The Media Research Center gets angry whenever government actually tries to help people because it doesn’t believe that helping people is what government should do, as a good right-wing organization should. So we have Curtis Houck whining in a Feb. 2 post:
Friday on ABC’s Good Morning America, the show that acts more like corporate whores for Disney and flowery nonsense as opposed to a real newscast, swooned with approval at Connecticut Democratic Governor Ned Lamont announcing he’ll use taxpayer funds from Joe Biden’s inflation-inducing boondoggle to wipe out billions in medical debt.
You could tell how excited they were as there was not one but two teases and, worse yet, they didn’t even bother to use describe Lamont as a liberal, progressive, or even a Democrat. The most they did was put a (D) in a chyron.
[…]After a second tease with similar verbiage, Pilgrim tossed to correspondent Stephanie Ramos so she could be the one to formally make the “major announcement.”
“Connecticut’s plan to erase medical debt will start to take effect over the next few months and Connecticut residents who qualify will start to see the money by this June. The state says they are prioritizing single parents and lower-income residents,” she began.
Again using the “unprecedented” line Pilgrim did, she added Lamont’s “state will be the first to wipe out medical debt for the thousands of people struggling to pay their bills.” Her on-screen question was a softball too: “Tell us why you’re canceling medical debt now.”
After a Lamont soundbite noting people often fall into that kind of debt “not…because they were spending too much money” but were “hit with a medical emergency,” she pointed out that “[m]edical debt is the number one source of debt collection in the U.S., greater than credit cards, utilities, auto loans, and other sources combined.”
Houck never really explained why this was a bad thing, other than to whine that this was “government welfare”:
Like the good liberal that he is, Stephanopoulos declared this act of government welfare needs to be expanded: “This is such an important issue and this is gonna help so many people. Hope other states follow that lead.”
Since Houck was all about partisan ranting in his post, he didn’t explain that this wouldn’t cost the state all that much — spending $6.5 million would wipe out about $650 million in debt, hardly the “inflation-inducing boondoggle” Houck wants you to believe it is. And much of that would benefit those who most need the relief; Connecticut residents would be eligible if their medical debt equals 5% or more of their annual income or if their household income is up to 400% of the federal poverty line.
But since narrative is more important than facts, Houck must portray Connecticut’s government as a hotbed of socialism and its residents and lazy deadbeats rather than explain the full truth about this initiative.