File this under the “a broken clock is right twice a day”, but add an asterisk.
In his most recent “Behind the Headlines” segment, Mark Hyman attacks New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for the governor’s proposal to take surplus money from the state’s largest non-profit health insurance organization to pay for opioid addiction treatment who lack the resources to pay for it.
This is a controversial proposal, and one that’s been met with resistance by both Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature. And it’s almost certainly not the ideal way to go about dealing with the issue (the issue, as most involving New Jersey politics tend to be, is byzantine and involves large numbers of players and agendas, which is probably the best reason to not be terribly sanguine about Hyman's argument doing it justice).
Hyman rakes Christie over the coals for this, portraying it as an attempt by Christie to “seize money from a business.” Hyman notes that although the cause might be noble, the money should not be taken from this source (presumably because it would mean redistributing wealth from “makers” to “takers”).
He then points out that Christie has not been the most able steward of New Jersey finances, having used federal disaster money for hurricane relief to fund the creation of a tourism ad featuring the Christie family on the eve of his potential run for president.
That Christie is not someone who behaves with the best interest of his constituents is a non-controversial stance, particularly given the governor’s abysmal poll numbers in his state. On this, Hyman is absolutely right.
Which makes it all the odder that President Trump appointed Christie to head up an opioid addiction task force, although the governor apparently has a personal connection to the issue because of a friend dying from an overdose of painkillers.
But the larger issue is how the problem Christie faces in New Jersey in funding desperately needed drug treatment programs will explode if Republican-backed health care “reforms” are passed and/or the Affordable Care Act is repealed. States—disproportionately those that voted for Trump—will be scrambling to find ways to address this catastrophic problem.
It is telling that Hyman frames his rancor in terms of the possibility that the state government might pass legislation allowing it to access money from the insurance company. The underlying issue itself—the need for drug treatment programs—is not mentioned, other than a passing remark that “New Jersey is plagued by this drug problem like every other state.” Regardless of one’s position on the specifics of Christie’s proposal, this is missing the forest for the trees.
What is (predictably) missing is any acknowledgment of the systematic nature of the problem and the need for a systematic solution. Instead, Hyman and his employer continue their cheerleading for a president and policies that would doom many people in “flyover country”—the very people Hyman accuses Democrats/liberals of not caring about.
Yet Sinclair Broadcasting continues to host a nightly “Terrorism” segment on its stations (focusing strictly on Islamic terrorism rather the more common right-wing terrorism). To put this in perspective, Islamic terrorism (including that carried out by U.S. citizens) leads to the deaths of 9 Americans per year.
In 2015 alone, opioids killed 33,000 Americans.
Perhaps Sinclair should reconsider its journalistic focus.
In his most recent “Behind the Headlines” segment, Mark Hyman attacks New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for the governor’s proposal to take surplus money from the state’s largest non-profit health insurance organization to pay for opioid addiction treatment who lack the resources to pay for it.
This is a controversial proposal, and one that’s been met with resistance by both Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature. And it’s almost certainly not the ideal way to go about dealing with the issue (the issue, as most involving New Jersey politics tend to be, is byzantine and involves large numbers of players and agendas, which is probably the best reason to not be terribly sanguine about Hyman's argument doing it justice).
Hyman rakes Christie over the coals for this, portraying it as an attempt by Christie to “seize money from a business.” Hyman notes that although the cause might be noble, the money should not be taken from this source (presumably because it would mean redistributing wealth from “makers” to “takers”).
He then points out that Christie has not been the most able steward of New Jersey finances, having used federal disaster money for hurricane relief to fund the creation of a tourism ad featuring the Christie family on the eve of his potential run for president.
That Christie is not someone who behaves with the best interest of his constituents is a non-controversial stance, particularly given the governor’s abysmal poll numbers in his state. On this, Hyman is absolutely right.
Which makes it all the odder that President Trump appointed Christie to head up an opioid addiction task force, although the governor apparently has a personal connection to the issue because of a friend dying from an overdose of painkillers.
But the larger issue is how the problem Christie faces in New Jersey in funding desperately needed drug treatment programs will explode if Republican-backed health care “reforms” are passed and/or the Affordable Care Act is repealed. States—disproportionately those that voted for Trump—will be scrambling to find ways to address this catastrophic problem.
It is telling that Hyman frames his rancor in terms of the possibility that the state government might pass legislation allowing it to access money from the insurance company. The underlying issue itself—the need for drug treatment programs—is not mentioned, other than a passing remark that “New Jersey is plagued by this drug problem like every other state.” Regardless of one’s position on the specifics of Christie’s proposal, this is missing the forest for the trees.
What is (predictably) missing is any acknowledgment of the systematic nature of the problem and the need for a systematic solution. Instead, Hyman and his employer continue their cheerleading for a president and policies that would doom many people in “flyover country”—the very people Hyman accuses Democrats/liberals of not caring about.
Yet Sinclair Broadcasting continues to host a nightly “Terrorism” segment on its stations (focusing strictly on Islamic terrorism rather the more common right-wing terrorism). To put this in perspective, Islamic terrorism (including that carried out by U.S. citizens) leads to the deaths of 9 Americans per year.
In 2015 alone, opioids killed 33,000 Americans.
Perhaps Sinclair should reconsider its journalistic focus.
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