And That's When I Clicked "Close Tab": Words No Longer Mean Anything Edition @1:50 PM
"In addition to these legal issues, one group will be hit especially hard – our senior citizens. Always the wisest folks, seniors have been against this bill from the beginning. And for good reason. Obamacare cuts a half-trillion dollars in health care for seniors to lay the foundation for socialized medicine."
—Actually, I should have clicked "close tab" when I read the words "an Ideas piece by by Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. Steve King," but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. This was far enough, though. 5
After Bargaining and Acceptance Come Home Surgery @3:20 PM
Americans are comparison-shopping for emergency room services, because we are smart. For instance! "When Heather Staples' 6-year-old daughter, Sophia, fell and cut her eyebrow, Staples knew her daughter might need stitches. But instead of running straight to an emergency room, Staples took a few minutes to compare prices at nearby emergency rooms." She saved $500, therefore only paying $1200 for some needle and thread. We all know where this is going. Seriously you lazy woman, get a fish hook and some plastic thread and sew that little klutz up yourself. 11
Real America, with Abe Sauer: If You Don't Support Health Care Reform, You Don't Support the Troops @4:37 PM
This is a check for $20. You may click on it to see it larger. The check itself, that is, not its amount—it will still be worth just $20. What this $20 check represents to health care reform, however, is incalculable. Although maybe not for long.
This is a payment from the North Dakota Department of Human Services to a physician licensed and practicing in the state. It is payment for medical consultations for ten patients that, by the physician's estimate, accounted for about 25 hours of work time. (Those payment and time estimates do not account for the additional surgical procedures that several of the patients required.) READ MORE 45
A Democratic Senate aide seems skeptical about the chances of a bipartisan approach to health care reform: "Imagine we introduce a bill that says health insurance companies can't discriminate based on pre-existing conditions. All that would happen is the insurance industry would pay some firm to do a study that concludes that would cause insurance companies to go out of business, and some GOP senator will go to the floor and say 'See? This is all about forcing single payer.' Throw in some douchebag on TV with a tri-cornered hat and a chalkboard, and you have a unified GOP caucus against any bill that remotely attempts to deal with the health care issue." @3:40 PM 3
Jonathan Cohn's letter to "Nervous and Frustrated" House Democrats is worth reading. @12:45 PM 9
"What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight. That's what they ought to pray."
—Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), offering up what was widely interpreted as a plea to the Almighty that He prevent ailing nonagenarian Robert Byrd (D-WV) from being the 60th Senator to vote 'aye' for health care reform early this morning. It's funny; the decade began with Trent Lott (R-MS) hoping that lightning would strike Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to keep her from taking her seat in the Senate. It's nice to see that these guys still believe in the power of prayer, in spite of everything. @9:40 AM 24
December Joe Lieberman Doesn't Care What September Joe Lieberman Said @1:00 PM
The Washington Independent notes a session with reporters miserable prick Joe Lieberman just held at the Capitol, where the Senator "seemed surprised by his own endorsement three months ago of a Medicare buy-in proposal he now opposes – saying that he finally saw the video 'last night,' as if it were someone else who granted the now-infamous interview to the Connecticut Post in September. Stuck in a corner, he offered two explanations." The first one was "Fuck you," and the second one was pretty much the same as the first. 13
Syndicated columnist and National Review editor Rich Lowry has this to say about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's struggle to obtain the supermajority now necessary to pass health care reform:
Reid's struggle getting to 60 makes some liberals fear that America has become "ungovernable." In other words, it isn't putty in their grasping little hands. Unfortunately for them, the Founders created a balky system resistant to precipitate change. It is designed to frustrate ideologically drunken (and perhaps temporary) majorities insistent on passing sweeping, unpopular legislation. Reid's difficulty is exactly the way James Madison would have wanted it.
Someone wanna clip that out and save it? I have a feeling it might come in handy at some point in the next decade. @9:00 AM 13
Racists Want You To Get Used To It @10:10 AM
Says Andrew Sullivan of this anti-health care spot, "It's an effective ad against something of a straw man…. Conflating wider worries about the intensity of vaguely articulated loathing of Obama as racially tinged with specific worries about health insurance reform is, however, a useful piece of sophism." I don't know. I'm of the opinion that it's always great to see an oppressed group of people attempt to reclaim a word that has been used in the past to cause hurt and shame. I'm thrilled for Republicans that they're trying to take the "racist" label back. Especially the black ones. 10
When miserable prick Joe Lieberman came out against the public option he was just trying to be an asshole on his own, but happily for him, he also provided cover for a bunch of other Senators to be assholes as well. It's win-win for Joe! @12:10 PM 3
Sarah Palin "Reads" The 'Times' @10:20 AM
Sarah Palin has questions!
