tonight to you wonderful viewers out there here on MSNBC, and I haven't heard this on network television. I want to tell you one thing about health care when it comes to money. Personally, this is where I stand: I don't care how much it costs. I think it's fantastic that the president's got $634 billion in his budget to do something about health care. But if it's a trillion, that's OK with me. If it's $1.2 trillion, I don't care.
And a bit later.
SCHULTZ: My argument with the conservatives is that I think they're selfish when it comes to health care . . . I've seen billions of dollars, you've seen billions of dollars go overseas to foreign countries. Now it's time to put it in this country and that's why I love President Barack Obama for his committment, a downpayment of $634 billion to do something about in this country.
Ed, there's a reason that you haven't heard anyone on network TV say they don't care how much universal health care costs: it's crazy. Though you're certainly right when you say the $634 billion PBO has proposed is a "downpayment." Compared to what the prez has in mind, I'd call it a drop in the IV bag.
Let's do give Ed credit for something—beyond the fact that he's bound to be a treasure trove of grist for our commentary mill. In contrast with Keith Olbermann, who doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to invite a dissenting voice on his show, Schultz had two PBO critics on his opening-night panel: Lars Larson and Larry Elder, balancing Ed and The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel.
Note: catch most of Mark's stuff at FinkelBlog.
