Wonkette
- FOR THOSE MOURNING THE DEATH OF THE PUBLIC OPTION: Here, read this thing by our old flame Nate Silver, who basically argues that the fate of a public competitor to private insurance was always pretty precarious. At any rate the poor old public option is probably not worth saving at this point, lest we throw out the proverbial baby with “half a loaf” of bath water. Nate Silver has turned into a pragmatist sellout just like his old man (Barack Obama). [FiveThirtyEight]
While I guess the general chatter is what is really driving the “public option is dead” thing, after reading the comments from the White House these articles cite, I can’t help but feel they’re not saying anything they haven’t said before. They’ve always said they want a public option and they think it’s the right thing, but they can envision a health care bill without it. And they seem to be saying now that… they want a public option and they think it’s the right thing, but they can envision a health care bill without it.
The blame for this goes to that ass Baucus. He is owned by the insurance industry, and I am sick and tired of Barry treating him with a respect he did not earn. He looked very small in that town hall and I would bet anything that after this colossal failure Baucus will not run again.
Well, the good thing now is since Obama and the other Democrats have all caved in to the Republicans even though they didn’t even need their votes this time, I’m sure the Republicans will all be very grateful and enthusiastically join in now and vote for health care reform.
Dateline: 2020: Democrats, who after the last election now hold 99.9% of both House and Senate seats, today announced that their recent initiative was dead in the water. “We don’t have the votes” they explained……
Nate Silver must produce his Long Form Birth Certificate for inspection immediately.
Nate is Obama’s kid? Could this finally be . . . the white girlfriend scandal we’ve all been waiting for?
I can haz won way tiket to Norway, plz?
Nate is Obama’s kid? Could this finally be the white-girlfriend story we’ve all been waiting for?
Blue Dog Democrats=Turncoat Democrats. And why? Because their constituents can’t get over having someone who looks like Bill Huxtable as President.
jodyleek: me too, plz.
Probably the Dems are secretely relieved they will have an excuse for this pending failure; they can appear to be progressives and not oppose the insurance industry at the same time. Too bad we can’t have two systems at the same time; let all those who oppose the public option not participate in it and not pay for it. (And don’t force them to have abortions, either.) But they, when they can’t afford their precious choice, let them do without health care. Die, suckers.
I heard Howard Dean on morningjoe this morning say it doesn’t matter. Senate will take the public option out just to get it passed and then when it comes back to the full committee, the house will put it back in and then it will pass as it will need less votes or something (or something like that). So there you repug bastards…stick it.
The real reason for pulling the plug on the public option is that it would mortally wound the black market organ business. Remember, if you wake up in a bathtub full of ice and you have an organ missing, you’ve probably been a victim of the black market organ business.
takes12no1: Please let this be true. If so, that would allow the middle-of-the-roaders in the Senate to hide, but not so much so for the Blue Dogs in the House. Perhaps that is where Rahmbo comes in? With his expletives at the ready?
I guess I need to marry my girlfriend now, since her Medicare will be going away.
So long as the road to health care reform is controlled by Senators like Baucus and Conrad from two abandoned states whose territory is mainly used to host electrical transmission lines (kind of like America’s Kazakhstan) and who rely on corporate money for sustenance (even though they have no competitors as no other people actually live in the states they represent), I don’t know what we can rightly expect.
Phew. This will be peace of mind to the town hollers. Probably.
Roger the Shrubber: Yeah, that story made me gladder than ever not to live in the Middle East or New Jersey.
If progressive Dems in congress and the prez had fought tooth & nail for single-payer, they may have gotten a strong public option as a compromise. Now, the best we can hope for is a weak public option - which might be worse than no public option at all.
It might be fun to see a challenge to Obama for the Dem nomination in 2012. Dean would probably have the best shot at it.
I read over the weekend that talk of dropping the public option was some Hopey headfake ninjitsu to get the Repubs to admit that they won’t support the bill anyway. When that happens, the administration will pivot, a miracle will happen, and we’ll all have single payer.
