The program Meet the Press with David Gregory - Assignment Example

The program Meet the Press with David Gregory, aired on March 21, basically focused on discussions about the Healthcare Bill. House Democrat Leader Steny Hoyer from Maryland, while discussing the matter with House Republican Leader John Boehner from Ohio, contended that though the Healthcare costs would result in a lot of expenditure by the government, however, in the long run it would save a lot of money as per the CBO figures, moreover, it would cover 32 million uninsured Americans. However, Leader Boehner disagreed, stating that polls showed that most of the people did not support the healthcare bill.

He further stated that this was a great mistake on the part of President Obama, and may cost his party the November elections. He also stated that the reforms would not come into effect until 2014, but that the tax increases and Medicare cuts would go into effect as soon as the bill was passed. On a similar note, in the debate between Republican National Committee Michael Steele said that the bill was clearly a form of government takeover, and was against all that America stood for, therefore, the outrage against it is legitimate.

He, however, did admit that some steps by the Tea Party Activists were excessive and not supported by the Republican Party, like the racial and bigoted comments made to some of the Congressmen. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine supported the bill, and said that the people’s support would be won once the bill came into effect and people saw the benefits of the reforms, because in essence people wanted all of this, but were misled by the statements of the Republicans. However, both of them, in answer to David Gregory’s question, said that they were hopeful for bipartisan agreement on future projects/bills, with Tim Kaine citing an article by two Senators, that talked about bipartisan agreement on the issue of immigration reform.

In the end, NBC’s Chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd, PBS’s Tavis Smiley, Democrat Anita Dunn and Republican Ed Gillespie had a discussion about the bill as well. Chuck Todd had some reservations about the purported success of the program. Whereas Democrat Anita Dunn and Republican Ed Gillespie, true to their party affiliations, stuck to their party’s stance on the issue. Democrat Anita Dunn pointed out that healthcare reform has been issue for the past century, and it is brave of President Obama to try to tackle it head on.

She said that the winners in the scenario would be the Americans who will no longer need to be worried about their insurance, and that the Republicans were using scare tactics to get the people into believing things about the healthcare bill that are not true. Ed Gillespie stated that the decision of President Obama will be historic, but in the sense that it is a bad one. He also asserted that this move will cost the Democrats the November election. Chuck Todd, NBC’s Chief White House correspondent, stated that the healthcare reform issue is so contentious because it truly is a philosophical division point between the Republicans and Democrats; the fact that there can be bipartisan agreement on other issues is simply because they are not philosophical issues, but are regional in nature.

PBS’s Tavis made an excellent point towards the end; he stated how many black people died due to health disparities alone, and then said that it was time for the politicians to look beyond political calculation – as well as media and market – and do the right thing, just like Lyndon B. Johnson did when it came to the civil rights of the American citizens. The last minutes of the program were dedicated to the memory of Liz Carpenter, who died a year before. She was a journalist, author and a feminist, who served as an executive assistant to President Lyndon Johnson and, later, as the press secretary for the first lady, Lady Bird Johnson.