"Qui ont laisse entrer tous ces gens?"
March 21 // March 7 2017
Maybe Apple can include two years of health care with every iPhone purchase. It's not the worst idea, is it?
Sometimes the messenger makes all the difference.
Today’s Two Weeks Ago News Quiz (and it’s an easy one): Who said what?
# 1. “And, you know what? Americans have choices. And they’ve got to make a choice. So maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest that in health care. They’ve got to make those decisions themselves.”
# 2. “I guess what I would say is if you looked at that person’s budget, and you looked at their cable bill, their telephone, their cell phone bill, other things that they’re spending on, it may turn out that they just haven’t prioritized health care because right now everybody is healthy. Nobody actually wants to spend money on health insurance until they get sick.”
If you’re an adult in America who happened to be on social media on or around March 7, you know who said # 1. Republican Representative and House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, Utah, made his now infamous demeaning and dismissive comment about people who were likely to find paying for healthcare coverage challenging; people who would find it to be difficult if not impossible to afford their premium payments to maintain health insurance.
They should use an old phone! Or no phone at all! That’ll teach ‘em what it means to be poor!
We were outraged!!! And depending on where we turned for coverage of this outrage, we encountered headlines likes these:
From Mother Jones:
Jason Chaffetz Tells Poor Americans to Choose Between iPhones and Health Care - The condescension was palpable.
From The Huffington Post:
Jason Chaffetz: Poor People Shouldn’t Buy iPhones If They Need Money For Health Care
Reuters: U.S. Congressman Stirs backlash over iphone vs. healthcare comment
We could go on but we won’t. This story is just one more example of Republican arrogance and how out of touch the party is with the challenges the non-wealthy face daily. One more way we could prove that anyone who sits in judgement of someone and how that person sees fit to spend their income is beyond egotistical and self-important. Chaffetz clearly has no idea what some families in America are struggling with just to stay above water. Paying for their health insurance on a regular basis is a challenge that could prove impossible for many. Who is he to tell them what to buy, when to buy and how to budget their money? He has no idea.
The response to the blowback was fairly immediate and less than poetic. People on twitter and facebook, along with late night talk show hosts, were relentless in their attacks and mockery of his thoughtless and heartless approach to the non-wealthy. According to many news outlets, Chaffetz regretted the example but not the message: Basically, he said, it comes down to “choices.” According to CNN: “What we’re trying to say – and maybe I didn’t say it as smoothly as I possibly could – but people need to make a conscious choice and I believe in self-reliance,” he said. “And they’re going to have to make those decisions.”
Look, we don’t know how genuine or disingenuous these comments are. But we also don’t believe this was a “let them eat cake” commentary on how the poor should approach the deficits in their lives. We do think, however, that Chaffetz may not be a very good communicator. At least on TV. At least when it counts, like when he’s delivering a message to the people through televised interviews.
Which brings us neatly back to #2 in our quiz. As near as we can tell, the difference in the messages delivered in #1 and #2 is barely discernable to the point of non-existent. And when President Obama made the statement quoted in #2 above, it was not met with a barrage of insults, or pronouncements of “poverty is a choice,” as The Washington Post proclaimed about Chaffetz’s comments.
Here is President Obama’s statement again, made during a Telemundo interview a few years ago, where the audience was largely Hispanic and concerned about the costs of healthcare for their families. He was responding to a question submitted by someone with limited income who was concerned about the affordability of coverage for a family:
“I guess what I would say is if you looked at that person’s budget, and you looked at their cable bill, their telephone, their cell phone bill, other things that they’re spending on, it may turn out that they just haven’t prioritized health care because right now everybody is healthy. Nobody actually wants to spend money on health insurance until they get sick.”
If anyone can explain to TWAN why that statement doesn’t make sense (it does); and why President Obama was able to refer to something as unconscionable as asking people to make choices (AKA prioritizing)– and get away with it! (he did) - we’re listening.
Maybe Apple can include two years of health care with every iPhone purchase. It's not the worst idea, is it?
Sometimes the messenger makes all the difference.
Today’s Two Weeks Ago News Quiz (and it’s an easy one): Who said what?
# 1. “And, you know what? Americans have choices. And they’ve got to make a choice. So maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest that in health care. They’ve got to make those decisions themselves.”
# 2. “I guess what I would say is if you looked at that person’s budget, and you looked at their cable bill, their telephone, their cell phone bill, other things that they’re spending on, it may turn out that they just haven’t prioritized health care because right now everybody is healthy. Nobody actually wants to spend money on health insurance until they get sick.”
If you’re an adult in America who happened to be on social media on or around March 7, you know who said # 1. Republican Representative and House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, Utah, made his now infamous demeaning and dismissive comment about people who were likely to find paying for healthcare coverage challenging; people who would find it to be difficult if not impossible to afford their premium payments to maintain health insurance.
They should use an old phone! Or no phone at all! That’ll teach ‘em what it means to be poor!
We were outraged!!! And depending on where we turned for coverage of this outrage, we encountered headlines likes these:
From Mother Jones:
Jason Chaffetz Tells Poor Americans to Choose Between iPhones and Health Care - The condescension was palpable.
From The Huffington Post:
Jason Chaffetz: Poor People Shouldn’t Buy iPhones If They Need Money For Health Care
Reuters: U.S. Congressman Stirs backlash over iphone vs. healthcare comment
We could go on but we won’t. This story is just one more example of Republican arrogance and how out of touch the party is with the challenges the non-wealthy face daily. One more way we could prove that anyone who sits in judgement of someone and how that person sees fit to spend their income is beyond egotistical and self-important. Chaffetz clearly has no idea what some families in America are struggling with just to stay above water. Paying for their health insurance on a regular basis is a challenge that could prove impossible for many. Who is he to tell them what to buy, when to buy and how to budget their money? He has no idea.
The response to the blowback was fairly immediate and less than poetic. People on twitter and facebook, along with late night talk show hosts, were relentless in their attacks and mockery of his thoughtless and heartless approach to the non-wealthy. According to many news outlets, Chaffetz regretted the example but not the message: Basically, he said, it comes down to “choices.” According to CNN: “What we’re trying to say – and maybe I didn’t say it as smoothly as I possibly could – but people need to make a conscious choice and I believe in self-reliance,” he said. “And they’re going to have to make those decisions.”
Look, we don’t know how genuine or disingenuous these comments are. But we also don’t believe this was a “let them eat cake” commentary on how the poor should approach the deficits in their lives. We do think, however, that Chaffetz may not be a very good communicator. At least on TV. At least when it counts, like when he’s delivering a message to the people through televised interviews.
Which brings us neatly back to #2 in our quiz. As near as we can tell, the difference in the messages delivered in #1 and #2 is barely discernable to the point of non-existent. And when President Obama made the statement quoted in #2 above, it was not met with a barrage of insults, or pronouncements of “poverty is a choice,” as The Washington Post proclaimed about Chaffetz’s comments.
Here is President Obama’s statement again, made during a Telemundo interview a few years ago, where the audience was largely Hispanic and concerned about the costs of healthcare for their families. He was responding to a question submitted by someone with limited income who was concerned about the affordability of coverage for a family:
“I guess what I would say is if you looked at that person’s budget, and you looked at their cable bill, their telephone, their cell phone bill, other things that they’re spending on, it may turn out that they just haven’t prioritized health care because right now everybody is healthy. Nobody actually wants to spend money on health insurance until they get sick.”
If anyone can explain to TWAN why that statement doesn’t make sense (it does); and why President Obama was able to refer to something as unconscionable as asking people to make choices (AKA prioritizing)– and get away with it! (he did) - we’re listening.