Morning Widdershins: Chuck Says, Don’t Give Up
Posted by: madamab on: September 30, 2009
Would You Buy Health Insurance from This Man?
Well, this is interesting. I got this email from Senator Chuck Schumer after the Senate Finance Committee rejected the public option yesterday.
Dear XXXXX,
I wanted to give you quick update about our work to pass a public health care option.
My amendment to add a public option to the Senate Finance Committee bill came up just two votes short of being adopted by the full committee this afternoon.
This is unfortunate news but not a surprise. Remember, the Senate Finance Committee is more conservative than the Senate as a whole. And 4 out of 5 Congressional committees with jurisdiction over health care reform have passed a public option.
This is the opening day of our fight, and I will continue to work to improve the health care reform bill as we take the legislation to the Senate floor.
The more the people hear the facts about the public option, the more they support our efforts. We must continue to work together and speak out. If we continue to fight, I am confident we will pass health care reform with a robust public option.
Sincerely,
What do you think? Is Chuck telling the truth, or is he just blowing smoke?
This is an open thread.
74 Responses to "Morning Widdershins: Chuck Says, Don’t Give Up"
September 30, 2009 at 9:57 AM
Yes, unlike Pat Buchanan’s silent majority, we actually are the majority!
Although I still think Medicare For All is the best way to go. This public option thing scares me. It has the potential to be so watered down as to be completely pointless.
September 30, 2009 at 10:26 AM
I have been having a hard time keeping up with the specifications of the various public options. Does anyone know of any materials that lays out the basics of Schumer’s? The media seems more obsessed with covering the horse race aspect of the whole debate, rather than the specifics. And various pro-public option blogs are mostly big on whipping and short on specifics as well.
I think a bad public option will be worse than nothing. There’s so much strurm and drang, yet everything I’ve seen so far seems to indicate that even if there IS a public option in the final legislation, it will be pretty much a Pyrrhic victory (er, pls excuse mixed metaphors).
September 30, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Valhalla – I think there is a good summation on the last thread. Fredster found it.
His proposal is not as liberal as Rockefeller’s – Rockefeller wants to tie the public option pricing to Medicare pricing. The problem that I see with that is that there is no way to keep that pricing affordable without a huge amount of people buying into the public option…which would be why Medicare for All is so much better.
September 30, 2009 at 11:02 AM
This public option thing scares me.
**********
It’s crap; it’s a political fraud
“HR 3200’s “public option” will not resemble Medicare”
http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/09/13/sullivan-publicoptionin3200unlikemedicare/
September 30, 2009 at 11:16 AM
It’s crap patr deux:
“There is very little difference between the co-ops and the “public option”
My theory: When Obama had the multiple White House meeting with the Insurance CEOs they agreed on the final plan back in Feb. March. The insurance company got 95% of everything that they wanted,
(Health Insurance Reform follows the outline of the Insuranace Industry reform plan from 2006) they could care less about the Public Option. But with Obama “for” it, sorta, and the “progressives”
fighting over a worthless concept and the Insurance companies “fighting against” it; it’s all political cover.
You can watch the dynamics on faux “lefty” blogs. The Republicans and Blue Dogs (evil)are preventing us for getting the health care that we want, they oppose the Public Option. Obama and the
congressional progressive are fighting for us; good vs. evil…perfect political showmanship..except that it’s all a fraud.
Who is speaking out for “Medicare for All”….but….but it couldn’t pass….So we get a massive piece of Corporate Welfare and people who are un or under insured will be no better or worse off.
September 30, 2009 at 11:24 AM
As you said, SHV, if Obama wanted Medicare for All, we’d have it. And no amount of RW posturing would make a difference. How could it? He has the majority in the House and the Senate. The Republicans should be irrelevant right now.
Unfortunately, Obama would rather hang with the Reaganites than with the base of his Party. Thus, the Repubs are back in business.
September 30, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Unfortunately, Obama would rather hang with the Reaganites than with the base of his Party
*********
I don’t think that Obama has a political philosophy or agenda. It’s all about him. Health Care Reform was/is to be the “center-piece” of his first term. As a side benefit, the Clintons couldn’t get it done so if he signs a law containing the words “Health” and “Reform” it’s a huge win for him, personally. I also don’t think that he is a “stooge” for corporations, as he learned as part of the Illinois consortium, “it’s one hand washes the other”.
