Boehner and the Chart
Dems don’t want people to see chart? No one wants to see chart. Dems don’t because it makes no sense. Independents don’t because it tells them nothing. Republicans don’t because they know it is meaningless. And people with queasy stomachs don’t because they’ll toss their cookies. If you simply stop the video and look at the chart you will see that it is laughable.
Boehner says that it will be a government takeover of health insurance. A. Not true. There will be a public option that you can exercise, but there will continue to be private plans, including that of your current health care company. And the idea that all the 47 million uninsured will suddenly come onto a public plan, thus creating a “government takeover” implies that the private market will collapse. Nothing wrong with Medicare or the VA programs, but it won’t happen. Another scare tactic. And so what? If under the new rules the private insurance companies can’t take any of these new potential customers, they can either get along with the extremely healthy ones they already have (after kicking off all the unhealthy people) or they can simply run a little less of a huge profit.
It looks like his big ploy is going to be job losses. There aren’t going to be job losses. Ironically, it is an old insurance ploy to get in the door. When the person is confused by your statement, he may figure it is easier to give you ten minutes and kick you out that to stand there and admit you don’t know what the guy is talking about. Boehner is hoping no one will try to figure out the confusing numbers…he says five and a half million, FNIB says one million…but…why? Why would people lose their jobs because they now can get health care? It is confusing because it is a lie.
Boehner says that the National Federation of Independent Businesses says country will lose one million jobs. A. On what basis? Why would someone lose a job simply because they now can get health care? Will private health insurance companies begin to fold? If they are pressed to make more profits will they spread around a little of those average $14 million a year CEO salaries to employees and stockholders to help make things equitable? I don’t think so. B. FNIB is itself…you guessed it…a health insurance company. They state on their web site that they are against a public option. But while they are against the President’s proposals, they do mention the fact that the Obama administration will pay 65% of insurance costs for those laid-off workers who are paying the full amount of their health insurance on COBRA. I guess that’s not a good enough sign that the government is on the side of small business…you know…just wanting to help the laid-off employees and all…
By the way, the consensus among economists, notwithstanding Republican propaganda, is that the stimulus is working. Is a $787 billion jobs bill designed to work over 18 months going to make a big dent in the first 90 days? Not likely. But have you been in a motor vehicle lately trying to get somewhere, on a state highway or an Interstate? Ray LaHood, the former Republican House member, now Secretary of Transportation has things jumpin’. There are so many of those stimulus signs out, many people can probably recite them from memory. About $290 billion of the $787 billion is underway. But more large-scale projects are underway, for communications and education and the environment. The President also asked for more money in his 2010 budget. So, despite the terrible housing crisis that continues and will continue into next year, with prices still down, the People will have a safety net until the private sector can get rolling again.
Palin Favors Health Care.
Or does she? does anyone know what she means here in this clip from the katy Couric Interview?
So Sarah Palin, who John McCain wanted as President of the United States in case his 70+ year-old heart failed, believes that health care will creat jobs. I think that’s what she said. Who knows? And she seems to hate the $350 billion Bush-Paulson bail-out of the banks, which they did in a kind of blackmail of Congress, with all the Republicans voting against it, when, at the time, all we know was that Paulson said we would be back to 1930 if we didn’t do it. And he had all the information. So Sarah is all against the bail-out but in favor of somehow miraculously coming up with the money to fund businesses to create the jobs.
Let’s be honest. She doesn’t know what she wants or what she would do. She has neither the education nor the experience, nor–in our opinion–the smarts to be even close to the Presidency.
A Semi-rational Glen Beck Afraid of a Public Health Care Plan…even over time.
Glen Beck who broke down on the air and then broke down deliberately for a photo shoot with GQ Magazine, a guy who literally screamed a woman off the air. She had the temerity to suggest that health care in France was better than here and that we should spend more money on health care than on bailing out Wall Street. So here he is saying that we are basically being conned into Single Payer Health Care. Single Payer Health care is exactly the same as we have now except that the people we write our checks to for insurance, would be the U.S. Government. Or a series of non-profit adminstrative companies, much like insurance companies today only heavily regulated and not selling but merely administering programs. Not to be too confusing, but Single Payer, like Germany, like Switzerland could be all private, non-profit companies doing all the paperwork. But you just call your doctor and show up and get referred and go to the specialist, all without an insurance company involvement. They interact with the physicians to see to it that the billing goes to the government and the physicians get paid. You just deal with the docs and the dentists.
But here’s how Glen Beck makes it sound scary.
Are you worried now? You should be. Glen Beck gets paid tens of millions of dollars for persuading you that you are wrong and Rupert Murdoch, a billionaire who literally gives not one damn if you live or die, is right. He is Mr. Murdoch’s boy and Mr. Murdoch makes his billions by letting the top guys at the drug companies, the hospitals, the health insurance companies who advertise on Fox Cable News and the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post and all his many and the regular Fox Network know that he will not only run their ads but all his guys–Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly, Kudlow, and all the others like Chris Wallace–will shill for them. These are George W. Bush’s pals, Karl Rove’s pals (he’s on Fox Cable News now), Dick Cheney’s buddies. If they are against single payer, what should you be for? But do not worry. It is quite likely that someone you know will have the public option. If he or she doesn’t like it, they will go back to the private system. Experience all over the world tells us that will never happen. The only reason some of us here worry is because of guys like Glen Beck and his ilk, paid by the servants of the insurance companies.
Government takeover? Ask anyone who has it what they think of Medicare or the VA system. That should make you feel a little more comfortable about what Jan Schakowsky and the President want, but cannot get for you at this point. What will happen, and what they are saying is this: why would you pay for a Cadillac and get a Chevrolet, even under the new health care reform rules. A public plan is easier. You can go anywhere, show your card…any hospital, any doctor who will take you…same as now…only you never, ever have to worry about receiving good care no matter your income or the state of your health.
There is nothing to be afraid of …except if Health Care Reform does not pass. Then, yes, you should be afraid.