Senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett aptly set the stage for the discussion to follow between Senators Dodd (D-CT) and Kyl (R-AZ) by clearly articulating the President's position on the public option consideration in the healthcare legislation. The public option is the last 8-foot hurdle in the steeple chase of healthcare reform. Ms. Jarrett also delivered some tough talk for the insurance industry, which frankly, the administration is late to do.
The easy, shallow argument for some one who says that he doesn't want a government bureaucrat coming between me and my doctor, one can say 'as opposed to today's alternative, an insurance company bureaucrat that gets a bonus for denying me coverage.'
Most people in this country agree that the insurance companies are the problem, except maybe the people of Arizona according to Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who stated on today's Meet The Press that there needs to be changes in the system without reforming it entirely. What this indicates he that the Senator believes that the system we have in place is working fine, hence the increase in overall healthcare costs for the country are on a normal trajectory and that the Democrats' healthcare plan is fiscally irresponsible. . He also explained that the Republicans offered a lot of amendments but that now the Senate bill is being written in Harry Reid's office behind closed doors and that 'Republicans need not apply.' If this bitterness were on the other foot, Mr. Kyl would call it procedure - let's be clear. Given his answer, Senator Kyl does not see healthcare as a moral imperative.
And with regard to fiscal responsibility, Mr. Gregory posed the question of the war being fiscally neutral, to which Mr. Kyl appropriately said that war can not be done on the cheap. However, one has to ask where were such statements when Mr. Rumsfeld made the assessment to do the Iraq war on the cheap. The mistake of going in on the cheap ended up costing the United States more in the long run - and it continues to be a long run.
Mr. Dodd, who has done less than a stellar job in his position, kept emphasizing accessibility and affordability. He unequivocally stated that the Public Option should be in the legislation to reduce the burden on the federal budget, a view this column advocates. Perhaps the compromise will be that there will be public option that individual states can elect not to offer. Cynically, one could wish for this because if you're a Democrat because you'll see the Republican controlled states, i.e. Texas and Arizona, initially opt out and then because of the reality of the burden put on the population, they have to institute it. This would put party Republicans in a worse position if the public option were to pass nationally outright. Republicans can just claim victory in a losing cause.
And it's ironic that Senator Jon Kyl should be a guest on today's program, of which the entire second half was devoted to initiating NBC's "A Woman's Nation." This is the individual who said, "I don’t need maternity care, and so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don’t need and will make the policy more expensive." And isn't it also curious that Republicans yearn for a time when men worked and woman worked in the home (yes, a simplified version), but it is their fiscal policies over the decades that have created the condition in which women (families) don't have the choice but to have both parents working.
Maria Shriver, NBC's guest editor, pointed out that 50% of the women in the U.S. work and that 38% are the bread winners for their families. Most significantly she pointed out that this is a permanent change. That's what every one needs to get their head around. Additionally, the conversation, which included John Podesta and Valerie Jarrett, swirled around the notion of 'care.' Women, in addition to working, also take on the brunt of the responsibility when it comes to caring for the children AND when care for the elderly. Care.... care like watching out for the health of individuals. It comes back to that. People have to work more to pay for healthcare but they are then less available to care for the individuals who rely on them.
Not to trivialize or to do injustice to the discussion by not writing a ton in this forum, we suffice to say that the burden on women in this country is completely out of proportion. We hope that this week-long expose and discussion brings this issue to the forefront of this country's collective dialogue.
Lastly today, we considered noting last week's Meet The Press Minute and that the reinstitution of this segment on the program is applauded by this column. It reminds the viewers of another reason why they come to Meet The Press - for the historical perspective it can provide.
Today's Meet The Press Minute was no exception with a segment from September 10, 1972, in which the guest was Gloria Steinem. Ms. Steinem was a lightning rod for the women's movement during the 1970's but looking at today's clip really does give perspective.
If this question and answer exchange were to of taken place today, Mr. Lawrence Spivak, the moderator, would have been terminated immediately after the program. His line of questioning was sexist to the nth degree, asking why a woman doesn't have control of a man since it is her who controls him from birth to puberty to beyond. If it weren't 1972, you would think he was being sarcastic. Ms. Steinem gave the male moderator an intellectual beatdown, which we hope for history's sake, turned off a lot more male viewers at the time.
Keep the Meet The Press Minute!
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