Obama and/or his Health Czar, Nancy-Ann DeParle, looked at where the major opposition to Hillary-care came from and then co-opted them early in the process. He has Pharma, Hospital Associations and the AMA actively supporting Health Insurance Reform and contributing >$150 million in ad money. The Insurance Industry is supporting it by not opposing it, except pro-forma. The Dem leadership is obviously also on board with this farce. If this passes and becomes law, it will mean trillions of dollars of increased revenues for the Health Industry and only about, IIRC, 250 million for the AMA.
September 30, 2009 at 1:28 PM
Seems now the public option is at Obama’s mercy
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/public-option-the-ball-is-in-obamas-court/
September 30, 2009 at 1:34 PM
Sorry, SHV, I think he is ideological. I think he is 100% Reaganite, with a dash of fundie thrown in. Yes, he is a narcissist, but that is why he believes what he believes.
Obama explained exactly where he was coming from, ideologically, and he has stuck with that 100%. Nothing he has done has surprised me one bit, except perhaps the strength of his commitment to his beliefs and his willingness to give his most ardent followers the finger in order to win favor with his rightwing enablers.
As he said to his cheerleaders, “I haven’t changed. You just haven’t been paying attention.”
September 30, 2009 at 1:36 PM
You know how I mentioned the funding mechanisms for how the Congress pays for its health insurance premiums? This is how they do it. Notice: not cuts or anything for them or their budget.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090930/pl_politico/27732
September 30, 2009 at 1:40 PM
And unlike social security, Congresscritters will get their full raises.
September 30, 2009 at 1:44 PM
madamab for our sakes I hope he is commited to the public opption!
September 30, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Oy vey, Fredster!
I still think Fuzzy’s and my ideas are the best for them: make Obama and the Congresscritters take our crappy private insurance, and we the people will take THEIR insurance for a year.
MB HAKA
September 30, 2009 at 1:49 PM
OMG – Fuzzy, I must be psychically connected to you!
No, he is not committed to the public option. He is committed to throwing as much money at his corporate partners as humanly possible!
September 30, 2009 at 1:53 PM
“I haven’t changed. You just haven’t been paying attention.”
*********
Good point…One of the few times that he told the truth. It seems to happen when he is challenged or irritated.
September 30, 2009 at 1:54 PM
OT – looks like Obama is calling in the big guns to give him a clue on Afghanistan.
Biden, Clinton, Gates, McChrystal, Panetta, Holbrooke—all of the players in war strategy are meeting with Obama to talk Afghanistan and Pakistan for three hours in the Situation Room. But, Stephen Holmes argues, Gen. Stanley McChrystal doesn’t have a strategy for Afghanistan.
Come on, Hillary, you know what to do…declare victory and get the f*ck out!
September 30, 2009 at 1:54 PM
Chat I don’t understand this part:
It also said that the 5.5 percent increase that will go in part to increasing aides’ salaries was derived from cost-of-living-adjustment projections.
If they are using the C.P.I., then there should be no raise for congress critters, their staffs, or federal employees. I thought they, like Social Security, were all governed by that.
Thank goodness the momster will be okay. Although she won’t get a cola, because there’s the thing where medicare part a or b is tied in, she won’t lose anything either. She doesn’t participate in part D which will be going up in cost.
September 30, 2009 at 1:57 PM
SHV:
Good point…One of the few times that he told the truth. It seems to happen when he is challenged or irritated.
Ha! Just like Bush!
September 30, 2009 at 1:57 PM
Do congresscritters pay their aides out-of-pocket? If so, it may make sense. However, as you say, if we are all tied to the CPI, they should stand pat with those of us on SS. Yes, Part D will go up again, and I will find a way to fork out even more money. I am only on 1 generic rx, so for me, D is a necessity.
September 30, 2009 at 2:03 PM
Hahahaha! Alan Grayson (D-FL) who represnts the area around Orlando said in the House this morning (backed up with posters) that the Republican health plan consists of “Don’t get sick” and if you do, “Die quickly”. They are now threatening to introduce a resplution of censure. Go, Alan, go!
