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Seriously? They were fighting tooth and nail to get the public option out of the bill so all of the money would flow directly to them, and when it came out, they declared victory:
With the Senate shifting sharply away from a “pure public option,” an insurance industry insider who has been deeply involved in the health care fight emails to declare victory.
“We WIN,” the insider writes. “Administered by private insurance companies. No government funding. No government insurance competitor.”
The Senate’s package is an enormous giveaway to the insurance companies and the drug companies, but I didn’t even have to make the argument. As Ratigan says, 40 million new customers forced to buy your product with no competition and no regulatory body to oversee it is a pretty sweet deal.
I’ll add that whether they vote for it or not, it’ll be a bloodbath for anyone with a “D” next to their name in 2010 if it passes.
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You’ve got to love Dylan Ratigan. He’s a little hyperactive, but he obviously cares about how corporations are undermining our democracy. They’re even corrupting free markets and capitalism.
It’s a shame that his old-fashioned views on regulated, free market capitalism weren’t an appropriate “fit” over at CNBC, which is the Network for Profits at any Price. It’s also ironic that as bad as CNBC is, it’s often more liberal than “Morning Joe”!
Great job Jane… someone needed to counter Axelrod’s silly interview earlier. He practically calls Dean a whacko and a liar and then can’t point to a single fact he got wrong. What was his example: that Dean was wrong about the Senate bill letting insurers charge 3x more? And he counters by saying right now, in some states, they can charge 5x more? Um, that’s an argument that some of the status quo are worse than your watered-down reform… not that Dean was wrong that it’s garbage reform.
Jane,
Thank you. Simply, thank you.
Ratigan ripped.
I will have to go to jail. I can not afford the mandate.
“Unreformed, predatory monopoly”
Dylan Ratigan: “Purity Troll”, who the hell knew ? :D
fyi – read somewhere earlier in the week that MSNBC is giving Ratigan tweety’s 5 pm est slot – confirmation anyone ?
The insurance industry had an enormous gift with this bill when it included the public option; they’d have acquired an enormous economy of scale to negotiate with health care providers, to improve profitability of their existing customer base.
But no, they had to get greedy. Their seven-figure executive salaries aren’t enough.
Nice!
Ratigan “What so wrong with the government mandating the creation of new customers for health insurance companies as long as the health insurance companies aren’t forced to compete and our protected by the government. That sounds like a win if I run an insurance company. I have new customers and I have no competition”
Damn. Summed it up. So why are folks not more focused on the CEO’s of these insurance companies and their boards. Names.
Can Liarman’s records of who has come into his office, phone,email records be demanded? He said the other day in response to a question that he has not been approached by insurance companies.
Can his records be demanded? He went onto say that he has challenged insurance companies. Any proof to back up that statement. This man is a pathological liar
He could take Rachel’s spot as far as I am concerned. Too gimicky. Too much showboating. Too many serious contradictions. Focus for three days on the abuse of gays in Uganda (a worth while issue) yet ignores the abuse of Palestinians and others on the planet. Ignores the Goldstone Report. A damn critical issue.
Too involved with her own agenda for me
Obama knows why this mandate without cost control is evil…video of 2008 O explaining the problem over at NewsDesk.
This talking out of both sides of his mouth has got to stop.
I heard that somewhere on teevee but assumed he was simply standing in for tweety temporarily.
Excellent interview Jane. I needed that after watching Axelrod, just when I think they can’t make it any worse they do.
Why is it so easy for us to lose focus on the 40 million people here in the U.S. who don’t have health care, who are dying at double- and triple-digit rates per day, depending on which measures we use?
Kind of stupid on the part of the insurance companies because they are losing customers the longer they drag this crap out.
Dr. Dean, Wendell Potter, Labor leaders, Jane Hamsher, Katrina, Andrew stern all agreeing that this bill as it stands is what Wendell Potter has called a “Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act”
Does not sound so good for moving forward at this time
Stern “enough”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
highly suspect, but if they did – super.
You do so well in getting out the message on TV.
Thank you so much Jane.
I would dance in the streets for that. [Not as much for getting Dylan, but for getting Tweety off the air.]
Hell, I would dance in the streets if they replaced Tweety with a pile of dog turds. {As the “parent” of four dogs, I’m well acquainted with dog turds.]
Oh, wait, who would know? I guess the lack of hyperactive blabbering would be the “tell.”
Thank you for the work you do…
But Rayne, those sick and dying would be a “bad risk” for the insurance companies to cover, because they might actually have to pay for some care.
