In NPR News world, everything is either "fair and balanced" or simplistic.
Today, they and Mike Cannon from the "libertarian" (NPR's description) Cato Institute were saying:
"The question is, does the health care industry need a federal law to make these changes continue? Many say no.
'All the innovations that Obamacare is trying to impose in a top-down sort of way already exist in the marketplace,' says Michael Cannon of the libertarian Cato Institute.
"Cannon, like Romney, says real cost control can come only from the private sector.
“'Giving patients the money is going to encourage them to be more cost-conscious consumers and force prices down in a way that government has proven itself unable to do.'
"The problem is, no one knows which (Obamacare or repealing it) would work better because neither has really been tried. So the choice is to let the new law continue to play out, or repeal it and see whether Congress can pass something else. That is, if it doesn't take Congress another generation to reach another compromise."
All of that is pure b.s. of course , including the false equivalency between Democrats and Republicans canard. Would anybody like to share what their monthly health insurance premiums and out of pocket costs were pre-ACA? Would you further like to share--if you or a family member have a serious and chronic illness or condition--what your out-of-pocket costs have been after you reached your annual or lifetime insurance coverage payments cap--which is not extinct under Obamacare? Notice how NPR again takes the easy and simplistic way out by blaming ALL of Congress for taking so long to compromise?
The second instance of NPR simplicity of reporting on the fallacy of energy independence:
"Energy independence does not mean cheaper gasoline. It doesn't even mean that prices are more stable. Gas prices in Canada went up this summer just like they did in the United States. Prices in Canada are sensitive to conflict in the Middle East, or increased demand from China. There is a global market for oil. That means there is basically one price, whether you are a net exporter (Canada) or the world's biggest importer (the U.S.)."
The fact is the global price of oil is fixed by Big Oil with the assistance of oil speculators. Don't believe me?
http://www.theweek.co.uk/...
The difference being I don't claim "petrol" prices MIGHT have fixed; I assure you, the fix is in. But NPR likes to keep things nice and simple and "no one's to blame", cherry picking oil-industry connected experts to prove it. FAIR just happened to report on this same story this morning:
http://www.fair.org/...
What scares me is that I am on the same side of an issue as the Republicans: I am not happy that NPR (and PBS for that matter) uses my own federal tax dollars to propagandize me. I say end federal funding of public broadcasting and let them propagandize using donations from members like you.