Appearing on Monday’s PoliticsNation, MSNBC’s Krystal Ball spat on the religious liberty that Hobby Lobby is presently fighting to defend before the U.S. Supreme Court. The co-host of The Cycle refused to believe that the Hobby Lobby case is about religious liberty, insisting it is actually about “whether your employer can decide what kind of health care you're going to have access to.” She scoffed, “Employers and corporations don't have a religion.” [Video below. MP3 audio here.]
Really, Krystal? A corporation itself may not have a religion, but many employers certainly do. Employers are human beings with thoughts and beliefs just like the rest of us. Should their religious convictions not be respected, as well as their autonomy to run their businesses as they see fit?
In fact, one might even argue that MSNBC has a religion: the worship of Barack Obama. And the Rev. Al Sharpton, appropriately, is the cult's high priest. He proved this earlier in the same episode when he declared that ObamaCare is a “godsend.” In response to Donald Trump calling ObamaCare a catastrophe, the reverend thundered from his virtual pulpit:
Getting people covered, saving them money, stopping insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions. That's not a catastrophe, it's a godsend. And we've got one more week to prove it.
Like manna from Heaven, ObamaCare has been sent down to us from on high to satisfy our needs. But it’s interesting that Sharpton said “we’ve got one more week to prove” ObamaCare is a godsend. Does he think the law’s divine status depends on how many people sign up before the March 31 deadline? If the law depends on young and healthy people to balance out older and sicker people, then it’s not a godsend – it’s just another government scheme to redistribute wealth from one segment of the population to another.
Sharpton began the episode by celebrating the four-year anniversary of ObamaCare’s passage. To commemorate the occasion, he played a string of clips of the president making triumphant declarations about the law, such as this: “We said young adults without insurance should be able to stay on their parents' plan. We got that done for you.” And this: “No more discriminating against kids with preexisting conditions.”
However, Sharpton did not play a clip of Obama’s most notorious broken promise regarding ObamaCare. There was no mention of, “If you like your plan, you can keep it,” or “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” or any variation on that theme. That promise was a major selling point of the law, yet Sharpton politely overlooked it, essentially bearing false witness about his messiah's divinely-instituted health care overhaul. After all, if you are trying to pass off ObamaCare as a godsend, why mention those things that the law has taken away?
Below is a transcript of the segment:
AL SHARPTON: Tonight's lead, four years down and just one more week to go. We're down to the wire on Affordable Care Act. The deadline is March 31, and there’s just one week left for Americans to enroll in health care plans. President Obama has been fighting to get to this point for the last four years. He’s been defending the law, explaining the benefits, and pushing back against all those misleading attacks.
[begin tape]
BARACK OBAMA: Today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America.
OBAMA: We said young adults without insurance should be able to stay on their parents' plan. We got that done for you.
OBAMA: We're not going to go back to the days when it was acceptable to charge women more than men for health care.
OBAMA: No more discriminating against kids with preexisting conditions.
OBAMA: We're going to keep working family by family, and block by block, and neighborhood by neighborhood on campuses and in churches to get more Americans covered with the economic security and peace of mind that quality affordable health insurance provides.
[end tape]
SHARPTON: He’s still working to get more Americans insured, and the American people are listening. Today healthcare.gov tweeted consumers are acting with more than one million visits to the health care website and 150,000 calls this weekend. Just this weekend, more than a million people looking for better care. This demand is huge. But the dead-enders on the right refuse to accept it.
[begin tape]
BRIAN KILMEADE: Donald Trump, four years ago today ObamaCare passed. How’s it gone in your estimation?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I would say that probably, and I'm not even talking about the website being all screwed up, probably it could not have gone worse. It's a complete catastrophe for people. And, you know, you look at it, you see the results all the time.
[end tape]
SHARPTON: Thanks for the diagnosis, Dr. Trump. But millions of people are signing up for care, and none of them think this law is a complete catastrophe.
[begin tape]
ALAN ROMAIN: My blood sugars went way up. And I couldn't even go to the doctor to find out what my average blood sugars were because I had preexisting condition at that point, and they wouldn't pay for all the tests.
REPORTER: So Alan enrolled in a health care marketplace plan and was pleasantly surprised.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: A lot of people that have fallen through the cracks, like myself, people that have good jobs, that have no jobs, and – everybody needs some insurance.
REPORTER 2: What are you hoping to walk away with today?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Some health insurance.
REPORTER 3: Their monthly premium dropped from about $1300 a month to $900.
REPORTER 4: Looking at the different plans, Yuman selects one he can afford.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Congratulations, you are now enrolled in Humana.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN 2: I'm covered!
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: You are covered.
[end tape]
SHARPTON: Getting people covered, saving them money, stopping insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions. That's not a catastrophe, it's a godsend. And we've got one more week to prove it.
***
SHARPTON: Krystal, your view on this hearing tomorrow?
KRYSTAL BALL: Yeah, well, in one way Mike Huckabee is right. The Hobby Lobby case is – does have much broader implications. It's really about whether a corporation, whether your employer can decide what kind of health care you're going have access to. And it's not just about birth control. It's not just about this instance. It also could bleed over into things like the bills that we saw passed that would allow photographers the right to deny services to gay couples and other service providers. They could argue that they are guaranteed this right to this religious exemption. So it really could lead to a cascading effect where the bottom line is your employer has control over what you are allowed to get in your health care, which is just, I think, to most people absurd. Employers and corporations don't have a religion.
