Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

MSNBC Host Erupts -- Charges Congressman Mislead Public by Hiding Medicare is 'Government-Run'
NewsBusters ^ | August 13, 2009 | Jeff Poor

Posted on 08/13/2009 5:06:44 AM PDT by Rufus2007

MSNBC host David Shuster has made it clear that he's left-of-center politically with his stands on social issues and his eagerness to ridicule conservatives. But yet he still maintains an anchor post for the network's mid-day regular news coverage.

But the former host of the network's now-canceled "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" interviewed Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. on the issue of the day, health care and kicked it off with a loaded question and followed by repeatedly talking over the congressman and interrupting him. Shuster wanted to know why Pence was misleading his constituents that Medicare was government run.

...more (w/video)...

(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: davidshuster; healthcare; mikepence; obamacare
Is this for real? Are there really people that don't know that Medicare is run by the government?
1 posted on 08/13/2009 5:06:45 AM PDT by Rufus2007
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007
MSNBC is nothing but Brown

Shirts.


2 posted on 08/13/2009 5:10:56 AM PDT by Always Right
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

Medicare is not technically “run by the government” — Every service is ‘paid by the government’, but the providers are all private. Basically it’s no different than any other lousy private insurance.

Depends on the meaning of ‘is’ doesn’t it.

It is also not mandatory. You can still go out and buy any service you want, from anyone you want.


3 posted on 08/13/2009 5:12:36 AM PDT by Tarpon (The Joker's plan -- Slavery by debt so large it can never be repaid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Always Right

...and brown noses...........


4 posted on 08/13/2009 5:13:24 AM PDT by Red Badger (I am totally against spooning............it eventually leads to forking................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

I’m sure there are, but I believe what the majority are saying is they don’t want cuts and changes to the program as has been proposed. I watched the interview and Shuster came off as a snotty, uninformed brat, as usual. At one point there was dead silence as Shuster couldn’t answer Pence’s question. Pence pretty much laughed him off and then...whoosh...end of interview to cut to a live shot of Obama. I’m really beginning to like Pence a lot. I hope he keeps getting out there.


5 posted on 08/13/2009 5:13:47 AM PDT by jennyjenny ( "The Harpoon")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

6 posted on 08/13/2009 5:15:38 AM PDT by scoobysnak71 (Just a National Security Threat, trying to get a nut.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

>>>> But yet he still maintains an anchor post for the network’s mid-day regular news coverage. <<<<<

It is time for conservatives to drop the absurd pretense that there is supposed to be something called “objective journalism” that is free of bias.

There isn’t, and we should just move on, rather than expressing these crocodile tears and whines of indignation. It is completely unseemly.

MSNBC, the broadcast networks, the NYT, WashPost, Chicago Trib, LA Times, and all the rest of them are unabashed leftie media and the time is long past to desire them to be anything else.

They’re leftie, they suck, and that’s that.

Who is this article trying to convince of that fact?


7 posted on 08/13/2009 5:16:16 AM PDT by angkor (The U.S. Congress is at war with America.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: angkor

>>Who is this article trying to convince of that fact?

There are a lot of folks out there who really don’t pay much attention.

They aren’t on FR.


8 posted on 08/13/2009 5:18:34 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (No Representation without Taxation!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: All

Shuster is such a tool.

Watch him act up like sparky when any homosexual issue comes up.

Just saying...


9 posted on 08/13/2009 5:19:26 AM PDT by rbmillerjr ("Government can’t make you happy or healthy or wealthy or wise"...Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007
I'm coming to the conclusion that MSNBC is only around to try and ease the blow of reality to delusional lefties. It is a little cul de sac on the airwaves where the insane can feel comforted.
10 posted on 08/13/2009 5:25:39 AM PDT by BallyBill (Serial Hit-N-Run poster)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

One of many reasons I will not purchase anything with a GE logo.


