Tonight Gwen Ifill moderated one of those “let’s hear both sides of the issue but really say nothing” discussions about what PBS News Hour chooses to call “Cadillac health care plans” that some Democrats and President Obama would like to tax(see the last post below).  Actually, this was a fairly one-sided, shallow justification for imposing this tax on the hard earned benefits of workers.

Supposedly, the union/workers side was represented by a guy named Josh Bivens with the Economic Policy Institute who, believe it or not, thought the tax was a good idea.  Ms. Ifill did mention that he was with an organization that receives union money.  I have never heard a PBS staffer mention the source of income for any of the right-wing organizations that appear on the show.  Nor have I ever heard Jim Lehrer or Ms Ifill or any other person on the show indicate that some of the generals they have as guests receive money from defense contractors.   After watching the performance of the “union side” representative, I would suggest to the unions that they save their money.

The other pro-side representative was Jonathan Gruber, an MIT professor.  He was enthralled with the notion that this tax could result in $250 billion, either through cost reduction or revenue.  Neither side had anything to say about how unfair this proposal would be to the middle class.  Nor did they say that this was John McCain’s idea during the 2008 campaign.  President Obama, on the other hand, promised that he would not raise taxes on the middle class.  Unions that supported him were led to believe he would not tax their health care.

A segment regarding Haiti followed the “Cadillac health care plan” segment.  Apparently, UN peacekeepers have been able to settle things down enough in Haiti to make investment in plant and equipment there attractive to investors.  Why wouldn’t it be attractive to the garment industry?  The minimum wage in Haiti is $3.00 per day.   There is no real health care and education, no unions, no need to worry about pesky government regulation – no “Cadillac health care plan,” that’s for sure.

Former President Bill Clinton was on the segment showing off this wonderful opportunity to potential investors.  One can only imagine what’s in it for him.  His administration, like the two before his and the one after his, was big on providing tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy.  The idea was to encourage investment in plant and equipment; to promote economic growth.  It worked – in China, Honduras, Viet Nam, and any other low wage Mecca with a starving workforce.

Watching the PBS News Hour “pablum” is, for the most part, a waste of time.  For finding out what is happening, I suggest the Huffington Post and other on-line sources such as Firedoglake.com.  It is apparent that we need to develop our own communication network.