Question asked, question unanswered!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2020

Moderator moves on: Does information play any role in our national discourse? Consider a major non-exchange during last night's debate.

The question was posed to Donald J. Trump, and it was a very good question. It came at the start of Kristin Welker's third 15-minute segment: 

WELKER (10/22/20): Let’s move on to American families and the economy. One of the issues that’s most important to them is healthcare, as you both know. 

Today, there was a key vote on a new Supreme Court Justice, Amy Coney Barrett, and healthcare is at the center of her confirmation fight. 

Over 20 million Americans get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. It’s headed to the Supreme Court, and your administration, Mr. President, is advocating for the Court to overturn it. 

If the Supreme Court does overturn that law, there’s 20 million Americans could lose their health insurance almost overnight. So what would you do if those people have their health insurance taken away? You have two minutes uninterrupted.

That was a very good question. 

If the administration has its way, the Supreme Court will overturn the Affordable Care Act. The hearing will take place on November 10. 

If the Court overturns the ACA, twenty million people could lose their health insurance. What will Trump do if that occurs?

Welker had asked the commander in chief an extremely salient question. But in his two-minute response, the commander didn't answer the question. Instead, he offered this:

TRUMP (continuing directly): First of all, I’ve already done something that nobody thought was possible. Through the legislature, I terminated the individual mandate. That is the worst part of Obamacare, as we call it. The individual mandate, where you have to pay a fortune for the privilege of not having to pay for bad health insurance, I terminated. It’s gone. Now, it’s in court, because Obamacare is no good. 

But then I made a decision—run it as well as you can. To my people, great people, run it as well as you can. I could have gone the other route and made everybody very unhappy. They ran it. Premiums are down. Everything’s down. 

Here’s the problem. No matter how well you run it, it’s no good. What we’d like to do is terminate it. We have the individual mandate done. I don’t know that it’s going to work. If we don’t win, we will have to run it, and we’ll have Obamacare, but it’ll be better run. But it no longer is Obamacare, because without the individual mandate, it’s much different.

Pre-existing conditions will always stay. What I would like to do is a much better healthcare, much better. We’ll always protect people with pre-existing. So I’d like to terminate Obamacare, come up with a brand new, beautiful healthcare. The Democrats will do it, because there’ll be tremendous pressure on them. And we might even have the House by that time. And I think we’re going to win the House. You’ll see, but I think we’re going to win the House. 

But come up with a better healthcare, always protecting people with pre-existing conditions. And one thing, very important, we have 180 million people out there that have great private healthcare. Far more than we’re talking about with Obamacare. Joe Biden is going to terminate all of those policies. 

These are people that love their healthcare. People that have been successful, middle-income people, been successful. They have 180 million plans, 180 million people, families. Under what he wants to do, which will basically be socialized medicine, he won’t even have a choice, they want to terminate 180 million plans. We have done an incredible job at healthcare, and we’re going to do even better. Just you watch.

Trump said he got rid of the individual mandate. He said Obamacare stinks. 

But what would he do if the law is struck down? As always, he said he'd like to come up with a better health care plan—and, as always, he gave no idea how such a plan would work.

As always, Trump's answer was pure tapioca. As always, the moderator sat there and took it.

She didn't ask him how this "much better" plan would work. She didn't ask him how he'd be able to afford the guarantee that people with preconditions would be covered.

Most significantly, in subsequent questioning, she didn't ask him this:

"Mr. President, you've been making this pledge for five years now. Why haven't you, or any other Republican, ever proposed such a plan?"

Just a guess:

Last night, most viewers had never heard that the president has never proposed a specific plan. They've never heard the comical rundown of all the times he has pledged that his proposal was just weeks away.

Also, most viewers have never heard that there's a major problem with being able to finance the guarantee the preconditions would be covered. Most people haven't heard discussions of topics like that.

Obamacare found a way to finance the coverage of preconditions. Why hasn't Trump ever said how he would accomplish this difficult task? Last night, once again, he simply wasn't asked.

After Biden gave his two-minute statement, Welker chose to challenge his health care proposal on the basis of a highly partisan Republican talking point. The emptiness of Trump's statement  went unremarked.

Does information play any role in our national discourse? Welker asked Trump what he would do if Obamacare is overturned.

When he gave her the silliest possible answer, she simply agreed to move on.

Also this: Here's another follow-up question the president wasn't asked:

"Mr. President, you said that Vice President Biden wants to terminate the insurance of 180 million people. Since he hasn't made any such proposal, on what basis are you making a statement like that?"

Biden raised this objection on his own. As is common on such occasions, the moderator let Trump's statement go.

Meanwhile, where the Sam Hill is Trump's proposal? The moderator didn't ask.

29 comments:

  1. But, but, how can a mentally ill man have a proposal for a healthcare plan, and how can he do anything but lie, er, make false statements?

    I, for one, like Bob, pity him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The mentally ill often have more contact with health care providers than much of the public, especially given that Obamacare included parity for mental health services. If Trump gets his way, that will go back to being something people have to pay for out of pocket.

      Don't just pity him. Send him a few dollars so he can pay his shrink.

      Delete


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  2. "If the Supreme Court does overturn that law, there’s 20 million Americans could lose their health insurance almost overnight."

    Far from being a "very good question", dear Bob, it's utter bullshit. Don't be a brain-dead dembot, dear Bob.