11 posted on 08/13/2009 5:25:44 AM PDT by MeSpikeLibs (Global Warming = Global BS)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007
Well ... I'd argue that 'Medicare' isn't government run too.

A faceless phantom bureaucracy called CMS 'runs' Medicare and other stuff like Medicaid and CHIPS. And if you go to the 'Medicare' gubmint website there's no mention of this 'CMS' place.

BTW, don't EVER argue disagree with CMS. I called regarding a possible 'mistake' and gave them a Billing Code Number - WRONG MOVE! This public servant 'person' went nutz and almost jumped through the phone. She demanded - and I MEAN demanded, to know where I got that Code Number. She acted like the Billing Codes were 'Above' Top Secret information.

The FBI are prolly coming for me now.

12 posted on 08/13/2009 5:26:37 AM PDT by Condor51 (The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

Extreme Left Wing orgs like the Daily Kooks and MSDNC are irrelevant to serious discussion.

PRay for America


13 posted on 08/13/2009 5:28:49 AM PDT by bray (The messiah has no robe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: angkor

It’s not so much the bias, but the absurdity of the claim that this poor congressman is being accused of hiding that Medicare is a government-run program.

I don’t think people are that stupid. When they get a Medicare check and it says “United State Treasury” on it, where do they think it comes from?

Even if people didn’t realize that Medicare was a government program, it’s a little illuminati-ish to accuse a sitting congressman of conspiring to hide it.


14 posted on 08/13/2009 5:30:21 AM PDT by Rufus2007
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

Actually medicare is not run like Obamacare. Shyster is wrong on this.

Medicare is a medical reimbursements program - it preserves the doctor patient relationship, it pays for just about anything a doctor prescribes.

Whereas Obamacare is a completely different story. Its a medical choices program and it wedges itself in between the doctor and patient, limits medical choices that are available, and provides healthcare rationing. In fact, some folks are rationed right out of it... theres a section outlining how special needs people are excluded. Obama doesn’t like them special olympics kids. What a jacka$$!.


15 posted on 08/13/2009 5:34:48 AM PDT by o2bfree (This president is giving me a headache!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jennyjenny

Pence and DeMint are fresh, new faces in the GOP and we need to see and hear a lot more from them.


16 posted on 08/13/2009 5:35:18 AM PDT by randita (Chains we can bereave in.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Tarpon
Every service is ‘paid by the government’, but the providers are all private.

So who decides what is covered, ie. what can be reimbursed by the govt? Who decides the rates paid to medical service provides? Who decides costs to participants?

Surely the govt. doesn't simply write a blank check: "Cover whoever you want, cover whatever you want, and handle it at whatever rates you want." The govt. no-doubt provides "guidelines" which is just another way of saying they really control the system. When you control the $, you control the system. Anyone who tries to convince you differently is selling something.

17 posted on 08/13/2009 5:35:32 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (obama out now! Show us your real, full, birth certificate you socialist poser!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Tarpon

A is “run” by B when B makes the decisions.


18 posted on 08/13/2009 5:35:54 AM PDT by dangus (I am JimThompson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: dangus

I deal with medicare almost weekly ... It isn’t, run it is overseen. They are a pain to deal with, but do not try and ‘run’ your healthcare. No more than does any insurance company.

I suppose they could be more overbearing, but for now they aren’t they are quite fair. They don’t try and decide anything, except if they will pay. If they don’t then you can pay. An option missing from the Joker’s plans.


19 posted on 08/13/2009 5:39:14 AM PDT by Tarpon (The Joker's plan -- Slavery by debt so large it can never be repaid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Tarpon
It is also not mandatory. You can still go out and buy any service you want, from anyone you want.

Not exactly correct...please see:

Seniors & Boomers healthcare "choice"; enroll in Medicare, or lose your SS retirement check

Some choice. Like you said, it depends on the meaning of "is".

