October 22 – The Benefits of Obamacare Hang in the Balance; The Private Contractors Behind Healthcare.gov’s Woes; “The Benghazi Hoax”

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an analysis of whether the benefits of the Affordable Care Act will emerge in time to overcome the growing concerns about the healthcare.gov website that is feeding into the perception shaped by decades of conservative propaganda that the government is the problem and private enterprise is the solution.Jonathan Oberlander, a professor of Social Medicine and Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina joins us to discuss the birth pangs of Obamacare.

Part 2

Then we examine the role of private contractors in the train wreck of website woes that are stymieing the launch of the new healthcare insurance exchanges. Scott Amey the General Counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, who investigates federal spending on goods and services, joins us to look into the contractors responsible – Serco, Equifax and CGI, who have already spent over three times the amount of their original bid, and whether the tech “surge” Obama has promised will overcome the already negative perceptions of healthcare reform.

Part 3

Then finally we look into “The Benghazi Hoax”, the title of a new book by Ari Rabin-Havt, Vice President of Research and Communication at Media Matters for America who has meticulously chronicled the right-wing lies behind the politicization of an American tragedy on September 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. We discuss the wholesale manufacturing of a phony political scandal by a failing Republican candidate for president, an unscrupulous Congressman who is a serial grandstander, and Fox News.