…especially warped, stretched-to-the-breaking-point, incredible opinions. Last night, I watched Jon Stewart interview Betsy McCaughey about the “scary” business that’s in HR3200 (PDF link), the healthcare bill that’s currently under review. Here’s the as-aired video of the segment, but I’ll also post the “extended” interview (two parts) below. They basically let the interview run long, and just abruptly cropped it for TV with a recommendation to watch the rest online. I’m glad they did.
| Betsy McCaughey Pt. 1 | |
Now, the truth is, as soon as I saw her walk out with that binder, I was ready for her to flip to a few pages and start telling me things I didn’t know. I thought, “finally, someone who’s not going to talk to me like I’m a child.” Well, for those of you who knew anything about Betsy before now, my sincerest apologies for being such a ridiculous optimist.
As you’ll see in the video, Betsy didn’t even have any post-it notes on any pages. She had no intention of reading anything from that binder, and I’m honestly surprised there was anything but blank pages in there. It was a prop. She is a patronizing, condescending panderer, and Stewart was an absolute saint for not tearing into her like he did with Jim Cramer.
The thing about props — like Betsy’s big binder — is that they either need to support your cause, or you really need to not bring them. Because if they don’t support your cause, then there’s a very strong chance that they will destroy your credibility if the people you’re talking to are paying you any mind.
To be fair, I’m glad she brought that binder, because she did teach me something that I needed to know. In her words, “the really scary” parts reside between pages 425 and 432. And because I’m a skeptic, I’ll assume that if Jon hadn’t mentioned the page numbers, Betsy wouldn’t not have mentioned them. But since the page numbers were mentioned, she made a big show of flipping open her huge binder, ruffling to certain pages, and then reading exactly none of what was on those pages.
“Let me tell you what it says,” came from Betsy’s lips several times, but she never once read anything of substance. She would look directly at Jon, or at the camera (god I hate that, she cares more about presenting the “right face” than about the integrity of the things she’s saying), and would spout opinion.
“…the first time I read it, I wrote ‘disgusting.’ See? ‘Disgusting.’” Well, that’s great. But I’ve read page 432, and I don’t see it as “disgusting,” I see it as an extremely rare situation in which a doctor will get a minor ding to their “quality rating” if the patient decides to change their mind about their advance directives, or if the advance directives are not carried out as the patient directed. For those of you reading this, go ahead and read the bill. No patient will ever be forced into anything, and no patient will ever be put to death. No patient will ever be refused treatment if their advance directives say one thing and they decide to do another. The whole section has nothing to do with “death panels,” has nothing “scary” or “disgusting.” I do see that doctors will be paid for consultations regarding advance directives and life sustaining treatments, and I do see that a doctor’s quality rating will get dinged if the patient’s documented wishes are not carried out as prescribed. But Betsy and other politicians are doing everything in their political power to take relatively innocuous “penalties” (which will be very rare) and make them into not just straw men, but bogeymen, and try to scare us into submission. This is much more about hurting Barack Obama’s chances at re-election, than about protecting American citizens.
Early in the interview, when they were talking about advance directives and end-of-life consultations, Jon said “Although, the language is ‘life-sustaining’ procedures.” Of course, the first word out of Betsy’s mouth was “no,” but I counted the phrase “life sustaining” ten times from pages 426-433. It’s the topic of the section. It’s what it’s all about! I’m sorry Betsy, but your credibility is hurt merely by your speaking. That’s not a good sign.
| Exclusive – Betsy McCaughey Extended Interview Pt. 1 | |
| Exclusive – Betsy McCaughey Extended Interview Pt. 2 | |