20 posted on 08/13/2009 5:45:59 AM PDT by ravingnutter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ThunderSleeps
Anyone who tries to convince you differently is selling something.

What are YOU selling? :-) Anyway if the two programs were perfect equivalents then why not just expand medicare to cover everyone in the country?

They don't want to do that do they? Reason is medicare was never set up to ration care and limit choices to the elderly. Obamacare is set up to do that from the get go.
21 posted on 08/13/2009 5:48:12 AM PDT by o2bfree (This president is giving me a headache!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Tarpon

There is enough Gov’t involvement in Medicare to run it into $40 trillion of debt over the next 30 years. No matter which side Dems come at Medicare it is an arguement against an expanded Federal role in healthcare.


22 posted on 08/13/2009 5:50:38 AM PDT by csmusaret (If you like this economy, keep voting for Donkeys.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

Everyone knows. That said, does anyone really think that the Medicare we now have will have much resemblance to what Obama plans for us?


23 posted on 08/13/2009 5:53:56 AM PDT by MizSterious (Impeach Barak "let them eat cake" Obama, while there's still something of our Republic to save.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csmusaret

Yes that’s true .... not very well run, but I tend to believe that is their goal. Tell me, you didn’t think this strategy would actually work long term did you?

Like with GM, it is not sustainable.


24 posted on 08/13/2009 5:57:05 AM PDT by Tarpon (The Joker's plan -- Slavery by debt so large it can never be repaid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: ravingnutter

Yes, you have to ‘enroll’ but you still don’t have to use.

Of course you can just say stuff the whole thing and not take SS either.

Most just enroll, and take the free money. Hey if they are going to give it away, then why not.

It is not sustainable.


25 posted on 08/13/2009 5:59:12 AM PDT by Tarpon (The Joker's plan -- Slavery by debt so large it can never be repaid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

Fillibuster.


26 posted on 08/13/2009 6:00:39 AM PDT by jimfree (Freep and ye shall find!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tarpon

Nothing this administration tries will work long term. American Socialists are so committed to huge bureacracies that all of their programs will collapse of their own weight. The protests we are seeing are about way more than just healthcare, just like the tea parties were about much more than just taxes. It seems the sheeple are not for the nanny state as much as the Dems thought. Hopefully this new found independence will spread and will last through at least 2012.


27 posted on 08/13/2009 6:04:22 AM PDT by csmusaret (If you like this economy, keep voting for Donkeys.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

Shuster is acting like the judge at a Nazi trial. In fact, the Nazi analogy is becoming more and more applicable to the Democrats every day.

Medicare is a Federally created program, funded by the Federal government. The providers don’t get paid unless the Federal government says so. The fact that the providers don’t work directly for government does not mean that it is not a government program.

Someday, MSNBC will be appropriately condemned for what it does.


28 posted on 08/13/2009 6:19:51 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Yes, we disagree - no, we won't shut up - no, we won't quit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007

Mike Pence didn’t mislead anyone..this guy is just a liberal shill, and has no connection to my district. He is not relevant!


29 posted on 08/13/2009 6:24:31 AM PDT by JSDude1 (www.wethepeopleindiana.org (Tea Party Member-Proud), www.travishankins.com (R- IN 09 2010!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: o2bfree

Medicare pays but doesn’t cover costs. Doctors know where the line is in terms of the number of Medicare/Medicaid patients they can carry and still be able cover overhead (for Medicaid in PA I know it’s no more than around 30% patient load)...put All on a Medicare type system and doctors will go under, will lose their small businesses. Can’t run a business if you can’t cover costs.


30 posted on 08/13/2009 1:02:42 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007
Shuster said on MSNBC Aug. 12. "I understand that at your town hall at a Republican district, you got a standing ovation when you said to your constituents, ‘I oppose government-run health care.' But did you know that Medicare is government run? And why haven't you told that to your constituents?" he asked with a sarcastic tone in his voice.