Plz librul wackjobs killz any bill without po. kthxbi.
public option is as holey as swiss cheese. so tasty.
takes12no1:
I get nervous at any explanations that include “Oh and here, a miracle occurs” as part of the equation.
WadISay: Owe me a coke on the miracle thing.
WadISay: I want to believe this, that the pressure to vote earlier, etc. has been a move to flush out wingnut intentions. And it’s in keeping with Hopey/Rahmbo Chicago politics. And the mostly southern nutters who were mostly ignored during the campaign wouldn’t be so familiar with these tactics… Genie, please grant me this wish. Mr. Preznit, pivot and dish to Worthy for the slam.
Instead maybe we can have a Dutch-style system? And by that I mean legal high-grade weed.
The public option was always the final bargaining chip, something to give up that was worth much in the first place. The currently house tri-committee bill would only give 20% of the population access to it anyways via the health exchange and with none of the benefits of a government run program (it would basically be just another non-profit in the mix, legislated to have no special privileges).
Unfortunately, a large group of clueless people (including Howard Dean, who should know better) have designated the public option as “the bill”. So great, we’ll get a pretty good bill through, with the Republicans claiming victory even though none of them will vote for it.
Barry White Zombie:
Instead maybe we can have a Dutch-style system?
You mean where women pay for everything?
Sorry, that’s a dated reference, I know, I know.
Go complain on your Daily Kos and your Atrios (whoever the fuck that is), make your stupid demands that the president embrace a controversial, complicated scheme and for God’s sake don’t bother building consensus for it. Go write long essays about governance and post them on your stupid blog. I hate being a Democrat.
WadISay: Yeah, I hear that every time Obama caves into the Right. “It’s a strategic maneuver! He has a Plan!”
Barry is going to sell us into slavery at health insurance companies…turn about is a bitch
elburrito:
No thanks I think I’ll just stay here in France and enjoy the universal coverage that works brilliantly for everyone, despite whatever bullshit you’ve heard about single-payer public care being too complicated and unworkable and all the rest of it.
On a positive note, I just heard Rep. Keith “the Moselem” Ellison (D-Minneapolis) say that he won’t vote for a plan that doesn’t have a public option. That guy is all right.
WadISay: and flowers and fairies and free marijuana for everybody!
If I can’t see it, it never happened. Proceeding to poke out my own eyes in 3..2..
We still get the Death Panels though, right?
I was driving through my small, Massachusetts town yesterday, and saw two women standing at our major intersection holding signs that said “Honk if you support a public option!” and such. It cheered me to see someone take the time to make such a small, futile gesture.
Are the polls that suggest 70% support a public option accurate? Recent? How can our fucking elected officials then get away with not representing the wishes of the people? How can we not sit here and be disgusted by the obvious; that all the people are owned by the insurance industry?
It seems to me, this bill, without the public plan is useless because it will not help costs at all.
If the Democrats fuck this up (too), I am honestly going be very hesitant about pulling that lever for them for a long, long time.
Naked Bunny with a Whip: He’s only the sole owner of the goddamn House and Senate. Jesus… this is NOT “Change I can believe in!”
SmutBoffin: Only in effigy. And they must be in-network before you ceremonially burn them.
glamourdammerung: Is that what you kids are calling it these days….
Uncertainty Vice-Principal: Well, there is that strange feeling of being screwed, yet still remaining unsatisfied.
Am I the only one who thinks this “THE PUBLIC OPTION IS DEAD” bullshit is nothing more than Villager wank material?
4tehlulz: I am hoping that is the case. However, all this bending over backwards for the Republicans that do not vote for the bills anyway tastes like Clinton’s “triangulation” failure.
aleks: I’ve heard that somewhere before. I’m not sure where.
So wait, Nate Silver is Kenyan?
See, the best part is that all associated wingnuts will now grudgingly admit that Obama is more like a lovable dark-skinned uncle than the alien master of the worldwide thought-police.
Am I right? Hello?
4tehlulz: Well, some of it looks like overblown interpretation of meaingless comments, but Sibelius did say something pretty obviously significant, you can tell because the WH actually felt the need to “she misspoke” her.