I think the insurance companies have a Jonathan Swiftian attitude that they should let all these “poor risks” die off, and then they can they pick up the remaining “good” customers.
There will be perhaps millions of Americans refusing to go along with this protection racket.
Who will collect the fines? Will there be a federal court to try people?
This popular Just Say No to Your Corrupt Government Movement will spill over into refusing to pay taxes, report income. etc. Once one is a criminal, what’s to lose?
I knew Barack Obama was smart, I didn’t know he was this smart. A new American form of government. But unfortunately, first, THE DELUGE!
Especially with the most popular parts of it removed!
Memo to Nate Silver and other Dems bamboozled by Rahm’s “Not Having A Bill Doomed Us In ’94″ argument: I was around and paying attention back then, and the GOP’s successful sliming of Clinton’s tax hikes (the hikes that eventually led to the Clinton Boom), plus Rahm’s own backstabbing of the union-heavy Democratic base with NAFTA, were much, much bigger factors.
Jane, I’m so delighted that you’re getting more and more opportunities to get on the air. Perhaps as viewers see your wisdom they’ll wake up a little. A sliver of hope.
If any of the Administration is really worried about the country going broke if this crappy bill doesn’t pass, why did they strip out all the costs control measures like the PO?
Obama & Rahm: You Lie!
Thank you so much Jane. You are amazing & strong & focused & principled & brilliant & its too damn bad that the WH still doesnt get it.
I think the WH still thinks Obama can give another speech selling this disaster of a bill & the base will buy it.
Not now, not this time, not ever. I know Obama can deliver a great speech, touting progressive ideals, but sadly, I know, now, that he is NO progressive.
My theme song for Obama . We Wont Get Fooled Again.
Per the prescient Ms. Hamsher on October 5, 2006:
And according to Joe, Barack thanked him personally this past Monday.
O’Donnell called them on this as “scare tactics” last night
Obama has thrown away an entire generation/cohort who came into politics
because he convinced them he was genuine. Starting with Rahm, Gates and
Holbrooke, he walked away from the electorate, true to his benefactors.
What a hustler, never blinked, didn’t choke up and bite his lip like
Big Dog Clinton, he just evoked JFK, MLK, RFK for advertising and cut
his deals early and completely cold. An entire generation will pass
before anyone believes in a transformational new leader, and that is
not a bad thing. He has ambition enough for the role, but gutless is a
kind way to put it. He and Tiger Woods share the same idea of trust.
Lot of people in Ohio will have to go to jail. And Ohio can’t afford that so they’ll make us wear those ankle thingies.
But maybe I can commit further infractions so I can get sent to jail because there, I’d get health care.
America. What a country!
No — he’s going to get the hour before Matthews comes on.
You lie on your tax forms and you refuse to pay mandated profits out of your pocket to private insurance companies.
Civil disobedience: opt out in droves. NO mandate without a PO, Medicare buy-in, or REAL competition forced down insurance company throats (with a trigger for a PO when the competition fails to do the job).
I don’t want coverage. I want healthcare. It is my right.
I’m with you 100% Jane.
In fact, any “d” that votes for any kind of a bill that mandates the purchase of anything under penalty of law should be ran out of office.
That needs to be used against Obama NOW and in the run up to 2012. It also has to be used against all the Ds that vote for the senate atrocity in their 2010 re-election runs (as applicable).
They probably look at it like they’re losing exposure. The actuarial hats are spinning…
I think the WH and Dem leadership in Congress have badly misjudged how strongly the public feels about getting real healthcare reform. Comments all around the lefty blogosphere are off the charts. Howard Dean is everywhere because the public is livid. KO and Dylan are bluntly pointing out how bad this bill is. Even veal pen dwellers such as Stern are openly threatening to revolt.
I was listening to On Point this morning out of WBUR in Boston. Howard Dean was the guest along with Karen Timulty (I think) talking about the Senate healthcare bill. The calls were all lining up behind Dean. Poor Karen kept defending the bill and raising the “now or never” canard and repeating over and over the establishment line that she thinks the Senate will pass this bill.
Dems in Congress better start listening to what the public keeps telling them: kill the Senate bill and pass real reform now. Otherwise they better enjoy the prospects of spending a lot more time with their families.
I would love to see Jane go after Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota. She has been all over TV the last couple of days demeaning Howard Dean (without whom there would be no democratic majority) and misrepresenting what this bill achieves. She thinks that by speaking without pause she can simply steamroll the American people. Who is she fighting for?
