"A majority say yes to
healthcare for all! The benefits: Guaranteed medical care, dental, vision and
hearing, for all Americans, free at the point-of-care. The savings: $2 trillion
over 10 years."
When President Donald
Trump's favorite
right-wing television program "Fox & Friends" launched
a Twitter
poll on Tuesday asking whether the benefits of Medicare for All
"outweigh the costs," they likely didn't expect 73 percent of the
nearly 32,000 respondents to answer yes—but that's precisely what happened.
"Bernie Sanders'
'Medicare for all' bill estimated to cost $32.6 trillion, new study says. Would
the benefits outweigh the costs?" the survey asked, referencing a recent
Koch Brothers-funded study that found Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.)
universal healthcare program would save $2 trillion over ten years—a fact that
"Fox & Friends" conveniently neglected to mention in both its
poll and its coverage
of the new analysis.
Despite the misleading framing
"Fox & Friends" deployed, the results of the unscientific survey
were overwhelming.
Bonnie Castillo, executive
director of National Nurses United, responded to the poll results on Twitter,
when just 13,000 people had voted:
The failed attempt by
"Fox & Friends" to falsely document Medicare for All as
unpopular—despite recent surveys showing that progressive policies like single-payer
are experiencing unprecedented support, including among Republicans—fits an
emerging pattern of right-wing media outlets falling face-first in their
attempts to discredit commonsense, straightforward, and bold ideas.
As Common Dreams reported,
right-wing Daily Caller editor Virginia Kruta attended a rally last
week featuring a speech by democratic socialist congressional candidate
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In an appearance on Fox News, Kruta recounted
the "truly terrifying" experience of hearing Ocasio-Cortez advocate
policies that "everybody wants, especially if you're a parent."
"They talk about
education for your kids, healthcare for your kids, the things that you
want," Kruta said of democratic socialists like Ocasio-Cortez.
Responding to Kruta's remarks,
journalist Sarah Jaffe asked,
"Does Fox know that they're unwittingly creating commercials for
socialism?"
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