Monthly Archives: October 2009

The GOP Health Care Plan

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) has introduced a new bill to fix Medicare. He wants to privatize it:

In an attempt to reclaim the right’s rich tradition of opposing Medicare, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) has proposed legislation that would roll back the Medicare system and replace it with a system of vouchers that seniors could use to purchase private insurance:

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun introduced his own health care reform bill last week that would, among other things, privatize the Medicare insurance program for seniors.

Broun’s bill would replace government benefits with vouchers that could be spent on private insurance or put in tax-free medical savings accounts.

“We’ve got to fix Medicare,” he said. “It’s headed in a direction that’s unsustainable.”

While Medicare is facing future budgetary problems, privatization isn’t the solution. Medicare Advantage, the Medicare plan under which the administration of the program is farmed out to private insurance companies, has more than five times the administrative costs of the traditional public Medicare plan.

Is he serious? How much does he think medical care costs for seniors? I don’t understand why we’re supposed to take Republicans seriously at all on the issue of health care. I don’t think they’re even listening to the real problems that real Americans are facing every day with our current system.

Health Care Reform: The Day After

Well, it’s one day after Harry Reid’s big announcement that the Senate bill would include the opt-out public option. The next big thing is ironing out the details of each bill in the House and the Senate. Democrats are taking a look at some details and proposing some changes, most notably speeding up implementation of the bill.

The most significant changes to the health care system wouldn’t kick in until 2013 — two election cycles away. With Republicans expected to make next year a referendum on health care reform, Democrats are quietly lobbying to push up the effective dates on popular programs, so they’ll have something to run on in the congressional midterm elections.

Democrats are anxious to mix the good with the bad since some of the pain would be phased in early, including more than $100 billion in industry fees that critics say could be passed on to consumers.

[…]

Under the Democratic wish list, senior citizens would receive discounts on brand-name drugs next year. Small businesses that provide insurance would see tax credits. And a $5 billion high-risk pool would cover people with preexisting conditions.

Democratic strategists expect the 2010 election to present a stark contrast between the parties, particularly if the health care bill receives minimal Republicans support. The front-load strategy could help blunt GOP attacks on the bill as a toxic mix of higher taxes, rising premiums and cuts to Medicare.

The strategy also could ease some of the disappointment among voters who expect more immediate reforms than the bill can deliver, including on the much-debated public insurance option. Democrats in both the House and the Senate are closing in on finding the votes to include some form of a public option in the bill, but a government-run insurance plan would likely be one of the last pieces to kick in fully, if it passes.

I’m not sure why Democrats are just figuring this out now, but better late than never. It will be hard to run as the party that fixed health care when no one can see any difference.

As expected Republicans aren’t happy. They’ve responded by attacking the messenger:

“A primary reason Harry Reid is one of the most endangered incumbents facing re-election in either party next year is due to the fact that he is viewed by many of his constituents as a partisan bully. His decision to write a health care bill behind closed doors, bow to pressure from the far left, and ram this bill through the Senate will only further cement that negative image.

“It also reaffirms the importance of restoring checks-and-balances in Washington next year. As Democrats prepare to run up the national credit card even higher, it’s clear they didn’t learn a thing from the failed stimulus boondoggle. They are attempting to spend their way out of our nation’s economic crisis with little thought or regard to the debt being passed on to future generations.

“One thing is clear though – Harry Reid and his Democrat colleagues who decide to bow to pressure from the left and continue to rubber-stamp this liberal, partisan agenda of Washington-run health care and reckless government spending will be held accountable by voters next November.”

Harry Reid is such a big meanie. And, oh yeah, SOCIALISM!

In case their was any doubt, Dick Durbin says that the inclusion of the public option was due to pressure from progressives:

Democratic leaders were forced to include a national public health insurance option as part of health care reform by progressive Democratic senators who refused to support anything less, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on Monday.

Durbin’s assessment was made to a handful of reporters following the announcement by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that after weeks of talks with his colleagues he had determined that including a public option that states could opt out of was the best way to go.

For many years, it’s been centrist and conservative-leaning senators who have been scoring legislative victories by digging in their heels, so this represented a quite dramatic turnabout. It is difficult to remember the last time that progressives won a legislative victory by laying down firm demands and sticking to them. In the House, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has found its feet, too, and is locked in a final battle with conservative Democrats over the shape of a public option.

The public option has been declared dead by political pundits more times than I can count, yet it never died. It stayed alive thanks to the relentless pressure by progressive activists who kept reminding Democrats – the public option IS the compromise.

A Quip Too Far?

Delaware Liberal favorite Rep. Alan Grayson might have gone a bit too far when talking about Linda Robertson, who is a lobbyist working for the Fed. Politico’s Glenn Thrush reports that the GOP has dug up a tape of Grayson saying of Robertson, “And she’s, this lobbyist, this K street whore is trying to teach me about economics.” Oh yeah, Robertson was the lead lobbyist who wrote the infamous Enron loophole. To paraphrase Chris Rock, “I don’t think he should have said that, but I understand.”

Pawlenty Goes Rogue

Republican Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota and virtual candidate for President, has come out to endorse Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in NY-23 according to reports. With Fred Thompson, Sarah Palin and now Pawlenty all endorsing Hoffman, could the Mayans be right and we don’t even have to worry about who the Republican nominee will be in 2012?

Obama’s Promise

I had the opportunity to listen to President Obama’s speech to Marines in Jacksonville FL on the way home, I was struck by this quote:

And while I will never hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests, I also promise you this — and this is very important as we consider our next steps in Afghanistan — I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way. I won’t risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary.