Do you suppose the Republicans won’t use that “taxation without improved health care outcomes” argument against every Democrat for the next several election cycles?
Hell, the GOP invents accusations about Dems overtaxing the middle class so they can get the juice to cut taxes on the wealthy. With Obama, they won’t have to invent the accusation.
Mr. Obama, to date, is acting as if his goal was to revive the GOP and reinstall it as the dominant party. Actually, I think he tells himself that he’s imitating Tony Blair, yanking his party away from its principle and its past, making it so “centrist”, meaning conservative, that everyone will vote for him for ten years. Fat chance, Barack.
That can’t be repeated often enough, since apparently the ethical argument doesn’t work on these sociopaths.
The democrats have pretty much screwed the pooch on this. Their only sliver of hope now is to strip the mandates and hope that enough people are happy about the other weak provisions in the bill to support you in 2010, go back to the drawing board and provide a real, single-payer public option.
Otherwise, I’m fairly certain the electoral sweep in 2010 will be unprecedented in American history.
The Senate bill cuts out the middle man; we’ll pay taxes directly to the shakedown artists, and call them “premiums,” thereby keeping taxes lower.
At some point we have to realize and come to grips with the fact that Rahm and Obama want the Republicans to win seats in 2012. This kind of Kabuki with “60 votes” and Lieberman doing Obama’s bidding behind the scenes must be really tiring.
But once a few more R’s are in place, we’ll *have* to move to the right, because you know, Obama was so liberal before, and look, we lost seats and … we just don’t have the votes.
People, we got punk’d. Obama and Rahm are Dems in name only, Lieberman is their stooge. The person who needs a primary is Barack.
I can’t comprehend the thinking of the glass half full liberals. This is a fucking disaster.
And Olberman hinted at that possibility in his special comment last night.
Don’t forget that Obama and Rahm and Liarman don’t give a flying fuck about the deficit or debt because they never have ANY qualms about funding wars up the yingyang AND have no problems UPPING the defense budget year after year.
When they put OUR money where their mouth is and cut off the warring and threatening and defense budget, then I’ll maybe believe they are serious about deficits and debt.
As a “glass half full” Liberal myself, maybe this can help your comprehension:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3691/health-care-what-would-teddy-do
(I will say, even as someone in the past who has really liked Axelrod, man, he was terrible in that clip I just saw. Didn’t help the “half full” cause very much.)
I think they key here is to connect bloodbath and IF IT PASSES in their feeble little minds.
Dems have been so focused [and Obama is the one who's directed their focus] on how “bad” it would be to not pass anything, that they’ve failed to evaluate the risks of passing something terrible. And this bill has gone from blah to bad to horrible.
I know that the information has been out there [or more accurately, here] for some time, but we know that the Shiny Object Brigade can’t focus on it.
Perhaps now is the time to say, “okay, you perceive of yourselves [Congresscritters] as being in a lose-lose situation, but THIS “lose” [passing the crap bill] is a LOT worse than that one [passing nothing and having the Republicans call you names].
Perhaps they could analogize it to going to the doctor with pneumonia. The doctor doesn’t really know how to treat it, but, fearing “doing nothing,” he offers to cut off the patient’s leg. While “doing nothing” may mean you get sicker and even die, cutting off the leg is not an attractive alternative. Best idea: get out of this box.
I’ve tried to call Dirty Joe Lieberman’s office for the past three days. Cannot get through. I wanted to tell his staff what no one in the media seems to be doing. Call this guy to his face the scumbag that he is. Why all the polite questions to him? I don’t care that he’s Senator. As a matter of fact, the more I watch these Senators, the more I believe many don’t deserve respect.
So here goes– Joe, you are a SCUMBAG SELLOUT. You’re a dirty whore for the health care lobby. Politicians like you are the reason people lose faith in the whole system. Is this what your parents raised you to be? You are dirt. Dirty Joe Lieberman. Your name should be tainted for the rest of your life.
Oops! That “2006″ was supposed to be “2009″.
The bill needs to crash and burn. Obama doesn’t get to use this atrocity as a “win” to use as a defense of his disastrous presidency. He wants a bill, ANY bill (so long as it is this corporate fellating bill before the senate), to tout as his “big” accomplishment.
Right alongside with surging into Afghanistan (and STILL losing there), continuing the occupation of Iraq, continuing to defend torture and abuse and rendition, and continuing to spy on Americans (for their own good).