September 30, 2009 at 2:03 PM
Hey everybody – check this out:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=15835526
Don’t we wish (sigh)
September 30, 2009 at 2:05 PM
Chat: the congresscritters get a budget for to run their offices but I’m not sure if that includes staff salaries or not. I would think it would, but who knows with these folks?
September 30, 2009 at 2:09 PM
Hahahaha! Alan Grayson (D-FL) who represnts the area around Orlando said in the House this morning (backed up with posters) that the Republican health plan consists of “Don’t get sick” and if you do, “Die quickly”. They are now threatening to introduce a resplution of censure. Go, Alan, go!
I love it, Chatblu!
It’s amazing to me that the Democrats are letting the Repubs get away with not having any health reform plan AT ALL. That fact alone should disqualify them from being taken at all seriously.
Sigh. In a sane world…
September 30, 2009 at 2:09 PM
chatblu said
September 30, 2009 at 2:03 PM
Hahahaha! Alan Grayson (D-FL) who represnts the area around Orlando said in the House this morning (backed up with posters) that the Republican health plan consists of “Don’t get sick” and if you do, “Die quickly”. They are now threatening to introduce a resplution of censure. Go, Alan, go!
Eh, they don’t have the votes for it, if it’s only the Repubs who want it done. I think it’s funny as hell!
September 30, 2009 at 2:27 PM
It’s amazing to me that the Democrats are letting the Repubs get away with not having any health reform plan AT ALL. That fact alone should disqualify them from being taken at all seriously.
Oh MB! They have one, they have one! It just hasn’t gotten a lot of publicity (apparently not even from them) because there’s just not much there.
September 30, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Hi, Widdershins! I’m trying to get caught up after a move from the East Coast to the West Coast. I’m glad that you are all following this so closely and doing your best to tease out the truth behind the various proposals. I agree that Obama just wants his name attached to some sort of health care reform so that he can take credit and one-up the Clintons. What a petty man.
Fredster, that link to Madame President was delightful. Her joke sure got a lot of applause.
September 30, 2009 at 2:46 PM
Jules-those folks at the U.N. sure liked that line didn’t they? 
September 30, 2009 at 2:56 PM
Oh you gotta read this. It’s about the extras the congress critters get in their little “clinic” at Capitol Hill.
h/t to Susie at Suburban Guerrilla:
http://susiemadrak.com/2009/09/30/13/45/government-healthcare-for-me-but-not-for-thee/
September 30, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Fredster, bet those UN people were thinking “If only….”
Did I read that link right — Congresspeople just pay approx. $500/year to be able to use that facility? That’s unbelievable.
September 30, 2009 at 3:09 PM
Jules you read right and the article said some don’t even **pay** that amount; the cheapskates. I wish they’d make the list public.
Hell, when I worked for the Feds, we had a nurse at the agency but usually the most we got was our annual flu shots for free.
September 30, 2009 at 3:34 PM
That’s a sound employment practice. It’s more cost-effective to immunize your employees than it is to cover their sick time.
September 30, 2009 at 3:43 PM
Oh I agree Chat (you mean the flu shots?). And most fed offices will find some $$$s to offer the shots to the employees.
September 30, 2009 at 3:47 PM
Hi Jules! Good to see you.
I so wish I could see that video but am at work…kinda swamped after my long High Holy Days Hiatus.
BBL…
September 30, 2009 at 3:53 PM
It’s amazing to me that the Democrats are letting the Repubs get away with not having any health reform plan AT ALL.
*********
Obama’s “Health Insurance Reform” is the Republican plan. The issue for the Republican, however, is not health reform but a major legislative defeat for Obama. Unfortunately the Dem leaderhship has bought into the Republican game and so have the faux-gressives. The win for Bambi is the goal.Tthe whole White House and Dem leadership strategy has been and is to pass a “health” law; period.
September 30, 2009 at 4:16 PM
Isn’t that what it’s all come down to? The Repubs want only to defeat Obama, and the Dems want a picture of him signing a bill containing the words “health” and “reform”.
September 30, 2009 at 4:19 PM
I believe “Chucky” is full of sh@*!
Blame someone else for you prostituting yourself to the highest bidder seems the “politician way!”
He knows the American people are nothing more than sheep, so what does he, or any of the other “Whores” have need to worry?
No….I think he is speaking in “politician whore hoodwink speak!”