With all the pressure President Obama is facing from the media on his forthcoming military decision in Afghanistan, the recent American deaths in Iraq, upcoming elections in both countries, and the inanity coming from Dick Cheney, it is fantastic to see our current president being reasoned and thoughtful.

This is the reason why I voted for Obama in the primary and the general election.

Socialists Are Everywhere

Uruguay’s Presidential election is wrapping up and it looks like José Mujica, a socialist and former guerrilla fighter, will win some 47% of the vote reports The New York Times. Mujica needed more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff election at the end of November, but still his chances look good for the runoff.

“Uruguay fits into the consolidated left of the hemisphere and will probably stay there for the foreseeable future,” said a Latin American expert in the Times.

As the Christian Science Monitor reported:

Few suspect either leading candidate would turn the country in a radically different direction. While Mujica might deepen social programs, Lacalle would likely focus more on foreign investment and enterprise, Boidi says. In either case, she says, any radical impulses would be reined in by their own parties and opposition members of parliament, whose seats are up for election Sunday, too.

Senate Bill To Include Opt-Out Public Option

Harry Reid is holding a press conference starting at 3:15 to announce the details of the health care bill that will voted on by the Senate. Early reports say that the bill will include the opt-out public option. This is important because it will take 60 votes to remove the public option out of the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appears poised today to announce his intent to include a public option with an opt out clause in the bill he brings to the Senate floor.

Policy details will likely be scarce, and the draft bill could still change. What goes to CBO will have different options under certain sections of the legislation, and there are conflicting reports that Reid might ask the CBO to send back analyses of other versions of the public option. Though most on the left would prefer it if public option compromises would simply be suffocated of all oxygen, it’s also true that if a public option with an opt-out clause is included in the base bill, it will to a great extent shape the the floor debate. (For instance, 60 votes would be required to strip the public option out of the bill.)

I will update when the announcement is made.

Update The bill will include the public option.

Update #2 The bill will also contain co-ops. I’m not sure what that’s about. Is it for states who opt out to form state-based public options?

Wingnut Alert: Obama Golfs More Than Bush

Yesterday, President Obama went out golfing. Two things made this news worthy. This outing was the first time as Presdient that Obama has golfed with a woman reports The Washington Post. The second item, and the most scandalous from the wingnut point of view (sadly I know), President Obama has now tied President George W. Bush with 24 rounds of golf played reports Politico. The horrors, the horrors.

High-Risk Energy Grants Awarded To Delaware

Over $150 million in grants were awarded to 37 different “radical” energy research projects reports The New York Times. Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), that received its initial funding of $400 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is distributing the monies in 17 states. ARPA-E breaks down the distribution further:

Of the lead recipients, 43% are small businesses, 35% are educational institutions, and 19% are large corporations. In supporting these teams, ARPA-E seeks to bring together America’s brightest energy innovators to pioneer a low cost, secure, and low carbon energy future for the nation.

The University of Delaware and E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company are among those receiving grants. The University of Delaware will be receiving $4,462,162 while DuPont was awarded $9 million. The UD project will focus on vehicle technologies that “would decrease the weight and increase the efficiency of motors for hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicles and generators for advanced wind turbines.” DuPont’s project will look at biomass fuels, specifically seaweed —  “a potentially sustainable and scalable new source of biomass that doesn’t require arable land or potable water.”

Note that Congressman Mike Castle should not take any credit for these grants coming to Delaware since he voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Monday Open Thread

Are you ready for Monday? Are you ready for Thursday’s Drinking Liberally at the Homegrown Cafe?

Let’s talk about Faux News, since they can’t seem to stop talking about themselves. Faux deployed the blondes to whine about Faux News victimhood. There was the inexplicably popular Laura Ingraham on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopolous:

Ingraham argued that “a lot of people are saying” that the Obama administration is more “impassioned about” Fox News than “other threats to the United States, whether economic threats or real threats, Islamic jihadists.”

Ingraham didn’t say who these “people” are who are “saying” this, but apparently, there are “a lot” of them. (When right-wing media personalities appear on mainstream outlets, they do this quite a bit — they don’t want to say crazy things on their own behalf, so they attribute nonsensical ideas to vague and undefined groups of “a lot of people,” who do not appear to exist in reality.)

Even Stephanopoulos seemed incredulous about the observation, saying, “You don’t believe that they’ve been softer on Islamic jihadists than they have on Fox News. Come on.” Ingraham, dropping the pretense of passing along the thoughts of “a lot of people,” insisted she hasn’t seen White House officials “talk about other real threats in the same coordinated and sophisticated way as they’re going after” Fox News.

John Podesta responded that Ingraham might be right “when the drones start flying over Fox News.”

Dana Perino and Chris Wallace had a wankfest on Fox News Sunday:

Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino sharply criticized the Obama administration’s tactics and expressed absolute shock at the example the United States was setting for “the free press in emerging democracies,” comparing the criticisms of Fox News to when “Hugo Chavez shuts down television stations”:

PERINO: That was a coordinated, calculated attack. It was unbecoming. And if you look at some of the coverage of what mainstream media covers when, for example, somebody like a Hugo Chavez shuts down television stations, he calls them illegitimate.

Now, I’m not suggesting that this White House believes that they are going to come over here and shut down Fox News. But they are defining a narrative in their first year, and it’s going to be very hard to recover from it. […]

Through our State Department, we are trying to help emerging democracies get journalists and government officials to talk to one another, because freedom of the press is essential to any democracy. Believe me, they are watching this, and they have — surely are raising questions.