I flipped over to Morning Joe this morning just in time to hear Scarborough complaining that the administration is moving too fast and declaring everything from the economic meltdown to the environment to healthcare as an emergency.
When the recovery bill was passed, the economy was headed deeper into recession with no end in sight. There was an emergency. We're already well beyond the point of no return on the climate crisis -- it's now a matter of mitigating the degree of awfulness rather than preventing the crisis.
And yes there's an emergency in healthcare. 14,000 Americans are losing their health insurance every day, Joe. Americans who still have health insurance are paying higher premiums every month and are at risk of not being covered if they get sick.
Hey Joe, did you know that people get sick every day -- even wealthy TV guys? It's true. How'd you like to lose your job (and, consequently, your health insurance) and then be diagnosed with, say, prostate cancer? That's happening every day, Joe. No wonder 66 percent of all bankruptcies are triggered by medical expenses.
Joe has dedicated innumerable hours on his show defending torture as a legitimate means to prevent a terrorist attack -- leaning on the panic button and shouting down his guests every step of the way. He's very wrong, but that's another debate. However, he may or may not know that the same number of people will die from a lack of health insurance every two months as were killed on September 11. Around 3,000 people every 60 days.
Another 9/11 every 60 days, Joe, and this isn't an emergency?
(Adding... I hasten to repeat one of the points of my book: there's a difference between rational and irrational fear. The latter being the source of fear-mongering.)