So we’ve either got the cleverest and toughest politician in a generation and his famously disciplinarian tight-ship Chief of Staff losing control of message discipline entirely, or it’s all a cunning plan. To get the Republicans to show their stripes and/or rile up the progressive base to kick some Birthbagger butt. Rhetorically, that is.
Wait, so does this mean the death panels to kill grandma are out too? But… without them, how will Barry fix the unemployment rates?
glamourdammerung: I hear you… but the thing is, what other options are there? Would you really rather have gramps “five and a half years!” walnuts… or stall-tap Craig… or “hey it’s just my satellite office in Argentina, I mean the Appalachian Trail” Sanford… or the diaper monster himself (or demon-hunter Jindal or pretty much anyone from Louisiana)?
Abandoning the public option will be like tossing into the water chum made up of diced Mexican illegals. It will only encourage the crazies to bring their grandmothers corpses followed by a marching band to the next town hall meeting.
Next concessions by the whimp-o-crats:
Labor Day
The socialist Centers for Disease Control
The nanny-state Air Traffic Control System
Labor Day will never go away now. It is the biggest “get your Natty Light drink on!” weekend of the entire year, because it has no other devotion attached to it, other than a big fat day off. No memorials, no family fireworks, no Mallharp greeting cards… just several cases of beer as the best way to burn the last summer staycation day.
How long until we have Roman Coliseum style fights to the death to get health care? The insurance company executives sit in the box seats and give a thumbs up or thumbs down to decide if you get the treatment you need.
That’s death panels we can believe in!
S.Luggo: Oh, you were there? I swear the really old lady with the t-shirt 3 sizes too large was a corpse. I chatted with the tuba player, some major arm twisting took place to get those kids to give up a day of fishing on the mesa. It is so much fun to play outdoors in howling wind with dust and pea gravel stinging you in the eyes. I was the old guy in the straw hat just hoping that one of those crazies would throw the first punch.
But, how cool was it to see AF1 float down past the cliffs and Mt. Garfield?
grendel: Have you ever dealt with Blue Cross? A Coliseum battle would be a refreshing change.
I thought this was the whole point to have public option and to cut costs.
This country doesn’t deserve health care reform. It’s sad that something so good for the country is being killed by a bunch of misinformed rednecks and corporate shills.
Roger3815: What country have you been living in? At least we made the misinformed rednecks and corporate shills move out of the White House.
“Sunday Morning” had a segment on yesterday about French health care system which left me weeping. So simple, so elegant, so profoundly doable. So of course, not for us. Hell, the practioners can only make between $50,000 to $100,000. That is not the amurkan way. The info, the models, are out there, and as usual the uninformed prefer their fear-based resistance.
I will go along with dropping the public option, but only if all the town hall crazies screaming about ‘Socialism’, are immediately removed from the medicare and social security programs.
geminisunmars: So simple, so elegant, so profoundly doable.
Ah yes — the one that got away.
And while I hope the public option stays in, I’m also okay with half a loaf first — remember, this is what Clinton ended up doing when he couldn’t get the whole programs he wanted. It’s a foot in the door that could be improved later. Uh, by the same legislative process that got us the original disappointing mountain of crap, but disregard that for now.
So why even bother at this point? I guess democrats are happy as long as they keep the option to have their genitalia– balls, ovaries, et al– remove at an affordable cost by the insurance companies, republicans, and their dino lackeys that they will be happy.
kapish: I was thinking the same thing, so this can’t be good for my favorite prez.
SayItWithWookies: I so hope you are right. I still remember the crashing disappointment when Clinton didn’t get health care through - that one that got away.
I just added the White House, my two useless senators, and my awful representative to my cell phone contacts. What kind of profane epithets should I hurl at their answering machines / receptionists? I’m taking requests.
SayItWithWookies: no public option? then lets have a co-op, but make it a NATIONAL Co-op. A rose by any other name will smell as sweet…
Roger3815: The deal struck with the pharma industry that allowed drug companies to cap the total cost they would have to absorb as a result of pending health care reform did substantially reduce the savings potential for the such reform.
