Health Care Reform, such as it is, Debated, such as it was
I spent Mia’s naptime and a bit after watching the health care reform “debate” on CSPAN. Only it wasn’t a debate so much as it was a perverse game of ping-pong that went something like this:
Democrat is yielded one minute of time, declares that the health care reform bill is the culmination of a billion years’ worth of human development, and the very principled pinnacle of good, effective government that will not make sure all Americans are insured, but is the written incarnation of King’s dream come true.
Time is yielded back, and the Republicans get their turn.
Republican is yielded one minute of time and declares that the Pelosi Obamacare health thieving 2,000 page pile of Marxist theivery is the culmination of socialism, the revocation of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, a complete totalitarian takeover of the entire American economy, and also Acorn. And you know where else they had free universal health care? Nazi Germany. Time is then yielded back.
Then I got to argue with downstate progressives about whether or not it was principled for Eric Massa (NY-29) to vote no on this bill, or whether or not he’s a piece of shit who should be ejected from the Democratic Party and voted out of office. (For the record, Massa is a cancer survivor who attributes his survival to the single-payer military Tricare system, and he has fought tirelessly for a similar single-payer system to cover all Americans. Given a little time, he will heap scorn and derision on America’s for-profit health “insurance” industry like you never heard. His stand is a principled one, and he deserves progressives’/liberals’ support, not derision).
I hope the health care bill, limp as it is, passes, so we have some fundamental consumer protection for health care consumers and the insured. I also fully expect that the uninsured at least have the option to buy into an affordable, quality health care system so that emergency rooms no longer become primary care facilities.
Lowlights of the “debate” include this shameful, deceitful display of douchery:
Then there was this, when the Congressional Women’s Caucus attempted to speak, only to be shouted down and talked over by a bunch of Republican males:
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I have not watched this today. I chose football. The only real surprise in anything you’ve said is that “douchery” is a usable word and that I did not know about it up until this very moment. The people in the political system are so irrevocably self-serving and tied to the special interests that I expect no real meaningful legislation that actually benefits the people will ever be passed ever again…….. ever.
Tricare has several incarnations, including Tricare for Life, Tricare Standard, Tricare Retirees. My wife and I are on the Retiree plan. We were promised, for 20 years of service or more, no cost healthcare at VA or military facilities. We have to pay a 300 dollar family deductible, and a total out of pocket expense per fiscal year (oct 1 to Sept 30) of 3000.00
We pay no premiums, but 3300.00 is a long way from what we were promised, and if the “reform” bill passes in any of its current incarnations, those numbers will likely double at the minimum. Tricare in my region is administered by Humana out of Surfside Beach, SC. If the Dems get their way, Humana will be out of business within 3 years. Then where does Tricare go to run their single payer system? Veterans who have served, sacrificed and bled for their nation will find their government’s promise to them voided, and they’ll be standing in line for rationed care along with people who’ve never worked a day in their lives, and never paid federal taxes, much less make sacrifices like all of our warriors have. And that will be a tragedy not only for those still alive who were drafted, but also for all those who have volunteered since 1973. And if a government will renege on a promise to the men and women, all of whom gave some of themselves for their country, think about the promises that commie bitch Pelosi and crew have made, and about the ass fucking the average Joe in the street is in for.
Alan just cut through the bullshit with this post. Both parties blow and are nothing but shills for a parasitic status quo which is sucking our wealth and freedom.
@ Hank:
“think about the promises that commie bitch Pelosi”
Not a commie, Hank…Her net worth is around 20 million…she and most of the rest of congress are just like Bloomberg, once you get enough money for yourself to insulate you, buy your way in and impose your fantasies on joe sixpack AND make HIM pay for it….
last time i checked, there were 256 dem congress members to 177 republican. and the vote was 220-215??? this does not bode well as the thing heads to the senate. the pro-choice people are pissed off, the single-payer people are pissed off…
i don’t know alan, are we just looking for an “accomlishment” our president can claim?
Yeah, it must be less of a win because it didn’t go right down party lines.
@ Mike Hudson – it’s an “accomplishment” that no President since LBJ has been able to claim.
I think the whole debate is about health insurance reform — rationing care to save money by encouraging people to die sooner. Health care reform would involve taking better care of people to even further extend life expectancy. Once the Europeans and Canadians get on board with our sugar-laden, alcohol-abusing lazy American lifestyle, their citizens will look less healthy too.
does anyone think that a possible prison sentence for those willfully refusing to buy a product from a private company is even remotely constitutional?
@alan…thinking of this as a “win” is a fundamental misunderstanding of the process, a kind of rah rah for the rubes. nothing close to what was passed last night will get through the senate, in case you missed the morning shows.
and humorist, bush started two wars simultaneously, an “accomplishment” that i don’t think any president in american history is able to claim. so what?