He's trying to make a point (and btw Matthews tried the same thing with Abrams yesterday--and she didn't answer correctly either) that we already have government run health care that the Congressman accepts that program and wouldn't want to get rid of.

The way to handle this tactic is to say: Yes, Medicare is government run, and it shows just how insidious socialism is...we can't just dump Medicare even though it's failing b/c so many have already paid and are at the teat. Medicare shows how bureaucracy never gets smaller or gives up power. Despite the fact that Medicare is facing insolvency we can't shut it down...it's failing and there is NO turning back. Medicare is the perfect example of government run care...there's no turning back once government gets its hooks in the private sector. Socialism is insidious.
31 posted on 08/13/2009 1:15:08 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: long hard slogger; FormerACLUmember; Harrius Magnus; hocndoc; parousia; Hydroshock; skippermd; ...


Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care PING LIST

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this ping list.

**This is a high volume ping list! (sign of the times)**


32 posted on 08/13/2009 1:19:46 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: socialismisinsidious

OBAMA SPEAKS! Or, more accurately, “Obama Reads!”, since he’s not really so, uh, good, at that whole, ummm, “unscripted” thing…

“I want to thank you all for coming out tonight to this special town hall meeting” read President Obama, his narrow little head scanning the teleprompters in the now familiar left to right slow rotation. “Carefully scripted participation by selected citizens in a tightly controlled environment is a cornerstone of our democracy!”

“Carefully scripted! Tightly controlled!” The crowd of handpicked “ordinary people”, their underpants soaked in Obama-generated love honey and their wallets stuffed with $50 each “expenses money”, howled their grateful enthusiasm back at the President of the World and he smiled that arrogant little smile of his.

“Sure, we can have a national conversation about health care…its good to have a conversation” he continued, lapsing now into that preacher style speaking voice that had served him so well on the long road from Nairobi to Washington. “We know that…but… when we talk to each other…let’s remember… to keep it civil… to use our… Indoor Voice!”

“Indoor Voice! Indoor Voice!” howled the crowd, waving their color coordinated posters and banners. “Indoor voice!”

“Our Indoor Voice and not…our Angry Voice! Dissent is fine! Dissent is okay! But let’s remember that…dissent… has its limits! When dissent threatens to get… in the way of the untold benefits that a progressive agenda of hope and change can bring to our…frightened, exhausted and confused people… then it ceases to be… the highest form of patriotism, as it was under the regime of my…predecessor…and it just becomes…a big fat drag! Its time to say no… to dissent! Just say… no!”

“No dissent! No dissent!”

“Because dissent is fine but consensus is better! Its better to say Yes than to say No, isn’t it? Especially if it’s me doing the asking! You don’t want to…disappoint me, do you? You don’t want me to… feel bad; like you don’t… like me or something, do you?”

“No! No! Never! We won’t let you down, Barack! Govern us, Barack!”

“Sure, it’s easy to listen to those… voices of hate; the Lim Rushbaughs and the Han Seannittys and the… Artboys of this world but I know the American people are better than that; more… helpful and …compliant, more…tractable!”

“Tractable! Tractable!” chanted the crowd, not knowing what the word meant but thinking that it sounded like something to do with farming, so it was probably okay.

“My health care plan, whatever it actually is…and don’t try to pin me down too much on this one…isn’t about… health care. It’s about protection! Protection and security! Protection and security for whom? For the government, that’s who!”

“Who? Whom? Huh?” wondered the crowd.

“I knew you’d understand! Under my health plan thousands of new government jobs will be created, easing the burden on our nation’s unemployed and their families…”

“Families! Families!” chanted the crowd, back on familiar ground now.

“And offer security to our hard pressed administrators and middle managers. A whole new multi-tiered layer of government protection will be put in place, staffed mostly by…Americans…to help other ordinary American working parents… who do such a great job… to deal with the scrapes, boo boos and sniffles that take…such a toll…on our children!”

“Children! Children!”