” Send me more money so I can continue to screw you over!” Schumer and his merry bunch of “Call Girls” can all kiss my >>>>>>>>BEEP!
“sorry…It’s been one of those days.”
September 30, 2009 at 4:30 PM
There, there, Red. Breathe in, breathe out. Good in, bad out.
September 30, 2009 at 4:32 PM
Gosh, RD62, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?
Sorry it’s been a sucky day for you.
September 30, 2009 at 4:33 PM
Chatblu – you must be a great nurse. I can feel the calm issuing forth from your words.
September 30, 2009 at 4:35 PM
I try, Lord knows…… Sometimes, you’ve just gotta stop and refocus.
September 30, 2009 at 4:41 PM
Mon dieu!
Sarkozy slaps Obama over Iran – figuratively, of course.
One thing I don’t understand is, why do the reporters keep saying Obama cancelled Star Wars? He didn’t do that at all, from what I’ve read – he is re-developing and expanding it.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/09/20/iran.khamenei.missiles/index.html
September 30, 2009 at 4:50 PM
Sarkozy has been les than kind. Guess Madame S. didn’t like the guitar.
September 30, 2009 at 4:57 PM
Thanks Chatblu and Madam…….I needed that
That was a bit “out of character” for me wasn’t it…LOL
I guess I, like many of my brethren, are so fed up with these politicians and their “four faces.” Kinda makes one hope the Mayans were right about 2012!
Gods know….We can’t survive as a people while swimming in poop!
September 30, 2009 at 4:58 PM
madamab said
September 30, 2009 at 4:33 PM
Chatblu – you must be a great nurse. I can feel the calm issuing forth from your words.
Nah, Chat was hiding the syringe with versed in it behind her back and then she snuck up on Red and jammed him in the butt! 
September 30, 2009 at 5:17 PM
LOL…… So that was that “Sting” I felt!
Pretty clever Chat!
September 30, 2009 at 5:18 PM
Better living through chemistry!
My cousin the junkie used to say that all the time. Amazingly, she’s still alive. 
September 30, 2009 at 5:20 PM
It’s a time-honored motto of the emergency room nurse, Fredster.
September 30, 2009 at 5:33 PM
Was trying to set up a PayPal account on my blog and I think I screwed it up! Grrrrrrr…..Guess i have to get one of the “children” to do it for me…LOL
I can hear it now…..”I thought you knew everything dad?!”
Went to try to get my Mac Book Pro out of hock and found out it was resold because I let the 90 days pass. So….anyone have a “Used” one they are willing to sell at a “reduced rate?”
That’s why I was so ……..”aggravated” when I posted…
but thanks for the shot…..It helped! LMAO!
September 30, 2009 at 5:37 PM
Chat: go about 3 minutes into this and you’ll see Robert Preston as the doc in S.O.B. I have no idea how many times I watched this movie laughing hysterically each time.
September 30, 2009 at 5:49 PM
Thanks, Fredster, that was funny as hell. And I agree with the doc in principal – slow, steady drinking and a few jolts of vit B can get you through a career in medicine -and I love Loretta Swit.
September 30, 2009 at 5:55 PM
If you can ever find it, rent the movie. “Felix” is a director who makes his first movie that bombs and his wife is Julie Andrews.
Apparently in real life Blake Edwards did make a movie bomb and this was his idea of what happens to directors when that happens. In one scene someone calls Robert Preston the doc a “shyster” and he gets highly indignant saying something like “I beg your pardon, a shyster is a lawyer, I’m a quack!”
September 30, 2009 at 7:58 PM
sorry……the video didn’t upload. here’s another one but please disregard the nonsense on top. It was the only one I could find without “Too” much propaganda in it.
Guess who was a “Community Activist” in this neighborhood?
September 30, 2009 at 8:04 PM
Chatblu:
I grew up in an area not far from where this happened. this is nothing new here. This has happened before and will happen again.
and yes……This is where they want to put the Olympics!
September 30, 2009 at 8:43 PM
This right winger wants to take women’s voting rights away because he says we all vote for democrats.
National Review’s John Derbyshire: Women Should Not Have The Right To Vote
John Derbyshire, a British-American conservative author and columnist for the National Review, has written a new book titled We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism. The book contains a section called “The Case Against Female Suffrage.” Yesterday on his radio show, Alan Colmes asked Derbyshire to articulate his argument.