@alan…off subject…nice try on Hardline…you are definitely one of the people that will keeps us in decline. Can you say anything politically good about Collins? You live up there in his same town. Your kids can go to a nice school. You can chase any ambulance you want. What really is your problem with Collins. I could see you bitching if he’d give the Konst job to another so called “collin’s insider”. You’ll never be happy until there is complete socialism. Then you’ll realize you lost all those precious things in cushy Clarence.
@Steve: Here’s the thing, there, chief.
1. I pay taxes and contribute to society. I hardly think I will “keeps us in decline” [sic]
2. What would you like me to praise Collins for? Seriously, give me something.
3. I don’t chase ambulances, but you seem to know a lot about me. What’s your last name and what do you do for a living? Since you brought it up, it’s a fair question, and if you don’t provide that information, then I’ll know you’re just a punk who leeches off the system, as I suspect.
4. You wouldn’t know socialism if it hit you on your head, attached to an anvil.
5. Given Collins’ explanation as to why he hired Konst for that job, it would seem to me that Dino Fudoli was uniquely qualified for that position, too. (The sole explanation was that Kathy Konst knows how private industry works). He should have given Fudoli that job.
6. Whenever confronted with unpleasant information, Collins accuses the person bringing it up for having an “agenda”. No one has a bigger agenda than Chris Collins.
“Once the Europeans and Canadians get on board with our sugar-laden, alcohol-abusing lazy American lifestyle, their citizens will look less healthy too.”
Have you been to a Tim Hortons?
Or a Leafs game?
Well, now at least Hudson can get health insurance to cover his liquor-dependent, rock solid liver. Thank god for no more pre-existing conditions!!!
that’s no joke wiztard. when my much abused liver finally shit the bed in 2006, my hospital bills were upwards of $100,000. the niagara falls reporter’s health insurance plan covered everything. last year, when an attempt was made to take the paper i founded away from me, the bastards responsible used my health insurance — without which i’d be dead already — as a bargaining chip to get me to let it go.
for the record, the reporter has offered all full-time employees and their dependents 100 percent company paid health insurance since we began publishing in 2000. as a businessman and a human being, health care reform was the crucial issue in last year’s presidential campaign. so we endorsed obama and i voted for him under the mistaken impression that he was actually telling the truth about what he was going to do. silly me.
Well then I will credit Obama for keeping not only the NF Reporter alive, but Hudson himself. What a great Prez!!!
“What’s your last name and what do you do for a living?”
alan, everyone here should re asked that question when they sign up. there are quite a number of fucking cowards here who wouldn’t dare say the things they do if they could be identified. i realize this would reduce traffic considerably, but i believe it would lead at long last to civil discourse, something this whole fucking world needs more of.
obama has done nothing for me, my family or the niagara falls reporter. oh wait, he is keeping my nephew employed dodging bullets a ied’s in iraq.
Alright, Hudson. You got it. I figure I’ve been giving you enough shit for a year now so I will give you a bit about myself. Even though you won’t believe me anyways, here you are: Last name: Rogers. I did marketing for a company in Niagara Falls up until about 2 years ago but now live in PA doing basically the same job but for a much bigger company.
Nothing nearly as exciting as running the Reporter and being the front man of my own punk band, but it pays the bills.
nice country, pennsylvania. i was fortunate enough to live in a small town in the allegheny foothills for eight years myself, doing pretty much the same thing i do here.
@Alan If I was in the fucking blog biz then I would put my name out here. I find it halarious that a liberal socialist Dem like you lives in Clarence, home of most Republicans. I’m going to my Clarence friends and see if they can get a petition going to have you expelled. I get a kick out of you always trying to findout who I am when I don’t agree with you (unlike the APU). Its almost like BIG BROTHER…I’m watching you…you better agree with me…..
If this is such a “socialist” endeavor, why aren’t we ready to invade the Red Communists in Canada, with their pinko Universal Health Care? The way the Right-Wing Republican anarchists sound, Canada, France, Germany and Great Britain are just the same as The Soviet Union or Cuba. Maybe we should start another Cold War with the Western European Red Menace.
that doesn’t wash steve, in recent weeks, in fact, your comments here have vastly outnumbered alan’s posts. you are in the fucking blog business, and my guess is that, from the depth of your knowledge, you won’t reveal your real name because you are a candidate or elected official, or perhaps have some other role in politics high-profile enough that we would recognize your name. i can think of no other reason that a grown man would launch personal attacks while hiding behind the cowardly cloak of anonymity.
Don’t you see, Mike? Steve, that paragon of capitalistic virtue is actually a public employee, not to mention a punk-ass bitch. He comes on here and spews all kinds of details about my life, but refuses to provide an iota of information about who he is and what his motivation is to so vigorously lingually massage Collins’ taint.
I know that my tax dollars pay Steve’s salary and health care an pension, so he can get by just fine under socialism while rubes like me work in the private sector he praises but dreads.
Also, I asked him to give me one thing to praise Collins about. He has since left 2 comments without any such information. QED.