The nutty part is that opponents to reform like to use this fact as proof that the reform would be too costly to implement. They are effectively saying Obamacare would be too crazy-ass expensive to implement because we can’t bear to deprive Pharma from its God-given right to profiteer.
geminisunmars:
I live in France no one, no one, in the US as far as I can tell actually knows the first thing about health care here. That documentary probably gave you a pretty good idea, and I thought Sicko did also, but oddly people seem to still think that’s some sort of exaggeration or well, you know Michael Moore, he sensationalizes things so it’s probably not THAT good or etc etc.
Yeah, in fact it is. And it costs them far less per capita. Oh and by the way, practitioners can make as much as they can manage, if they’re not working only for the public service. I go to specialists who are high priced, by local standards, and there’s private insurance to supplement exactly that, choosing fancier doctors if you want. It’s win-win, if you ask me, the best of all worlds combined.
Uncertainty Vice-Principal: bully for you, how nice is it to be in the best health care system in the whole world?
France : we’re number 1!!1!!1!!!1!1
uck
Redhead: Yes. Apparently, Americans want to hurt more, so let’s let the pain get real bad.
More “five and a half years!” shoutin’, stall-tapin’, Appalachian Trail walkin’, diaper wearin’, gun slingin’, creation teachin’ stupidity please. If the last eight years of shit got us a (half) black president, imagine what more of the same can bring.
I can’t believe that the bill will pass without a public option. Just on muscle-flexing principle now. Obama will have thrown water on the enthusiasm of his base if he can’t get the po in the bill. What good are 60 senators and control of the house if they won’t vote for the prez’s initiatives? How about the blue dogs not fillibuster and vote no, we could still probably pass anything we wanted. Not being able to pass a bill means the blue dogs will vote with the republicans. How can they get away with that in 2010? Really, I don’t understand that. Would someone please explain why the blue dogs have power now?
Redhead: The problem I have is that it seems a lot like we did end up in the same boat we would have if McCain had won because the Democratic leadership keeps bending over backwards to play nice with a lunatic fringe.
Perhaps I should post this on Kos instead, but does the bill (public option or no) mean the end of “open enrollment” as the only way to get added to someone’s insurance? Because I will refrain from damning Obama and the Congressional pussies to hell if it does, since missing that window made my dear departed dad wait nearly a year to get on mom’s insurance, and get needed surgery, contributing to his being, well, departed now. So yay public option but I’d rather have small improvements than blow the whole shit up.
Is it really selling out, if no one pays anything for it?
Uncertainty Vice-Principal: Thanks for broadening the picture. Sounds way too sane, wouldn’t want to implement something like that here.
I watched MTP Sunday morning and it made me very sad. They sat Rachel Maddow right next to Dick(head) Armey. All the reasoned, researched, and well-articulated arguments for a public option and/or against for-profit healthcare will ALWAYS be trumped by confidently espoused BULLSHIT talking points written by healthcare lobbyists. The money shot of our Endless Cummer will be an angry white stream from healthcare executives into the faces of the progressive electorate.
The House is not in session and the Senate is in neutral, so none of this is actually happening except in the minds of the talking heads.
Write your fucking congresscritters instead of just bitching here and on Marko’s choir site.
Moving back to my adopted homeland of Vancooooooouver, B(urnin’) C(ronik), Canuckastan if this shit doesn’t straighten out.
(Google Ben Folds “All U Can Eat” and go get on the microphone at WalMart™, too)
Off soapbox for the day…
Scott-san: Other names considered (thx to V-D Jim Ward):
Peter CoastGuard
WeeWee Samuri
Penis Marine
Johnson Navy
got a million here…
MGBYG: close tags, close tags, close tags, close tags…
The worst thing about all this is drudge’s page right now.
This depresses me too much to be snarky just yet. Give me ten minutes.
US News had a piece today about healthcare reverting back to a barter economy today, since nobody can afford to pay for it anymore. So after the inevitable the collapse, will Republican pundits offer to trade vitriol for treatment? A couple hundred inflammatory words for a pill? Five minutes of talk radio for a prescription?
Dear America,
What is wrong with you people?
-Canada
“Half a Loaf of Kung Fu” was some of Jackie Chan’s best work