"Ed Schultz Takes On Jonathan Alter Over Health Bill, Public Option (with video)

HuffPo, with video (05:30):

The Ed Show's Ed Schultz took on President Obama Tuesday for not showing support for the public option. Schultz pointed to an email sent out by Organizing for America, asking supporters of health care reform to send money. The email, like the president's speech to Senators on Sunday, did not mention the public option. Schultz accused Obama of allowing a handful of Democrats to shape health care reform and permitting a "watered down, whatever-the-hell-it-is public option" to move forward.

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter stepped forward to defend the president and the health care bill. Alter argued that Schultz was misrepresenting the totality of the billl, telling Schultz that, "You have to deal with the world as it is, not as we would like it to be."

Alter accused Schultz of making it sound like the whole bill was the public option and argued that the bill offers tremendous reforms like "ending discrimination against sick people...insuring more than 30 million additional Americans... all kinds of preventative care."

Schultz took issue with Alter's claim that the bill was being misrepresented. "This is nothing but a handout to the insurance industry," Shultz said. "What you've got is tax dollars that are gonna be subsidizing lower income people, they're gonna be mandated to go over to the insurance industry and purchase insurance... If there's gonna be 40 million new customers... why in the heck wouldn't they take that on?"

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