Now, tonight, more disconcerting news – the New York Times reports of new guidelines to scale back cervical cancer screenings. The recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists comes on the heels of another recommendation to limit breast cancer screenings with mammograms. There are many questions unanswered for me, but one which immediately comes to mind is whether costs have anything to do with these recommendations. The current health care debate elicits great concern because of its introduction of socialized medicine in America and the inevitable rationed care. We need to carefully watch this debate as it coincides with Capitol Hill's debate and determine whether we are witnessing the early stages of that rationed care before the Senate bill is rushed through as well….
Obviously the first thought that comes to mind when hearing of these new recommendations from bureaucratic panels is "rationed care." It's fair – and healthy – to ask if that's what Washington has in mind with a government-controlled takeover of a health care system.
Hmm. Maybe we can find an answer in, say, that New York Times publication she cited earlier. READ MORE 17
My Tax Dollars Should Not Be Spent On Your Expensive Vagina @11:05 AM
"Well, we're all different. Why should a smoker pay more?"
—National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX), explaining why women should pay more for medical treatment than men. 6
80% of House Democrats Who Voted Against Health Care Were In McCain-Winning Districts @10:20 AM
That's neat. 31 of the 39 Democratic representatives who didn't vote for the health care bill are in districts that had more McCain voters than Obama voters last year. Mmm hmm! Also, twelve of them are former Republicans of formerly Republican districts. (And to be noted: 1 of the 39 was Dennis Kucinich, who voted against the bill because it was too friendly to insurance companies.) 8
Republican Warns That Democratic Success Will Hurt Republicans @1:04 PM
Did you know that if health care reform passes it will end democracy as we know it? That's what Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch warns, noting that the Democrats want socialized medicine and "if they get there, of course, you're going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody's going to say, 'All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party.'" Right. So let's not do that then. 12
House Republican Mocks Democrats Over Republican Emasculation @10:15 AM
Here is Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-OH) doing a one minute stand-up routine for the cameras of C-SPAN. His material may not be top notch, but you've got to give him points on delivery. Also, he is not entirely wrong. 10
DNC "Calls Out" Sarah Palin In New Video That Cost Six Dollars To Make @9:10 AM
The Democratic National Committee has decided to respond to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's distortions on health care reform by creating the most annoying, shoddy fact-checking ad ever. Honestly, this thing could only be more irritating if it were a PowerPoint presentation. DNC Executive Director Jen O'Malley Dillon explains the rationale for the video here. READ MORE 6
Guest Op Ed: Health Care For Everyone @4:30 PM
From time to time, The Awl offers its space to normal, everyday people with a perspective on national issues. Today, we're pleased to once again present you with Walt Fruttinger, an Applebee's franchisee who has some incisive thoughts about health care.
I've been unable (thus far) to secure the opportunity to have Louisville Cardinals coach Rick Pitino make love to a woman in my Applebee's franchise after hours, but am still thankful to The Awl for giving me a forum to communicate my ideas. As a Montana-based entrepreneur, you must know that good ideas and brilliant notions come to me in convulsive waves and shudders. So here's some new stuff about health insurance. READ MORE 17
Betsy McCaughey: "The Blue-State Sarah Palin" @10:25 AM
I guess this counts as the apology for what New Republic editor Frank Foer calls the magazine's "original sin": Fifteen years after publishing her stunningly dishonest article on Bill Clinton's health care reform bill, TNR takes on Betsey McCaughey. Here's a sample. READ MORE 10
What Yesterday's Health Care Vote Meant: Nothing @11:30 AM
Everyone who was hyperventilating about yesterday's Senate Finance vote on the public option needs to take a deep breath: "[W]hatever clears the Senate will have to be reconciled with the House version-which may well contain a Rockefeller-style public option. It is in that House-Senate conference committee, where both sides will have equal weight, that the real action on the public option will take place. Compared to that, Tuesday's Finance Committee activity is nothing." 6
Betsey McCaughey Had Help With The Lying @1:25 PM
Turns out mendacious health care "expert" Betsey McCaughey wasn't exactly spinning her mendacities on her own: She had the support of Big Tobacco! Let us all pretend to be surprised. (Much, much more here.) 2
45% Of Doctors Will Not Quit Practicing If Health Care Reform Happens @3:10 PM
You may hear about a poll showing that 45% of doctors would consider quitting if health care reform is passed. Don't believe it. (It is important to mention that the poll comes from Investors Business Daily, the geniuses who brought you "If Stephen Hawking lived in England the death panels would have killed him by now.") Demolishing the results, Your Geeky Boyfriend Nate Silver notes: "There are pollsters out there that have an agenda but are highly competent, and there are pollsters that are nonpartisan but not particularly skilled. Rarely, however, do you find the whole package: that special pollster which is both biased and inept. IBD/TIPP is one of the few exceptions." 6
Senate Finance Committee Reveals Health Care Plan @10:18 AM
The Senate Finance Committee has just released its health care proposal: It's a 10-year, $856 billion dollar plan. There's some instant analysis here and a full PDF here. A quick search yields no returns on the phrase "death panels." 2
Santorum Victim Speaks @11:55 AM
Nice interview with former Sen. Harris Wofford (D-PA), a good and decent man who was one of the casualties of the Democrats' failure to pass health care reform early in the Clinton administration. He's optimistic about its chances this time. 3
Shouty Congressman Enjoys Pretty Good Government-Run Health Care, Actually @10:35 AM
Speaking of Joe Wilson: "Military beneficiaries like Wilson─who, as a retiree, is eligible for lifetime coverage─never have to worry about an eye exam, a CT scan, a prolonged labor, or an open-heart surgery. They have access not only to the military's 133,500 uniformed health professionals, but cooperating private doctors as well─whose fees are paid by the Department of Defense. It's high-quality care, too: surveys from 2007 and 2008 list TRICARE among "the best health insurer(s) in the nation" by customer satisfaction. Yet Wilson insists government-run health care is a problem." You lie!
