So Jesse Watters, a man who reads a teleprompter for a living and calls it journalism, has cracked the healthcare crisis wide open. The fix? Stop going to the doctor. Get a job. Problem solved. You’re welcome, America.
That’s the gist of a clip making the rounds this week, in which the Fox News host tells Americans concerned about the cost of medical care to quit bellyaching and earn a paycheck. The comments align neatly with the thesis of his new book, “Get It Together: Troubling Takes from the Liberal Fringe,” which hit stores Tuesday and argues that people should stop trying to solve personal problems through politics. Work on yourself, Watters says. Stop demanding the government fix things. Pull yourself up. The usual lecture from a guy who’s never had to choose between a copay and a grocery bill in his life.
Now, I’ve spent enough time watching these cable news types to know how the game works. Watters pulls down a salary that would make a surgeon blush, sits in a climate-controlled studio in midtown Manhattan, and tells a welder in Ohio with a herniated disc that his problem is attitude. The Five has been the No. 1 show in cable news for nine straight quarters. Jesse Watters Primetime crushes its time slot. His last book was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. The man is not hurting. And from that perch of comfort, he looks down at the people who actually break their backs in this country and says: the problem is you.
Here’s what kills me. The establishment, the whole swamp apparatus, left and right, has been rigging the healthcare system for decades. Insurance companies write the laws. Pharmaceutical companies set the prices. Hospital administrators pay themselves like hedge fund managers while a night in the ER costs more than a used car. And the answer from the man on TV is “get a job.” As if the 60-year-old forklift driver with diabetes just hasn’t applied himself. As if the single mother working two jobs and still can’t cover her kid’s asthma medication needs to hear a pep talk from a guy in a tailored suit.
Unknown authorUnknown author (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsWatters’ book, by the way, features interviews with what he calls the “liberal fringe,” including Black supremacists, a professional cuddler, and a transgender person who identifies as a wolf. That’s who he sought out to make his point. Not the factory worker who lost his coverage when the plant closed. Not the small business owner getting crushed by premiums. He went and found a wolf-identifying activist so he could point at the left and say, “See? These people are crazy. Work on yourselves.” It’s a neat trick. Find the most absurd characters on the other side, hold them up as representative, and then tell everyone watching that their problems are personal, not political.
I don’t trust the experts. I don’t trust the suits. And I sure don’t trust a man who’s never missed a meal lecturing the country about self-reliance. The healthcare system in this country is a racket, and everybody knows it. The insurance companies know it. The politicians who take their donations know it. And Jesse Watters knows it too. He just doesn’t care, because telling you it’s your fault pays better than telling you the truth.
Watters is heading out on a book tour. Northvale, New Jersey, March 23. Point Pleasant Beach, March 24. Fort Myers in April. He’ll sign your copy, hug you, and tell you what Dana Perino is really like. Bring your medical bills. Ask him which job covers a $12,000 deductible. See what he says when the teleprompter’s off.
He won’t have an answer. They never do.
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