“What is the case against female suffrage?” Colmes asked. “The conservative case against it is that women lean hard to the left,” Derbyshire responded nonsensically. “They want someone to nurture, they want someone to help raise their kids, and if men aren’t inclined to do it — and in the present days, they’re not much — then they’d like the state to do it for them.”
Colmes then pressed Derbyshire on whether women should have the right to vote. “Ah…” Derbyshire sighed, attempting to dodge the question initially. “I’m not putting forward a political program here,” he said. But then Derbyshire slowly began to open up:
DERBYSHIRE: Among the hopes that I do not realistically nurse is the hope that female suffrage will be repealed. But I’ll say this – if it were to be, I wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep.
COLMES: We’d be a better country if women didn’t vote?
DERBYSHIRE: Probably. Don’t you think so?
COLMES: No, I do not think so whatsoever.
DERBYSHIRE: Come on Alan. Come clean here [laughing].
COLMES: We would be a better country? John Derbyshire making the statement, we would be a better country if women did not vote.
DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, probably.
Derbyshire reasoned that we “got along like that for 130 years.” Colmes countered by asking if he also wants to bring back slavery. No, Derbyshire responded, “I’m in favor of freedom personally.” Colmes noted that freedom didn’t extend to women’s right to vote, however. Derbyshire said, “Well, they didn’t and we got along ok.” Listen here:
Later in the interview, Derbyshire said there’s also a case to be made for repealing the 1964 Civil Rights Act because you “shouldn’t try to force people to be good.”
September 30, 2009 at 8:47 PM
Here is the link
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/30/derbyshire-female-suffrage/
September 30, 2009 at 9:04 PM
OMG, JillforHill!
Derbyshire is basically a pedophile, from what I’ve read.
His views are not at all surprising. I’ll bet a lot of men, liberal, conservative and otherwise, would feel the same way!
September 30, 2009 at 9:08 PM
Derbyshire? That’s the guy who had a piece entitled “Kill Chelsea Clinton in 2001? I see googling it he changed the title but not the vile content
http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire021501.shtml
September 30, 2009 at 9:11 PM
This man is sick. I remember him when he wrote chelsea should be steralized or be forced to have an abortion, because this world does not need anymore clintons according to him.
September 30, 2009 at 9:13 PM
You know what’s really disgusting, is that this piece of snot gets paid to exude this vile excrescence.
If that fact doesn’t convince people there’s a patriarchy, I give up!
September 30, 2009 at 9:23 PM
Let me get this straight: because women don’t agree with him, we should not vote? How about we reverse that and he doesn’t vote? Shall we put that to a vote?
September 30, 2009 at 9:34 PM
I say, let’s remove the vote from men. They tend to vote for too many Republicans.
All those in favor?
September 30, 2009 at 9:46 PM
No wonder this guy was so threatened by Hillary and Chelsea. Any woman over 12 with an IQ of over 100 is too much for his fragile male ego!
September 30, 2009 at 9:53 PM
Wow, it’s amazing that someone like that is able to publish articles in major journals and magazines.
September 30, 2009 at 9:58 PM
Isn’t it, DYB? That’s what I can’t get past. Talk about rewarding misogyny!!!
September 30, 2009 at 10:34 PM
This man should have been fired when he wrote that vile article about chelsea.
September 30, 2009 at 10:52 PM
How did he even get hired? Was The National Review editor dreaming of adding a pedophilic, woman-hating troglodyte to his staff, and lo and behold, Derbyshire sent in his resume? A match made in hell!
September 30, 2009 at 11:18 PM
Well, now, isn’t this headline just the summation of everything that is wrong with Obama? Don’t tell me this guy isn’t a card-carrying member of the Ronnie Raygun/George W. fan club.
Seems like the Democrats don’t feel like owning this ridiculous occupation that Dubya f*cked up so royally. How shocking that those with actual experience and knowledge of foreign affairs do not want to keep sinking money and troops into the bottomless pit of Afghanistan!
Night all!
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September 30, 2009 at 8:39 AM
“Slate” had a post yesterday in which they stated that more Americans believe in UFOs (36%) than oppose the public option (@25%). I hate to quote Pat Buchanan, but the Silent Majority has it in a landslide.