Related: Un-American Socialized Health Care Plan Pretty Popular With Vets 3
Sarah Palin Still Going On About The Death Panels @10:20 AM
While apparently declining to make a personal appearance, Sarah Palin has responded to the invitation to testify before a New York State Senate panel on health care by providing a written response, which she has helpfully posted to her Facebook page. A brief sample:
A great deal of attention was given to my use of the phrase "death panel" in discussing such rationing. Despite repeated attempts by many in the media to dismiss this phrase as a "myth", its accuracy has been vindicated. In the face of a nationwide public outcry, the Senate Finance Committee agreed to "drop end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly."
Sounds vindacatory to me! 10
Health Care Giggles Less Amusing On Reflection @9:48 AM
There are a couple of decent chuckles in this Thomas Haden Church video about health care. Nothing major. It's fine for what it is. Still, if you pause and think about how close the thing comes to reflecting certain aspects of the "debate" about reform, the intended absurdities seem not at all implausible. So who's the joke on, really? 0
Un-American Socialized Health Care Plan Pretty Popular With Vets @10:20 AM
This review of T.R. Reid's new The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care makes an interesting point: "The world offers at least two pure systems of 'socialized medicine,' the state-run variety that many Americans with private insurance assume they'd hate. Cuba has one. The other is run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency that cares for ex-military personnel and their dependents…." Reid notes that the VA plan is "enormously popular" with its insured, but it's probably much easier to shout about "death panels" and "pulling the plug on Grandma" than it is to actually look at the non-horrors of "socialized medicine." Maybe we could rebrand? 7
Don't Use Dead Kennedys To Pass Legislation, Say Compassionate Conservatives @10:50 AM
Republicans are outraged that Democrats may "inappropriately politicize" the death of Senator Ted Kennedy to advance the passage of health care reform. And they're right to be, because there is absolutely no precedent for using the tragic passing of a liberal hero as inspiration for action on legislation of which he was in favor. Except for that time in 1963 when President Johnson went to Capitol Hill and insisted that
no memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Bill for which he fought so long. We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for a hundred years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter, and to write it in the books of law. I urge you again, as I did in 19 and 57 and again in 19 and 60, to enact a civil rights law so that we can move forward to eliminate from this nation every trace of discrimination and oppression that is based upon race or color. There could be no greater source of strength to this nation both at home and abroad.
And all we got out of that was a Civil Rights Act. So not worth politicizing things over. 13
Republican Lies Now Almost Too Numerous To Keep Track Of @1:40 PM
There's some controversy about a recent "survey" sent out under the auspices of Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele which "asks" the following "question". READ MORE 13
How The Right Organizes: "We The People are going to fight this Health-Care from Hell tooth and nail!" @10:25 AM
Among the opponents of The Health Care Bill are people who don't like it, and people (companies) who will lose money because of it—and people who will make money because of those two groups. For instance! Over the weekend, a solicitation went out from one rage-marshaller, who will send faxes to the President and Congress for you, all for the low, low price of $57.76. Their remarkable solicitation follows. Don't feel like spending $57.76 for someone to allegedly send some form-faxes for you? "There will be some who are nothing more than a panty waste milquetoast looking forward to licking the Obama boots of servitude; I know you aren't one of them." There's a remarkable pastiche of political motivations in here; somehow the smallpox attack on "the Red race" and the suffragettes and the Mexicans are all wrapped up in this one. READ MORE 25
