Public opinion, the media and their influence on public policy

In the vein of political theorist V.O. Keyes, I believe that the validity of public opinion is only as good as the what the media leads them to believe. Take universal health care for instance, while the media writes article after article about the suffering of uninsured people, they never write an article asking taxpayers whether or not they are willing to forego an increase in payroll taxes to afford more care. Thus, people mistakenly believe that somehow the federal government can afford universal health care without a payroll tax increase.

Let's look at some of the program spending increases for last year. Spending on " In Home Health Services" has increased this year, in California, with more pay for workers, and twice as many clients. Undocumented pregnant women and their children were given free dental and free vision care last year.While the expansion of In Home Health Services sounds like a major expansion in health care, the sad truth of it is, that most of the expansion and pay raises for In Home Health Services occurred in Los Angeles county, thus usurping alot of state funding for other programs. Not only that but our own senior citizens on ordinary Medicare do not qualify for dental care, and often times they are the ones who need it the most. My mother is 70 years old, still works because her retirement plan and Social Security aren't enough. She has several teeth missing, and can't afford to have them fixed, and yet our government has decided to give an undocumented woman who came over the border last week who is pregnant free dental care.

Up until now, policy for welfare spending exists in this vaccuum, in which the policy maker only recognizes the usefulness of the program they are creating, without looking at how the money is going to be distributed, or how the effects their policy will have on other programs. I think the media has become so overly sensitive to the needs and feelings of immigrants, and minorities, that we are either too intimidated or feel too guilty to talk about the needs of both low income and ordinary middle class people. I never see articles about low income white seniors whose meals on wheels program is underfunded, or the low income single woman whose boyfriend skipped out on her, and didn't pay child support, who is earning only slightly above minimum wage, doesn't qualify for government benefits, and has zero money left after paying for child care. Or the man I met a few months ago from Texas, who had health care insurance, but needed a triple bypass heart surgery,that was so expensive, it cost him his house. He told me he had to sell his house, and was wandering around aimlessly in Concord. Most of the articles I read about programs that are underfunded or the uninsured only refer to immigrants or programs that serve immigrants.

It has taken me some time to learn how to become more sensitive to the needs of immigrants, and especially their kids. It would certainly be a welcome change, if the media could learn how to become more sensitive to the needs of American born people. The media needs to learn how to explain public policy to everyone at all income levels, in a contextual manner, so that citizens can get a clear idea of not just the policy, but the cause and effect of the policy's spending over the long term.

Learn more about this author, Titania Jones.
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