[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 89 (Tuesday, July 12, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                            PROPAGANDA FEST

                                 ______


                           HON. NEWT GINGRICH

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 12, 1994

  Mr. GINGRICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to submit into the Record an 
article which appeared in the June 26 edition of the Washington Times 
and was written by syndicated columnist Tony snow. I believe you will 
get a sense of the true spirit with which this administration has 
approached health care reform.

               [From the Washington Times, June 26, 1994]

                       Clouds Over Health Reform

                             (By Tony Snow)

       ClintonCare is dead, but don't tell NBC. ``To Your 
     Health,'' the network's June 21 ``town meeting'' about 
     medical industry reform, blew a chance to reshape the health-
     care debate at a propitious moment.
       According to USA Today-Gallup numbers, approval ratings for 
     the president's reform plan have tumbled to 42 percent, while 
     negative responses have jumped to 50 percent.
       More than four-fifths of the American people want to keep 
     their present health-care arrangement--not surprising, since 
     healers have done a better job than Congress in controlling 
     costs. And NBC's own research shows health care has slid to 
     third in the list of people's priorities--tied with welfare 
     reform, way behind fighting crime and strengthening the 
     economy. Network statistics also indicate that most Americans 
     want no action on the issue this year.
       In such circumstances, one might expect NBC to explore 
     alternatives to Mr. Clinton's New Dealism, such as self-
     insurance, medical savings accounts and purchasing 
     cooperatives. But no: Just about every inhabitant of the 
     hand-picked talk town came from the left wing of the 
     political spectrum. Furthermore, the network canceled plans 
     to advertise its survey numbers in nationwide newspaper ads--
     perhaps because the polls undercut the program's premise that 
     we must do something now about health care.
       Whatever the case, the show looked like a White House 
     production. Panels discussed various forms of govenment 
     health care. Citizens spun tales of woe. Hillary Rodham 
     Clinton promised that her one-size-fits-all approach to the 
     problem would save the unfortunate. And network anchors 
     prompted select audience members to ask pre-planned 
     questions.
       Michael Thompson, who runs a small marketing company in 
     Springfield, VA, complained about the technique of using 
     tear-jerker anecdotes as a way to introduce stories. ``If 
     we're going to set policy by horror stories,'' he said later, 
     ``we ought to nationalize lawyers, since everybody has a 
     horror story about lawyers.''
       But NBC grandees, like much of the national press, seem to 
     have a blind spot when it comes to free-market alternatives 
     to the status quo. They consider a debate balanced if it 
     describes different proposals for federal control. The idea 
     of private alternatives just doesn't seem to occur to them.
       Malcolm S. Forbes Jr., editor in chief of Forbes magazine, 
     has crafted a revolutionary self-insurance plan for his 
     company's employees. The scheme has reduced insurance costs 
     by more than 40 percent in three years, and workers report 
     fewer serious illnesses or sick days than before. Mr. Forbes 
     wasn't invited to the show. Neither was Patrick Rooney, 
     chairman of the Golden Rule Insurance Co., which operates one 
     of the most successful employer-operated health-care systems 
     in America.
       Roughly two-thirds of all employers with 500 or more 
     workers finance health coverage for their workers, as do 40 
     percent of all establishments with 500 or fewer employees. 
     The network contacted no experts to discuss this innovation.
       Participants sensed the slant. A consultant who represents 
     large organizations that support the president chortled: ``My 
     people knew the thing was a well-designed setup--and they 
     like it just fine.''
       But conservatives in the audience raged. John Goodman of 
     the National Center for Policy Analysis called the event 
     ``absolutely awful. At no point was there any presentation of 
     a conservative or Republican approach to these problems.''
       Michael Tanner, a scholar with the Cato Institute, 
     dismissed the meeting as a ``propaganda fest.'' He got to 
     speak briefly but was interrupted by Harvard Professor Steffy 
     Woolhandler, a cofounder of Physicians for a National Health 
     Program. Her punishment for rudeness was to get the last word 
     on the subject.
       And mild-mannered Gail Wilensky, a former Bush 
     administration official and well-regarded health-care maven, 
     stormed out of the event. ``It was just outrageous what they 
     did,'' she recalled. ``We have some serious issues that we're 
     nowhere near settling in this country--how to moderate 
     spending, increase access, improve quality. This broadcast 
     did nothing to help the American public understand the 
     choices they have to make. It was biased--heavily tilted 
     toward Democratic solutions. . . .
       ``This was a sham as an education program for the American 
     public, and NBC ought to be ashamed. . . . It was so loaded 
     it was unbelievable.''
       The Establishment, including the network and the Robert 
     Woods Johnson Foundation (which underwrote the show), just 
     doesn't get it. People distrust government and want to take 
     matters such as health care into their own hands.
       If the network wants to surprise viewers with fresh 
     programming, it ought to produce a second special--about the 
     story it ignored the first time around.

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