Obama is almost as big a disaster as Bush Jr was…but he will only get one term to do his damage. Happily, it means the end of Rahm’s political career too.
Lets face it – Americans (D’s, R’s or I’s) do not tolerate or respect those politicians who cannot deliver on their agenda. Pres. Obama doesn’t get a pass for blowing the HCR thing. In fact it’s been blown so bad he and the dems he can’t control deserve our outrage.
Whether we want to or not, the one thing all liberals and progressives have to grudgingly admit right now – The rethuglicons know how to stick together and get their agenda done even without a 60-vote majority. It’s time we elect some “Union-era types” who won’t compromise on issues that benefit ALL Americans not just rich ones…
Ratigan is smart, brave and…I know this is a woefully inappropriate comment, but…is it just me or is he HOT in here?!
which hour? Ed is before Tweets.
Amy Klobishar just tried to pull this shit with MSNBC’s “Dr. Nancy”.
How embarrassing for her. She actually tried to argue that there is no way that this a bill for insurance companies since they spent millions advertizing against it.
Fawgodsakes woman…they got what they paid for by Thanksgiving.
They wrote the tweaks that ended up coming out of Baucus’final result.
Even when Sen. Fin and Help were combined, none of the HELP people were in the room at first. Very much like this whole process. Progressives are allowed in last and told to suck up.
Obama using scare tactics last night was a final straw. Desparate!!
Klobishar also admitted that her state is doing pretty well right now. No worries?
But we also know those “bad risks” are the ones which currently make biggest billings — there’s a mess of profit in end-of-life care, and it moves off the books in short order.
Like most people intuitively know — that “if we can just get our Foot through the door, we have a chance of opening that door all the way! And, if we don’t begin somewhere, and start the “cooking of the egg”, then how much more expensive will healthcare costs become. And, if this is not a good thing, why are they (GOP/ Conserva Dems) fighting so hard to stop it. They too know that if we just get our foot through the door, there will be no stopping. Yes, it is too bad that there are not more in Congress who work for the people, but we have to work with what we have at the moment, take stock of this and work harder for true Jeffersons, and Washingtons and Franklins in the future. They will come…
I have not given up on Pres. Obama; he is fighting old, intrinsic patterns which will not die easily. He is however planting the seeds to their destruction. Take Heart!
POSITIVE EXERCISE: Sit quietly, focus in the third eye, link up with your Soul (the soul is light and always works for the good) and visualize health care reform As passed, implemented into law with a public option — for energies always follows thought!
As an aside, I am afraid that poor Ariana is upset that Pres. Obama has not yet reversed “don’t ask, don’t tell”.
You’re right. I’d forgotten about that.
He be hot. Wonder tho if he got some implants for that curly mohawk doo.
He gives great twitter.
Cruise around the internet and see if you can find a way to send a fax for free from the internet.
And then use Joe Lieberman’s DC fax number: 202-224-9750
Send him some love. /s
Not buying it. Teddy would give up and give this gift to the insurance companies at our expense? OK. It’s a theory. The problem is not the mandate, it’s the mandate without the price controls and competition. It’s cute though the way Olbermann and Dean are now “self-proclaimed progressives.” The argument that this is a great deal because Limbaugh hates it is also less than convincing.
Someone has gotten access to that CA medical marijuana!
Demand congress fix the prescription drug benefit
go here http://bit.ly/drug_benefit
Send a message to traitor Joe Lieberman demanding he help enact a strong single payer public option into law.
http://bit.ly/traitorjoe
Send this message wide and far. Thank you.
Don’t be a chump and buy into the WH spin on this peice of shit Senate bill.
The glass your drinking from is half full alright – Full of water from the cesspool of mandated health insurance with no competitve options. I’m suprised you can get it passed your nose to even take a swallow…
anybody else get the e-mail yesterday from the dems asking me to make phone calls to senators to pass this historic bill.
can you reply to those?
A year ago, on account of the economic meltdown, The Army War College prepared a document outlining the Government options in case of Domestic ‘unease’; the population not responding sufficiently quickly to the STFU dictate coming from Washington.
“I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.”-Will Rogers
Never more true.
From what I’ve read and heard (and hopefully understood) of the health care bill at hand there are some very good things in it.
1. Everyone would be required to purchase a health plan, but there are subsidies to help lower income workers. If you make around 22k or less you would be subsidized for over 90% of your premiums.