@Alan I too am in the private sector…far deeper than you. You don’t pay any of my salary etc. I have stated this in previous replies. Your buddy Marc (the liar, “I haven’t taken any money from Glascott”) asked me a few weeks back. I won’t get into the accomplishments because you’ve already torn them apart, I’m sure because you want to be polar oposite of Collins. The WIC move was huge, the new union contracts will help tremendously down the road, the county getting out of ECMC is moving along, and you know how I feel about the people at the Holding Center, so I consider his moves there right on. Theres a good start. I suspect you’ll tear them up….because you know it all Mr. Buffalo’s Best Blogger/personal (ambulance chaser) attorney.
@Hudson…I guess I’m begining to believe too your liver is gin soaked. If you remotely believe I’ve posted more than Pundit, you better go back to 1st grade math. The man must have hit a big personal injury award because he’s trying to set a word record on threads. Most of them don’t even get but one or two replies. He even told me I wasn’t his editor. Then if you respond with something he doesn’t like (APU…Ass patters United) he deletes your message. Its communistic. So Hudson like most people on here, I will remain anonymous. I need to protect myself from some of the loons on here.
No, you’re a public sector whore, suckling at Collins’
sweet teat.
If you weren’t, you’d prove it. You won’t, so you’re a Collins hack, a liar, and I pay your salary.
If anonymity was so important to you, you wouldn’t even post a comment on this piece of shit Maoist blog of mine, fraud.
We need to add a like button cause that last comment was FTW!!
Steve, aka smaart1…#1 teat sucker!!
lol…I wondered when pundit was going to call you to get your help Marcie…not Poloncarz (I’m so busy conducting meaningful audits that I can blog all day long on my work days). You two Bozos think what you want. You think I care what you guys think of me? After I’ve seen what asses like Poloncarz are doing, I wish I was is the public sector. By the way, already doing the parades? Less than a week after the elections? I guess we can count on him running for county exec for the next two years..Can’t wait to see the good meaningful work he and his secretary will do.
Steve, why do you cheat the taxpayers every day with your worthless hack job? What am I getting for my tax money that pays your salary? How much does Collins pay you to wipe up shit in the Rath Building’s toilets and to act like a cretin on blogs?
the thing is, steve, most people in erie county don’t even know or care who konst, poloncarz etc are. most people in erie county don’t read the buffalo news, much less a tiny outlet like this. you apparently spend about, i don’t know, 100 percent of your time watching local politics on tv, listening to local politics on of all things the former hardwick show (unrated because so few listen to it) and read about local politics here. you are clearly a political operative and quite probably, as alan has speculated, a public employee.
in the newspaper business, btw, we regard anyone who calls us but will not give a name or who writes us an unsigned letter as a loon.
since first posting here a couple of years ago, my liver, relative sobriety, role in the death of my son, sources of income etc. have been popular topics of conversation by dickless cowards such as yourself, and i can only assume that your reticence to reveal your true identity now is based on the absolute certainty that i would come to your house, drag you out into the street and kick your lilly ass in front of that fat wife of yours.
You asked me a question. I answered it. END OF STORY. I’m still a little confused about what i lied about but it really doesn’t matter, because you, your comments and your thoughts mean nothing to no one.
Who the fuck are you to think I’m obligated to even answer you in the first place? You just a dickless motherfucking cock sucking windbag whose too much of a pussy to stand by your own comments and words. Pussy!
A Faceless troll who has nothing meaningful to contribute who thinks people actually give two fucks what your dumb ass has to say.
Without a name or a face attached to your comments they might as well be deleted because they are about as useless as you are you two bit hack…
EDIT: And one more thing. If your going to troll at least try and do it in posts that are on topic, asshole!
that’s the thing marc…a person unwilling to take responsibility for his/her comments and actions should not be afforded the same rights as an actual human being.
I have one word for you on this House bill. Schlossberg. (Going nowhere in the Senate.)
Hudson, I’m sure BP will take your advice on how to foster civil discourse verrry seriously. Called anyone (who didn’t personally insult you) a nazi yet today? Well, it’s still early.
So soon I expect we shall see the pundit posts panning the crazy extremist left and their attempts to “purge” members of their party, eh?
byron…find a post here, or find an example in any of the thousands of signed pieces i’ve written over the years that are online, where i’ve called someone a nazi. you cannot, because i never have. here we have another example of your fascist tendancy to criminalize those with a different viewpoint than your own.
You called BP a nazi right here.
I guess you forget sometimes what you posted (see also). That’s understandable.
Good to see that you’ve gone full-Beck (full-Goldberg?) now and are calling everyone who disagrees with you a “fascist”. It seems more honest that your old “fucking moron” standby.
You also gave BP a sieg heil which is basically calling him a nazi, right?.
i mean except for bp. and you are a fascist, byron, look it up.
So Humanist, BP and I are fascists – anyone else? I want to start a list!
@Hudson–he can’t—spends too much time looking at the picture of himself next to the phrase–nutless liberal whack job–in the dictionary of liberal slang.