    Why would anyone "could lose their health insurance"? Alas, this question was never asked.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That debate was depressing.

    Joe Biden got a shellacking.

    And the con man showed that he can turn off and on his "crazy" like a light switch, this time letting Biden hang himself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So, how much are they paying you for remarks like this and do you get paid in rubles or dollars?

      Delete
    2. Racism is a hell of a drug.

      Delete
  4. Trump's feelings were bigly hurt and became quite petulant when Wallace, in the first debate, pointed out that Trump hasn't done jack shit as far replacing Obamacare. Beyond that, Trump's response is so incoherent and hard to parse that it's easy to see how Welker was confused.

    A very simple follow-up question could've been: protecting coverage for people with pre-existing conditions has two sides to it: (1) make sure that they can purchase insurance (2) make sure that they can afford it. How do you plan to address affordability. This was part of ACA, and it sure doesn't sound that that's being addressed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Somerby doesn't seem to understand how these debates work. He thinks the moderator is supposed to grill the candidates. The moderator's job is actually only to pose questions that allow voters to compare the two candidates and decide who to vote for. This moderator did that well.

    Trump did answer the question. Somerby wants the moderator to critique his answer. I think that would show bias. It isn't the moderator's job to push voter opinions one way or the other. She is supposed to provide a platform for candidates to present their ideas and plans. The moderator doesn't pick them apart. Viewers should do that themselves.

    I would not want to replace my own judgment with that of someone selected by a debate commission who, by judicious questioning, managed to make one or another candidate look bad or seem underprepared. That is putting a thumb on the scales.

    Trump hasn't said any more than this in any venue. If he doesn't include specifics, viewers will notice and weigh that against him. I don't want a moderator who does that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. If the moderator follows up by asking about the health care plan, she won't have the time to address his lie about the Republicans taking the House.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Joe: "I dunno where this guy's from"

    Trump: "Queens"

    ReplyDelete
  8. If the SC overturns obamacare, and Biden is elected, what will Biden do? Shouldn't that question have been asked?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Didja watch the debate??

      “Kristen Welker: (19:43)
      Okay. Vice President Biden, yes, this is for you. Your healthcare plan calls for building on Obamacare. So my question is, what is your plan if the law is ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court? You have two minutes uninterrupted.”

      Your assignment is to find out what Biden said.

      Delete
    2. Biden can go back to instituting a penalty and calling it a tax. Then Obamacare is back and the fucking nimrods can sue again, and it'll wind its way through the courts for another few years. Let's face it, when Biden has the senate and the house, he is worth a shit ton more than the 9 pompous twits on the court. To put it another way: who gives a shit about the Supreme Court? They will have made themselves irrelevant. If they want to be worth their weight in salt, they will start paying attention to the populace instead of running their mouths about "textualism" and what other stupid shit that passes for religion amongst the rightwing nitwits.

      Delete
    3. It doesn't matter what Rapist Mafioso said, dear mh.

      There's no reason to doubt that liberal cult will continue doing what obamacare is designed to do: use more and more taxpayers' money to satisfy the ever growing appetites of medical mafia. For a substantial kickback, of course.

      Delete
    4. Mao,
      You have to wait until a week from next Wednesday to start pretending the deficit is important.

      Signed,

      The Corporate-owned, Right wing Media
      (AKA The Media)

      Delete
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  10. From Democratic Underground:

    "Researchers found that swing states are particularly vulnerable to militia activity around the 2020 election.

    ................
    ............

    Over the past several months, private militias “have become more assertive,” the two organizations found in a report published Thursday, titled “Standing By: Right-Wing Militia Groups & The US Election.” The report cites kidnapping plots targeting elected officials and interventions in protests throughout the country. Parts of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Oregon are at the highest risk of increased militia activity around the election, it says, while parts of North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, California and New Mexico are at a moderate risk. The report identifies the Three Percenters, Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys and Boogaloo Bois as groups that pose a “high” or “very high” potential for violence.
    ...................
    .....................

    When militia members were arrested earlier this month for plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, the president seemed to delight in their animus toward her, encouraging a “lock her up” chant at a campaign rally in the state days later. His son Donald Trump Jr. has asked “every able-bodied man, woman to join the Army for Trump’s election security operation,” an effort to recruit poll watchers who believe Democrats are trying to steal the election.

    ...................
    .....................

    Militia activity is expected to be higher in competitive spaces like swing states, the report found, where armed groups may work to repress votes for Trump’s opponents. Armed groups appear to be particularly active in areas where there have been protests against the lockdowns aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus — an effort militias perceive as an assault on their freedom — and places that have seen Black Lives Matter protests — which militias view as “leftist coup” activities.

    Locations where militia members have friendly relationships with members of law enforcement are likely to see higher levels of militia activity, the report found. In Kenosha, Wisconsin, law enforcement officers were recorded on video handing water to a group of militia members and telling them, “We appreciate you guys, we really do,” shortly before 17-year-old vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two people in late August. .......................................

    Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/militia-threat-voters-2020-election_n_5f93271fc5b6494ba13bdcc8?section=politics&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In a just world, each of these militia men would have daughters who like sex with black men.

      Delete
  11. It was almost a decent question, but a major issue is the phrase "health insurance"; Americans would lose their health care. No one likes their health insurance, they like having health care.

    ReplyDelete
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