MARKET WATCH COLUMNIST
“Fact-Free Health-Care Debate,” Ellis Henican Sunday Column, Newsday, August 16, 2009
Do facts really matter anymore? Not so much in politics.
We’ve just had a spirited week of political debate over health care reform.
Which sounds OK. Only hardly any of it had much to do with how we might reform health care. The discussion, if you can call it that, has been all but hijacked by angry slogans, incendiary half-truths and unsupported assertions, many of them utterly devoid of fact.
No, there are no “death panels.”
No, there is no “illegal alien money” in any of the various bills.
No, the various proposals aren’t “socialism,” except to the extent that public schools, interstate highways and Medicare are.
There’s a great debate to be had about reforming our medical system. Is health care a right like public education? Under what circumstances, if any, should care be denied? What’s legal? What’s moral? What can we afford? And which mix of public and private effort is best? How important is preventive care?
Good questions, all of them.
Too bad if in the fact-free zone, there are no answers yet.
connections
GET ME REWRITE
1. Michael Vick: “Dog RACING.”
2. Madoff’s Whistle-Blower: “I don’t date people I work with.”
3. Rick Pitino: “I don’t date the wives of people I work with.”
4. Air-traffic controller: “I’ll call you back after my shift.”
5. Obama: “Health INSURANCE reform.”z
AMBULANCE-CHASER ALERT: Craven Headline of the Week Award goes to New York Injury News for “Long Island Accident Lawyer Alert – Man Killed in Car Wreck, 5 Injured,” the trade pub’s special spin on last Sunday’s wrong-way Jeep-Nissan crash on Old Northport Road.
ELLIS’ BOOK CLUB: From the PC’s office at One Police Plaza to the loneliest late-night station house, New York cops (and those who follow them) have long depended on Leonard Levitt’s gritty truths. In a marathon run as Newsday’s toughest police reporter and the past few years on his own blog, Levitt has dug and dug and dug. His new book, “NYPD Confidential: Power and Corruption in the Country’s Greatest Police Force,” won’t please all the brass. But it’s an arresting look inside a fascinating department, as piercing as Glock fire, as tight as a handcuff click.
ASKED AND UNANSWERED: If it weren’t for Les Paul, would the banjo have been rock ‘n’ roll’s lead instrument? RIP, LP! . . . A one-night cameo at Hofstra? Is that supposed to cure a severe case of Jets Abandonment Syndrome? . . . Bernie Madoff, lover boy? . . . Will whoever buys Bernie’s Montauk manse have to pay a buried treasure premium? Check beneath the floorboards beside the fireplace . . . Any empty-nesters have room for a high-powered, 800-pound telescope? The Montauk Observatory is looking . . . Will Cablevision’s new local media boss Tad Smith bring genuine multimedia synergy to Newsday and News 12? . . . What will heartless son Lacy Reed get for his mom next Mother’s Day? Better be something pretty amazing. . . . What other airlines will match JetBlue’s enticing $599 all-you-fly-in-a-month deal? . . . Now that Comedy Central’s canceled the hilarious “Reno 911,” how ’bout “North Shore 911”? No shortage of local culture clashes – and better alliteration too . . . After decades of death-defying skate-board moves, was Andy Kessler killed by a tiny wasp sting? Andy would appreciate the irony in that . . . What’s the over-under on wild turkeys? How many of today’s 3,000 birds will be still be flapping after Suffolk’s first-ever pre-Thanksgiving hunt? . . . Who would have predicted the Buttafuocco “We’re Back” Tour of 2009? First, aggrieved author Mary Jo, now “sociopath” Joey’s lawsuit threats. Where’s Amy? Oh, that’s right. On a national tour of gentlemen’s clubs. Always nice seeing local folks in the news.
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