What matters vs. what gets on TV

Cable news (especially Fox) is abuzz today with Michelle Bachman's "takeover" of the capitol, where some number of teaparty folks are rallying on the steps to hear John Boehner say that the healthcare bill is the "Greatest threat to freedom I've seen in 19 years." *
We also get some yahoos with banners showing skeletons and corpses bearing the legend "National Socialist Healthcare: Dachau 1945", which frankly displays a knowledge of history I'd typically thought wasn't present in these folks.

However, away from the fun and games at the Capitol, Obama quietly announced that the healthcare reform plan (presumably some mish-mash of the Senate and House plans) has now been endorsed by the AMA and AARP. The AMA represents ~250,000 doctors, and the AARP represents 35 million seniors. My guess is that, when watching the news tonight, you won't see that.

The other thing you probably won't hear about is the Republican "healthcare reform bill", which just got scored by the CBO, with the following interesting results:

• Right now aboyut 17% of Americans don't have health insurance. After 10 years of the GOP reform... 17% still wouldn't have healthcare.
• The GOP plan would shave about $68 billion off of the deficit. That sounds great, except the Democratic Senate plan would take $104 billion off of the deficit. While covering all but 4% of Americans.

But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of your banners.

*On his website, Boehner has the text of a Floor Statement on the 9/11 resolution, where he calls the terrorists Enemies of Freedom and conveniently lists a number of acts committed by these enemies:

On September 11th we came face-to-face with evil. But it wasn’t the first time. During the 1990s, the enemies of freedom used terror and violence in futile attempts to intimidate the United States and the cause of freedom.
On February 26, 1993, the 1st World Trade Center Bombing killed six people and injured more than 1,000 others.
On June 25, 1996, the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia killed 20 people and injured 372 people.
On June 7, 1998, the Kenya Embassy Bombing killed 213 people and injured 5,000 people.
On June 7, 1998, the Tanzania Embassy bombing killed 11 people and injured 68 people.
On October 12, 2000, the U.S.S. Cole bombing killed 17 people and injured 39 people.

Oddly, even though all of these events, plus the 9/11 attacks, were made by enemies of freedom during the past 19 years, they clearly, to Boehner, pale in comparison to a public healthcare plan.