Fox News managed to insult and demean our nation’s veterans today by claiming that Obamacare is worse than the Iraq War.
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Fox News host Martha MacCallum insulted the sacrifice of every man and woman who served in Iraq by saying, “When you look at these stories, the Cleveland Clinic laying off lots of people trying to cut costs as so many entities in the country are right now. And you have The Wall Street Journal story about companies starting to pass those costs, and that was a trend that had begun before this, but it certainly doesn’t help. So it goes back to what I keep coming back to in all this, unlike other issues Katrina, or the Iraq war that we have seen in past second term. This is something that touches so many people’s lives across the country, and you don’t know whether the president is going to be able to successfully dodge it.”
What they are trying to sell at Fox is that the ACA is worse than the Iraq war, because more people are having direct contact with the ACA. However, their attempt to score political points demonstrated how little they think of the sacrifice of those who served in Iraq.
Fox News managed to hit a daily double. They demeaned the service of our veterans in Iraq while downplaying the deaths and damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Comparing a healthcare law that will extend the lives of the millions of people to war that devastated the lives of millions of Americans and their families is especially stomach churning.
There are estimates that hundreds of thousands of our troops were injured in Iraq. The wounded came from all across the country. They have families and friends. This doesn’t include the nearly 4,500 American troops who died in Iraq, and the thousands of private contractors and journalists who died in Bush’s war.
Their sacrifice matters more than a healthcare law. They aren’t the same thing. No one will die because of the ACA. The American people aren’t killing themselves at a rate of 22 or more a day as is happening with our returning veterans.
George W. Bush made a decision that took lives. Barack Obama made a decision that will save them. They aren’t comparable in any way, and Fox News’ attempt to diminish the value the sacrifice of our veterans was more un-American behavior from the Republican Party’s loudest propaganda machine.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
