What one Special Comment giveth, the other taketh away: two months after devoting an episode-long Special Comment to the urgent need for health reform, Olbermann announced last night that he had given up on the health reform bill as it had evolved, calling it a scheme for “medical mobster protection money.”
Olbermann even made the (just a bit melodramatic) claim that he would go to jail rather than buying whatever government health insurance emerged from the “hollow shell of a bill:”
In a Daily Kos piece he released yesterday afternoon as a teaser for the Special Comment, Olbermann described the bill currently in consideration — and the leadership pushing it — as such (h/t Raw Story): “Seeking the least common denominator, Sen. Reid has found it, especially the “least” part. This is not health, this is not care, this is certainly not reform.”
But this was only a warmup for what was to come on the show: (transcript via MSNBC)
I call on all those whose conscience urges them to fight, to use the only weapon that will be left to us if this bill becomes law. We must not buy federally mandated insurance if this cheesy counterfeit of reform is all we can buy.
No single payer? No sale. No public option? No sale. No Medicare buy-in? No sale. I am one of the self-insured, albeit by choice. And I hereby pledge that I will not buy this perversion of health care reform. Pass this at your peril, Senators, and sign it at yours, Mr. President. I will not buy this insurance. Brand me a lawbreaker if you choose. Fine me if you will. Jail me if you must.
Related: Howard Kurtz on the trend of “liberals jumping off the health care ship”
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