2. It eliminates insurance companies ability to turn down folks with pre-existing conditions. While it does allow for higher deductables and premiums for these people, they are severely limited in their size (a 5k deductable limit). Poorer folks in this category will receive subsidies too.
3. This bill is deficit neutral.
I think that this bill would make the USA more competitive in the global market.
Time for Obama to put some teeth in this mandate: make it a mandatory five year sentence for anyone caught not having health insurance. Then we can provide insurance for the uninsured through our penal system.
Criminalizing drug use has worked, right? So now we are criminalizing health care. Makes perfect sense to me.
Democrats need to be tough on crime! Jail the uninsured!
If you make less than 22k your insurance is free…Read the bill!
boy oh boy
OBIE believes he is the second comming of baby Jesus
Don’t mean to offend but…WTF have you been smokin’?
In case you haven’t gotten the memo yet it’s health insurance extortion not health insurance reform.
You and Klobishar related by any chance?
Glass half-full with WHAT???? Hemlock?
No public option, no Medicare Buy-in, no Single Payer, No Anti-trust protection, No Competition, No caps on Premiums, a Tax on Medical Insurance Benefits for workers, astronomical rates for the pre-Medicare Elderly and Pre-existing conditions, AND a MANDATE to buy this shit????
Dems better WAKE UP.
Hell, demand that Lieberman support the same healthcare system that is enjoyed by Israelis in Israel. If it is good enough for them then it damn sure is good enough for us.
Basically, Israel has universal healthcare not unlike that of France.
sorry this is BS…exactly when have they improved on Medicare?
The insurance companies get money from customers then they invest it in supposedly safe securities like banks. The insurance companies lost a lot of money in the banking crisis. I doubt they are as solvent as they claim to be.
Much like the banks I fear they are using funny accounting.
I think they privately told Obama they need all this money that Obama is giving them or they will go under.
Notice they are not now asking to keep the status quo of their current business plan which would be profitable if they had not lost a ton of money.
Rather this bill would increase their cash allot. That suggests they need this cash. Especially when you consider that healthcare was originally about lowering costs and thereby lowering insurance company profit.
That is one of the benefits of not being a big-tent party and having gone through 30 years of primaries that purged all but the most extreme right-wing. And 2010 is not going to be a happy time for them either, when Lindsay Graham is not conservative enough and even Jim DeMint is not a teabag favorite.
The downside of that stonewall party unity is that when you gain power you are subject to massive hubris (see Bush, George W., 2001-2009) or if you don’t you become an ever smaller and purer and more unified party that soon disappears unless you rediscover big-tent party politics again.
My comment is awaiting moderator approval. I guess a fuck you very much is in order unless it’s an evenhanded flag.
[Mod Note: Insults to moderators will never help your cause.]
“Officials and Experts Warn of Crash-Induced Unrest
Numerous high-level officials and experts warn that the economic crisis could lead to unrest world-wide – even in developed countries:
* Today, Moody’s warned that future tax rises and spending cuts could trigger social unrest in a range of countries from the developing to the developed world, that in the coming years, evidence of social unrest and public tension may become just as important signs of whether a country will be able to adapt as traditional economic metrics, that a fiscal crisis remains a possibility for a leading economy, and that 2010 would be a “tumultuous year for sovereign debt issuers”. ”
The U.S. Army War College warned in 2008 November warned in a monograph [click on Policypointers’ pdf link to see the report] titled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development” of crash-induced unrest:
The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse,” “purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.” The “widespread civil violence,” the document said, “would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.” “An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home,” it went on. “Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance,” the document read.”
Here comes Uncle Sammy….
there’s more…
Here’s what I did:
* used the phone numbers so thoughtfully provided to call my Senators and tell them to vote AGAINST this travesty;
* clicked the “report on your call” box to tell [I think it was OFA] of my “efforts.”
* hoped they would put two & two together & figure things out.
D E A N…S C R E A M S…A G A I N…
…H E…I S…A N…I D I O T……
The health care bill at hand there are some very good things in it.
1. Everyone would be required to purchase a health plan, but there are subsidies to help lower income workers. If you make around 22k or less you would be subsidized for over 90% of your premiums.
2. It eliminates insurance companies ability to turn down folks with pre-existing conditions. While it does allow for higher deductables and premiums for these people, they are severely limited in their size (a 5k deductable limit). Poorer folks in this category will receive subsidies too.
3. This bill is deficit neutral.
I think that this bill would make the USA more competitive in the global market.
tried to operate on my friends brain dead brother …i told her JUST SAY NO
Not only is Obama not fighting these “old, intrinsic patterns”, he is very much a part of them.
