Dear Joe,

Lately, you’ve been musing a lot about things like why the president’s approval rating on things like health care and the economy is dropping. You’ve been asking dramatically why people are so. afraid. of. change. You wonder why the polls show that fewer and fewer people like the “president’s health care plan” or why more and more people “think the stimulus bill was a bad idea”.

Gosh, I don’t know. Do you think it might be because guys like you keep airing shit like John Boehner declaring that the stimulus was not creating jobs by putting on that unctuous voice and asking guests:

“Well, you know, Congressman Boehner says that the stimulus is not working. That not a single job has been created by stimulus money. Now why is that, do you think?”

What I would really love to see is someone on your show who would respond to a question like that with the truth. Something like:

Well, Joe, I have to think it’s because John Boehner is an incompetent ass who has no idea what’s going on in his own home state, since at the time he stated that not a single infrastructure contract had been awarded from the stimulus funds, his own state of Ohio had already awarded over $87 million in infrastructure project contracts, and several of those projects had already hired people and put them to work. I have to believe that John Boehner is an inadequate nincompoop who is out of touch with his own state, because the alternative is admitting that John Boehner is a barefaced liar.

But see, that’s just the start of the intellectual dishonesty. You and guys like you give a voice to total idiocy without ever countering it. Idiocy like:

- Virginia Foxx stating that the U.S. government is going to “put seniors to death”.

Once upon a time, news guys would have looked up that bill, found the relevant clause and responded with something like:

Now, I don’t know what the good Congresswoman has been imbibing before she steps out on the floor, but she’s got to be on something to misinterpret the language in this bill so badly. This thing in the bill that they say is all about euthanizing senior citizens actually says that IF YOU’RE ON MEDICARE and IF YOU ASK YOUR DOCTOR to talk to you about things like “what the hell does palliative care mean?” and “what if I don’t want a tube shoved down my throat the rest of my life?” and “who gets to decide if I can’t?” - that if you ask your doctor to take fifteen minutes to talk to you about these things, Medicare will pay for it. That’s it. That’s all it says. It says that the doctor must answer your questions and Medicare must pay him for his time.

But hey, it’s easier to let liars and fools assert that the health care bill will outlaw private insurance and force everyone into a public option than it is to treat the American public like adults and explain what the health care exchange is and how it works, and to explain what the requirements for a health care plan will be under the exchange.

That’s boring, though. Nowhere near as much fun as presiding like a dictatorial papa over your dysfunctional family, making pompous proclamations and out-shouting anyone who disagrees with your point of view.

But hey, I know. That’s not as much fun as stirring this fake bullshit controversy with mock solicitous questions like “Why does our government want to kill old people?”

• Why Americans Don’t Get It
  

  Am I the only one who thinks that “Most Americans believe the stimulus has not created any jobs” is not an answer to “Has the...

• WTF Health care analogy
  

  Mike Barnicle has been making this argument about getting health care reform done now: This summer, all over the country families are sitting down to...

• Carlos Watson questions Pence’s creative math
  

  Good on Carlos Watson this morning for pushing back against Rep. Mike Pence’s attempt to score talking points with the low math-low-info crowd. In a...

• Morning Coffee with Morning Joe and Jack Welch
  

  This morning, I’m live-blogging the live chat with Jack Welch over at MSNBC . Last time I tried this was when they had author John...

• Morning Joe Finally Gets It Right and why health care costs are crippling industry
  

  For the past few weeks, media figures from all the networks, newspapers and talking heads have been repeating the misleading talking point that UAW members...

Related posts:

• • Why Americans Don’t Get It
    

    Am I the only one who thinks that “Most Americans believe the stimulus has not created any jobs” is not an answer to “Has the...

  • WTF Health care analogy
    

    Mike Barnicle has been making this argument about getting health care reform done now: This summer, all over the country families are sitting down to...

  • Carlos Watson questions Pence’s creative math
    

    Good on Carlos Watson this morning for pushing back against Rep. Mike Pence’s attempt to score talking points with the low math-low-info crowd. In a...

  • Morning Coffee with Morning Joe and Jack Welch
    

    This morning, I’m live-blogging the live chat with Jack Welch over at MSNBC . Last time I tried this was when they had author John...

  • Morning Joe Finally Gets It Right and why health care costs are crippling industry
    

    For the past few weeks, media figures from all the networks, newspapers and talking heads have been repeating the misleading talking point that UAW members...