For Congress, the August recess almost always means a round of town hall meetings and other gatherings at which our elected officials get to hear from the citizenry on what they have done thus far in session.
This summer, for those Congressman and Senators voting for or supporting government-run ObamaCare, the cap-and-trade tax and regulatory regime, the $787 billion alleged "stimulus" package and other huge government-tiny result programs, these constituent encounters have been very unpleasant indeed. So unpleasant, in fact, that some are defying orders from Nancy Pelosi and beginning to bail on them.
The instances of taxpayer revolts at these meetings have been mounting, with appearing it seems almost daily. They must make it on the digital underground, you see, for outside of the gathering for Senator Arlen Specter (D/R/D-PA) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Lamestream Media have been largely reluctant to report on them.
This press neglect would be intended, one would think, to protect these officials and the plans they seek to enact. Televising constituents railing at their representatives for attempting to rapidly advance the Big Government ball would be considered in most quarters unhelpful in rapidly advancing the Big Government ball.
But not according to pseudo-syndicated liberal radio talk show host Bill Press. On this morning's America's Newsroom on the Fox News Channel, Press told co-host Megyn Kelly that he thinks the protesters are just "people who are anti-anything the government has anything to do with." He said they are "just out to disrupt and to deny any legitimate debate. That's not the American way, I think they're turning people off."
Well the American people are certainly being turned off by someone, Bill, but I don't think it's their fellow citizens standing up for them and their right not to be taxed and regulated into oblivion, and to not have their life and death health care decisions made for them by the government.
And if it's an open and free flowing debate you want, than you should be joining with the protesters in being absolutely livid at President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats. They have spent the entirety of the 111th Congress rushing through legislation as quickly as possible to avoid just the sort of scrutiny they are now receiving.
Congress is passing bills so fast they publicly scoff at the notion that they should read them prior to making them the laws of the land. It was they who tried to ramrod this government medicine bill through to passage in advance of the August recess, more than likely looking to avoid the TEA Party-esque responses they are now seeing and Press is disparaging.
Press should instead be joining with these average citizens in demanding a more thorough examination of all that the Party in power is seeking to so rapidly enact. Oh wait, he is. But not really.
Press instead takes shots at the protesters, saying that they "show a very ugly side of America," and describing them as "disruptive," on the "fringe" and, again, "ugly." He said "Americans want serious discussion," not "mob rule." He also asserted that these showings are not authentic grassroots uprisings but "obviously orchestrated."
A very perplexing authenticity assessment from a guy on the same side as ACORN, the unions and the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton rent-a-mobs.
Press also bizarrely complained of one woman "holding the Bible up, as if that has anything to do with anything." (He's not alone in the media in questioning whether Christians or Christianity has any place in the health care debate.)
Press asks "these people who are there to protest, what are they for? They're for what, the status quo? There's no other plan that they've put on the table, the Republicans have put no other plan on the table. So they're just against anything and for the status quo, which most Americans accept as unacceptable."
There's the tired, old liberal straw man argument, a tactic of which the President is so very fond. You are either for a full-on government takeover, or you are for the "status quo." Even if that were true, as Kelly points out, "80% of those (Americans) with insurance rate their coverage as 'good' or 'excellent.'" Sounds like the status quo is more than good enough for these "ugly," "disruptive" "fringe(rs)."
How disruptive could they be if they want things to stay the same?
And there are in fact several Republican bills on proffer on the Hill. Senator Jim DeMint has . Press may be forgiven for not knowing this since the media have remained silent about them, instead joining with the Left in labeling the Elephants as the "Party of No."
Or it may be willful ignorance on Press's part. He also cited the tired, old demonstrably false canard about the "47 million Americans who don't have any health insurance whatsoever." He has to know this is a ruse.
Somewhere between 10 and 20 million of that number are non-citizens, and therefore by definition not Americans. Certainly Press couldn't possibly mean they should be covered at citizens' expense? Bill? Do you?
(There are myriad other problems with Press's uninsured number, but that example alone should suffice to put the lie to it.)
All in all, this was just another Bill Press big pile of mental mess he attempted to pass off as thoughtful analysis. Well, it certainly again explains his anemic radio ratings.