All the work we’ve done, all the campaigning, all the donations, all the letter and calls and this is what we get. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62 I could vomit.
I received one. I replied back and told them to stick it in their ass and tha the only thing I’m gonna call for is the scalp of any “d” that votes for this peice of shit.
My e-mail response never came back as undeliverable so I can only presume they got it.
You need to spend a little time at this site, doing a lot of “remedial reading,” before waltzing in to tell us all how great this bill is.
Seriously, read 5 or 10 diaries here about the details of the bill. Then come back and retake your exam.
If we get another financial crises which I think we will because the banks are still gamboling and Dubai is not the only country thinking of defaulting on its debt, never mind credit default swaps, big companies or hedgefunds going under etc.
Then while everyone looks at the banks going under the big guys like insurance companies and mutual funds who invest in banks will also be hit.
I doubt we can afford another bailout without cutting war funds.
You may be able to leave them a message through the OFA website, blog, Facebook pages, can also tweet a message containing @barackobama and the state OFA twitter address.
The OFA state orgs appear to have a uniform address format — Michigan, for example, is @OFA_MI and Illinois is @OFA_IL.
I’m going to tweet right now, in fact. They can stop harassing me about crappy legislation which doesn’t actually do what we asked them to do.
You could also try calling your local or state Dem Party office and asking for the name/phone of the OFA organizer for your area/state if there is one assigned.
If there is a mandate, I will vote for whoever says they with repeal it in 2012 and if that is a republican so be it, because we have a republican sitting in the oval office rite now masquerading as a democrat anyway!
The hoodwink job is over Obama!
Surely, Shirley, you’re not fooled by that HermaphoRepublicrat (tm Colbert Nation) tripe about the “good” things in this Senate bill outweighing the bad. All effective propaganda contains some truths, or else it wouldn’t be effective. As for shopping the ConservaDem meme that Dr. Dean doesn’t know what they know about health care, please note that CAPITAL LETTERS are poor manners. One might even call them shrill.
Something I’ve been pondering, probably already been discussed by people better qualified…
Mandating that people hand over a substantial chunk of their income to private insurers places additional burdens on local economies. Part of the reason people don’t feel like they can afford insurance is that they need the money to buy consumer goods… which in turn benefits local merchants.
Private insurance companies don’t use the money to create a large number of jobs, most of the revenue they collect essentially (poof) vanishes.
As noted above [@72], you can “reply” via their little “report on your calls” box [you may have to first click on the box that says "I called" to get the "report" box to come up] and insert your warm message of gratitude there.
Rayne @ 80: I like your suggestions as well.
Oh PUH-Lease… WAKE UP.
You only *think* your foot is through the door. Look down. Your foot has been hacked off, and the sensation you are experiencing is “Phantom Limb Syndrome,” after the door slammed shut so hard, it sheered your leg right off below the knee.
Over on the other side of the door? Democrats are pissing on your leg and telling you it’s raining.
We read it the first time. You don’t need to spam it.
And the next compromise will be made to satisfy Nelson. He says the abortion language isn’t strong enough. But it’s all good. Something must pass. Making us buy crappy private insurance we can’t afford that doesn’t even cover reproductive services while shoveling money to the insurance companies and fining the poor for not being able to afford it, will be a big win in the next election. Again, I don’t get it.
more bs………till they do WELFARE REFORM ala Clinton
Take a deep breath. Now think. If the Health Cartel has been fighting so hard against reform, and now the bill is at 60 votes, only two possibilities exist.
1)They have given up the fight,
2)They have won.
Release your breath now.
Is it 1, or 2 ?
I dare you to say that over at a right-wing site. Double-dog dare you.
I tried and got a “could not deliver” error.
“I think that this bill would make the USA more competitive in the global market.”
Just imagine what a Medicare + 5 bill would do, or HR676, or a robust PO.
This bill is a testament to a decrepit Political System of a Failed State.
Perhaps they will go from big tent to “Tea”pee.
RRRAAAWWW!!!111
Give’em hell Hamsher!
60%+ of Americans want HCR with a competitive PO. How much more of a “Big Tent” do you think we need?
Weird update: Maybe Jane can look further?
Burris is taking a stand and will absolutely not vote for the bill.
“…until this bill addresses cost, competition and accountability in a meaningful way, it will not win [my vote]…”
(http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Burriss-Health-Care-Demands-Grow-Louder-79410477.html)
And guess what? Suddenly Snowe says y..y..y yes.