“Because who knows best how to look after our kids? Not you, that’s for sure! If you did, they wouldn’t have turned out like they did, would they? And they’d phone more often too!”

“Phone more often! Phone more often!”

“And phone they will, under my plan! Once my health care plan, whatever it actually is…because who has time to read a bill in our high pressure modern world? …is in place you can be sure that…once you’re signed up…and I mean signed up or else… as you stand in the line, waiting for your…carefully rationed aspirin…and chemotherapy… and your assisted suicide…you can stand proud and look…Canada…in the eye!”

“Canada! Canada!”

“And Cuba! And the UK! And Romania! And you can say that in our time we set in place a system of carefully rationed health care for all Americans…living and dead…that will amplify the role of government in all our lives – and the lives of succeeding generations, out of all imagining!”

“Amplify! Amplify!”

“You can’t run your own lives – you know that! So let us do it for you! It’ll be better and easier and safer! I promise!”

“Run our lives! Run our lives!”

Hehehehe snickered Obama to himself. They’re falling for it again, the stupid bunch of adult babies…

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/what-the-health-care-bill-actually-says


33 posted on 08/13/2009 1:35:21 PM PDT by mojitojoe (All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for the people to remain silent.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Rufus2007; ml/nj; ExTexasRedhead; theothercheek; neverdem; LucyT; Yaelle; Atom Smasher; ...
David Shuster is almost another Keith Olbermann. Where does MSNBC (better known to Mark Levin fans as "PMS-LSD") find these lefist airheads who do their "news" shows? Shuster's perfermance here suggests that the MSM is grasping at straws trying to defend their angel Obama in the health care debate.

As for Mike Pence, no reason why he shouldn't be throwing his hat into the ring as a GOP presidential candidate some time in the future.

34 posted on 08/13/2009 2:18:17 PM PDT by justiceseeker93
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tarpon

I don’t know where you got your information, or you wrote it in a manner I cannot understand. Both Medicare and Medicaid are administered through CMS, CMS is a government entity. Private companies bid on the medicare contract and they have normally gone with the lower bidder — recently changing most states over to Palmetto as the provider who administers the claims for the government... they pay on a fee schedule set each year by the government through a government committee and once a person is eligible for medicare they either have Medicare Part B and A (unless they opt out) or basically nothing. If they have part B they can buy a private secondary policy (AARP, Blue Cross, etc.)... there is a few exception, like Railroad, etc., but if a person worked and paid into Medicare, their private insurance goes away and Medicare takes over when they reach 65.


35 posted on 08/13/2009 6:00:23 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ThunderSleeps

Tarpon is wrong, the government sets the medicare fee schedule and determines who is going to run the medicare program in each and every state... and, I will add CMS is a nightmare to deal with... if a doctor moves his address, even if only next door he has to start from scratch with his medicare provider paperwork and it can take up to a year to get it straight... with the privates all you have to do is fill out a form and whamo, changed...


36 posted on 08/13/2009 6:02:48 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: justiceseeker93

Thanks justiceseeker93.


37 posted on 08/13/2009 6:15:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Tarpon
Medicare is not technically “run by the government” — Every service is ‘paid by the government’, but the providers are all private. Basically it’s no different than any other lousy private insurance.

Nonsense, the government sets price controls. Nothing further from free market economics.

38 posted on 08/13/2009 6:20:06 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (CommieCare: Need a Stent, Take a Red Pill. Next!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: jwalsh07

You get around the Medicare price controls with insurance. That’s the whole point of AARP, to sell the supplemental insurance.

And you get speedy healthcare by promising the doctor you will pay the difference. Yep, just did this with my aunt who had an incident yesterday. Medicare would pay only a pittance, the rest was covered by others.

It’s a question of worth.


39 posted on 08/14/2009 4:19:01 AM PDT by Tarpon (The Joker's plan -- Slavery by debt so large it can never be repaid...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson