PUBLIC OPTION: Option Roundup #1
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Rachel Maddow: Parable Of Pizza Order & Health Care Reform:
Video: Public Option under fire! from Chris The Truck Driver
Chris debunks public option myths by reading from the House bill itself
Woolsey, House liberals demand ‘public option’ health plan
Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies
The widow of a man who died of cancer is painting murals to promote health care reform
Credo Action Petition: The public option is not optional.
Support members of congress who took the pledge to support The Public Option
Roger Ebert: “Death Panels.” A most excellent term.
Public option in keeping with Founding Fathers
500 pages of health care myths debunked
Labor Warns Dems: We’ll Sit Out Election If You Oppose Public Plan
NYTimes: “If the White House and Democratic leaders decide to go it alone, and they may well have to, they should restore a robust public plan.”
Senator says he asked Obama to back off public insurance option (Grassley)
GOP overplaying their healthcare hand
Daily Show: Heal or No Heal – Medicine Brawl
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
The Daily Show clip bit with the college student made me think of something that I haven’t yet heard pointed out by supporters of health care reform. The student’s concern was how private insurance could possibly compete with a non-profit insurer which doesn’t have to pay taxes and so on. But the fact is, the people who most need the public option are people who either have no access to reasonably-priced for-profit insurance, or have been dropped by their for-profit insurer due to pre-existing conditions or “excessive” claims. For-profit insurers have made it clear they don’t want to cover people in those categories anyway. So, how can industry execs and conservatives legitimately complain that a public option would have an unfair competitive advantage?
Sweet Jesus Oliver, I’m sure you’ve probably seen this by now since all the top America hating blogs are covering it, but this video of Barney Frank treating an Obama=Hitler teabagger bimbo with precisely the amount of respect she deserves is truly a wonder to behold.
As I’ve commented over at digby’s and thinkprogress, I am definitely going to have to strip the audio from that clip and turn it into an MP3 to keep in my iPod, to listen to whenever I need a smile!
LOL, Rheinhard, that clip is great. “Having a discussion with you is like talking to a dining room table.” I loves me some Barney.
My favorite bit was this exchange (paraphrased):
Questioner: Why has Obama raised our taxes ?
Frank: *Really* ? Which taxes are those ?
Wingnuts in crowd (shouted): STATE TAXES, STATE TAXES!
Frank: (sigh)
Hours of fun.
Seriously though, Obama needs Barney out doing these every day. I watched one of Specter’s town halls and it was just depressing. He would only answer the sane bits of the wingnuts’ questions and just leave the “Obama=Hitler” bits hanging.
Do you think your taxes won’t go up, Pete?
Premiums have gone up over 80 percent since 2002 and con trolls are worried about multi millionaires taxes going up
News flash: Number of Democrats in the House who have publicly admitted that the “Public Option” will not be an option, but a mandate, has risen to two:
Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY)
Representative Barney Frank (D-MA)
Both have publicly stated that the “public option” is merely a step towards the elimination of private health insurance entirely.
So much for “if you like your plan, you can keep it.”
J.
Mine won’t. But I’m from godless Jesus-hating Europe where we go in for this whole “help the poor” thing.
Jay Tea,
Link? Or you just making this bit up? Poor inference?
Pete, hope you don’t smoke.
Sorry, White… figured it would be all over the place, didn’t think I needed links.
Weiner on Scarborough on MSNBC yesterday:
Frank, July 27, 2009:
“I think, if we get a good public option, it could lead to single-payer, and that’s the best way to reach single-payer.”
Here’s a compilation of Democrats supporting “single payer:”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndStT6c93rc
Senator Russ Feingold, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, columnist Paul Krugman, Representative Barney Frank, blogger Ezra Klein, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Representative Jan Schakowsky all making it clear that they don’t see “if you like your current coverage, you can keep it” happening.
J.
Single payer is where we should be. It’s where we’re going to be eventually, over the diaper-shitting hysterics of the GOP.
Farris:
I do actually.
“The largest-ever single increase in US federal taxes on cigarettes has taken effect, almost tripling the tax on a packet to more than $1.”
Ooh it’s just like Nazi Germany.
You don’t have much to complain about there IMO. Current tax on a pack in the UK: 76%
Both have publicly stated that the “public option” is merely a step towards the elimination of private health insurance entirely.
Good. Best idea I’ve heard all day.
So you have no problem with Obama lying through his teeth?
Of course he doesn’t, Dennis. He lies himself, so he has no problem granting absolution to his hero doing the same.
And ain’t it mighty generous of him to ram this system down our throats while he exempts himself from it by being on the other side of the world?
J.
Ooh it’s just like Nazi Germany.
Uhhh…
Farris, you’re evil.
J.
Wel, well, well. Looks like Axelrod’s got his cotton-pickin hands in the cotton-pickin cookie jar.
Obama Campaign Ad Firms Signed On to Push Health-Care Overhaul
Wonder how this goes over with the Halliburton truthers.
Wonder how this goes over with the Halliburton truthers.
Oh nOes! A private ad agency being hired by teh gubnit! Who would do such a thing?
And ain’t it mighty generous of him to ram this system down our throats while he exempts himself from it by being on the other side of the world?
How much do you know about S. Korean health care, JT?
Only that I’m not paying for it, Parthenon… so I have no comment.
What the South Koreans want to do is their business. It’s pretty much irrelevant to me.
PD, you seem to need a smidgen of help here.
Obama cuts secret deal with Big Pharma.
As part of deal, Big Pharma gives a bunch of money to Axelrod’s former company.
Axelrod is still getting money from said former company.
(Said company, oddly enough, pretty much “invented” contemporary political astroturfing.)
So, in essence, Obama’s secret deal is putting big bucks into the pockets of one of his top aides.
Nope, nothing to see here…
J.
“Oh nOes! A private ad agency being hired by teh gubnit! Who would do such a thing?
Socialism is great when it’s going THEIR way, isn’t it?
“The student’s concern was how private insurance could possibly compete with a non-profit insurer which doesn’t have to pay taxes and so on”
Private insurance already uses public money every time they right off their expenses, real and imaginary. I wouldn’t be surprized if their profit margin is directly proportional to their tax right offs. Scum.
0h NOES! Ferris has discovered our liberal fascist secrets!! We cannot allow our Nazi tobacco tax to be compromised. He must be eliminated, call the Daily Kos orange shirts on him, and take away his guns, too!
It’s disturbing to find that anyone thinks swallowing and re-vomiting Jonah Goldberg’s putrescence makes him look smart, even SF..
And ain’t it mighty generous of him to ram this system down our throats
You rammed your precious little war down our throats. Again, turnabout is fair play.
You rammed your precious little war down our throats.
How’d that war work out, anyway? I forget.
And how’d health care work out in Canada, UK, France, et alia? Do the people in those places seem to like it? Do they spend more or less than the U.S.? Someone should investigate.
“The student’s concern was how private insurance could possibly compete with a non-profit insurer which doesn’t have to pay taxes and so on”
As previously noted, the student may wish to look into the USPS vis a vis FedEx and UPS. Just a suggestion.
Oh, I’m just old enough to remember that mess. The public was SO upset at how FedEx and UPS handled things, they demanded a public alternative — and thus was born the USPS.
Oh, that’s right — it wasn’t that. It was people Fed-Up (that there’s a pun, kiddies) with the USPS that they started competitors that offered people what the USPS couldn’t be bothered to do (including responsive customer service). Pity that won’t be legal under single-payer.
J.