(http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/live/health-care/#308563)
Could be because other Maine Dems have another issue they want Harry to fix. see same link
Olbermann has the best answer to resolve all this: take out the mandate, then and let the bill be voted on.
It lets those Dems who mean well, not be tarnished buy the few who then vote NO. Let them pay the price for the scum they are.
Thank you. Can’t be said enough. Mr. Obama tore off his campaign clothes in November ’08. You won’t see them again until his next election. Meanwhile, he is governing as might an American Tony Blair: he’s attempting to steal the GOP’s thunder by being more capitalist and conservative than they are.
SORRY MISS MANNERS!
Yeah investing in banks that gambol will do that:) Investing in Safe securities with high ratings hah! The rating agencies are a problem we will have to fix soon.
If this is true, Burris is a super fast study with nothing to lose and everything to gain. This could make Burris a household name for eternity. Fuck fancy mausoleums, when you can have your very own shrine in history.
Yeah, they have a Chinese wall pretty well constructed at all these sites: Money can come in, but not messages.
No doubt he and Blair have their imperial suits done by the same Savile Row tailor.
Good One, gitch, Good One! Can I steal “TEA-PEE” and use it on WND’s and ClusterFOX News sites?
My only fear would be that those dumb-assed teabaggers and trailer trash crackers won’t get it.
At this point it is clear this is the bill Obama wanted from the start.
Did he stabbed all the democratic senators in the back with his secret insurance and parma deals.
Or were they in on it?
You guys should see President Obama’s Facebook page. I hope someone in his staff actually views the comments. He should be *very* alarmed.
@103
You don’t have to steal it,mm.
Consider it a holiday gift to be shared ….
It is a wealth transfer. It will come from the government via subsidies, from individuals via deductibles, and from employers via higher premiums. It will go to insurance companies and their investors. Some of it will go into the delivery of healthcare services which is very inefficient in this country. So basically what we are talking about is another in a long line of misallocations of resources.
Hugh, do you know if any of these insurance companies are offshored-to avoid taxes on profits?
Jane has a fresh cross-post already in progress: “Mary Landrieu Admits Public Option Was All Just Senate Kabuki”
Re Burris, Feingold, Sanders, and whomever, what we need to know is not their position on the bill but their position on cloture.
Roland Burris is on the Senate floor right now, advocating passage of the Senate health care bill (some bill, details unknown), using all the facile talking points about enough debate, enough delay, “cusp” of “history” and “not perfect,” “giving up is not an option,” “we’ve come too far and worked too hard to turn back now,” a “decision is needed now, not next month or next year,” on to the “conference,” etc.
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN2_rm.aspx
Did you see this excerpt from a couple of days ago:
Now onto the problem with Joe Lieberman. Lieberman is one of the US Senates strongest voices for Israel, and Israel has for all intents and purposes a socialized national health care system. Joe Lieberman was, and is one of the Senates strongest proponents on the Iraq War and our occupation of that country. In their 2005 constitution, which we wrote, health care is guaranteed!
Two countries with socialized medicine. Two countries that without US support would not exist. Two countries that Joe Lieberman supports. You can only come to one conclusion. Lieberman cares more about the citizens of Iraq and Israel than he does you and me
Lieberman Supports Health Care…in OTHER countries (link to follow)
I have been hoodwinked by the drafters of this bill. Thank you, Jane for standing up for us, the people!!!
Lieberman supports national health care, in other countries – 2 days ago
Two countries with socialized medicine. Two countries that without US support would not exist. Two countries that Joe Lieberman supports. …Examiner.com – 4540 related articles »
that’s stupid.
No, I don’t know. I think the real unanswered question with regard to insurance companies is where they invested their money and what happened to it when the meltdown hit.
Hmmmm. Israel and ??
He’s actually advocating not for passage, but for the bill to be improved in conference to allopw passage..
His own words were “…until this bill addresses cost, competition and accountability in a meaningful way, it will not win [my vote]…”
If it is not improved in conference I think he’ll stick to his guns and say NO..
And will go on to the glories fuckno predicts
First Thanks Jane for all you do!!
My rant:
Kill The Bill Baby Kill The Bill!@!
I googled and apparently it is true. Will happen around Jan.10.
How about a link?
LOL!
If that’s the case (I didn’t hear the last sentence or two he spoke), he’s simply trying to buffalo people who don’t understand that the conference fix is in once this (mystery) bill passes the Senate (assuming, that is, that Burris understands that, which I suppose he may not).
