From Think Progress: CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of it? […] LIMBAUGH: My guess in even in Canada and even in the UK, … Read More
Palin Slips Up And Gives Kudos To Canadian Health Care
Oops. Sarah gave a little talky-talk and something slipped out: The vocal opponent of health care reform in the U.S. steered largely clear of the topic except to reveal a tidbit about her life growing up not far from Whitehorse. "We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," she said. "And I think now, … Read More
Bad Analogy Of The Month
The Managing Editor of World Nut Net Daily, David Kupelian, has some thoughts about health care reform: The spectacle of a far leftist president literally forcing socialized medicine down the throat of an unwilling center-right America is….. I love how idiots use the word "literally" when they literally mean "figuratively". But let's back up and start again…. The spectacle of a far … Read More
Congress Rules!
I hate all the gibberish about parliamentary proceedings, but I think it comes down to this: If the minority party can use the filibuster to do an end-run around the majority-wins rules of Congress, then the majority party is well within its rights to do an end-run around the filibuster by using "reconcilliation". That's it. That's all I have to say. … Read More
Health Care Summit Wrapup
The news much of the and blogosphere seems interested in scoring the summit, as if it were a "debate" (I've seen actual news outlets refer to it as a debate, which it wasn't). I have no interest in that. It wasn't about scoring political points. To the extent that someone did, that's nice, but who cares? [UPDATE: To its credit, … Read More
The Heath Care Summit: The First Point Of Contention
Part of the problem with getting health care reform done, is that both sides are arguing from a different set of facts, rather than opposing policy. This, of course, shouldn't be: facts are facts. Watch this disagreement between President Obama and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) on the issue of whether health care premiums would go up under the Senate Dems' … Read More
The White House Health Care Summit
I'm not sure what the point of it is. Ostensibly, the point is for the two parties to get together on national television for six hours and hammer out some concrete proposals for reforming health care in this country. Early reports indicate that the Republicans are coming to the table with "No. No. No. No. No. Let's scrap everything and start … Read More
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) Gets In Trouble For Telling The Truth
This rocked the House yesterday, and this video is No. 4 on Youtube: For those who don't have video, here's Firedoglake's description of the event: Anthony Weiner just made a fiery speech in the middle of the House debate on repealing the insurance industry’s anti-trust exemption. Angered by a motion to recommit, he lashed out, saying “the Republican Party is … Read More
Democratic Attempts To Reform Health Care Are Pretty Much Like Republican’s Plans From The Past
This chart, shameless lifted from Kaisir Health News, shows rather dramatically how conservativism of the Republicans have taken hold over the past 15 years. Seventeen years ago, Republican Senator John Chaffee (R-RI), a moderate (now deceased), proposed a health care bill. In many ways, it is very similar to the Senate Bill passed last December (which in itself is very similar … Read More
White House Shame Of Non-Existent GOP Health Care Plan Continues
More like this, please, posted on the White House website (emphasis is mine): The President believes strongly that Thursday’s bipartisan meeting on health insurance reform will be most productive if both sides come to the table with a unified plan to start discussion – and if the public has the opportunity to inspect those proposals up close before the meeting happens. … Read More
ObamaCare
For about a year now, teabaggers and GOp operatives have been lamenting “ObamaCare”. Either out of ignorance or dishonesty, the right’s use of the phrase “ObamaCare” is, quite simply, wrong. Obama has never put forward a health care plan. He’s left it to Congress. And that turned out to be a waste of time, as the GOP repeatedly called for … Read More
Does Putting Your Bra Color On Facebook Really Increase Awareness of Breast Cancer?
Some say no: To be sure, it's been fun to share a cyber-laugh with girlfriends; after a day or so of the Facebook bra color campaign, it started to get silly: One of my favorite status updates was "commando," and my aunt told me a friend of hers who recently had a baby updated her status with the quip "soaked … Read More
Cost/Benefit Of Health Care
Rush thinks American health care is boffo, but a great graphic making the rounds lately (one originating from National Geographic) says otherwise. Give it a couple minutes of your time — it plots U.S. health care versus the health care of other nations. Here's all you need to know: the left side is the cost of health care per person for … Read More
Rush Unwittingly Praises Socialist Health Care
Rush Limbaugh thought he was being so000 clever, utzing it to the left. Rush took some time out from his near-heart attack recovery to ooze his considerable mass in front of a microphone at the hospital in Hawaii where he recuperated. He wanted to tout how the experience showed him what he already know — how great the American health … Read More
Look At This, Joe Lieberman
Jackie Kelly, 61, with cancer: Kelly was a stay-at-home mother who raised her six children and went on to help raise her grandchildren, while her husband John worked as a truck driver for 50 years. When John Kelly, 68, retired he was able to go on Medicare, but Kelly was not old enough. With no private insurance, the couple was also … Read More