As I explained in a comment in an earlier post (can’t link to it):
Burris will definitely be voting for cloture on the conference report if it gets that far, in my opinion, based on his remarks today, by claiming it “improved” the Senate product enough to get his vote.
The Party leadership right now, from the White House, is clearly working hard backstage to pick off the 60 Democratic (and Snowe) votes in the Senate, one by one.
This Bill is Legislative Extortion on behalf of the Corrupt Insurance Companies…who wrote and manipulated it…
Dr. Dean is right and an Emancipator…Obama quite the opposite…
We need an Emancipation Proclamation from bondage to these Insurance Company overlords..!
Hell, if you get tossed in jail at least you get free healthcare. As a traveling healthcare professional, I have twice worked in prisons. Seeing the respectable, on demand healthcare that prisoners receive (in the Calif prison system anyway) I jokingly remarked to the permanent staff that when I get older I might just rob a bank and go to prison so I can get some treatment. I was met with deadpan stares and finally one of them said “you think that hasn’t been thought of before? There are probably 150 inmates here for exactly that reason. They’ll tell you.”
Wow. You hear about people joining the military for the healthcare for their families. Now people are committing crimes to receive medical help.
All so an insurance mafia can rake in billions and live like gods.
This is madness. MADNESS.
Just want to say, it would be nice if these posts were a littler more “share on Facebook” friendly. When I try to share this and post to my friends on Facebook, no appropriate image coems up, and instead of the beginning text of the post, you get a generic “Politics for liberal newsgeeks”. With no content teaser, the end result is not something my friends are likely to click on to read. Anyway just thought I’d point it out!
They ALL look pathetic trying to justify this monstrosity. Harkin, Wyden, Sherrod Brown, they all have that look as if they just swallowed a toad.
I don’t watch TV, so I’ve never heard of Dylan Ratigan before, but how the hell did he get on the corporate media? He tells the truth. There must have been a slip-up in personnel…
Thanks for that, FN. I’ve been wondering about this for sometime now. For awhile I worried that the military would go rogue and not obey the commander-in-chief. Now I’m worried that they will.
Da*n you, Uncle TomObama, da*n you.
I add a comment, usually the first paragraph or a summary or something.
Yes, but they save a lot of their own money, by accepting foreign aid from us. Maybe we could turn that equation around…?
Absolutely right!
He is a traitor to the American people, and his only loyalty is to Israel.
Chris Matthews is a read dck head. He constantly rails against the left for just not accepting what we are being given. He does not seem to understand why being forced to purchase insurance under threat of fines is not healthcare reform. I have to quit watching him.
Dr. Dean did not scream but you are
Jane I caught your segment on The Ed Show.BRAVO!!!You certainly did your home work.I want to bear your children.If anyone else watched it,let that woman know what you think.BRAVO!!!!
Cutting deals with Pharma and insurance providers was the only to even get this conversation started. The bitches of the left should just go cry while the adults get something done for the American people.
Oh yeah, hey Jane maybe if you put Obama in black face, you might get your way without stomping your feet and holding your breath like a 2 year old.
Jane, saw you on all the shows this day,but these fools have not a clue who they are fooling with. I have a suggestion for you starting up an organization call OPERATION TAKEOUT or OPERATION CLEAROUT for those senators who are four and those bluedogs and REP to be replace by progressive candidates. You need a million people giving ten dollars every month only.That ten million dollars ever month putting coordinators in those states with whom we have identified as the person we want to take out period. Do the math JANE a million people ten dollars a month that a 120 million dollars for an entire year. I am willing to contibute my ten dollars and by the way that can takeout a lot of people. It time to stop talking and start doing and shut some people up. By the way you are not doing this for Barack,but for the american people period. In fact we might start thinking who will be our next Presidential Candiate Barack is a pretender nothing more nothing less. As the saying goes walking softly and carrying a big stick. You can honestly say you will be carrying the big stick.
Jane, you made me so proud today, first on Ratigan, then on Ed ripping Lanny Davis whose been deserving to be exposed for years, especially right now at this very important moment with so many lies and so much disingenuousness flying around in all quarters including Axelrod (how pathetic he was today — I think he’s reached the End of Spin, he and Obama). Your intellect and ferocity are what we need tons more of among Dems and progressives. Brava, gal (and same to Laura Flanders and the rest of FDL team).
Howard Dean 2012, at least as a placeholder in my heart.