Dianne Feinstein: "I don't know if Obama has the votes (for health care) right now."
By Nicole Belle Monday Jun 22, 2009 9:00am
With DINOs like DiFi, who needs to worry about Republicans?
President Barack Obama may not have enough votes in the U.S. Senate to pass his effort to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, California Democrat Dianne Feinstein said.
“I don’t know that he has the votes right now,” Feinstein said today on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “I think there’s a lot of concern in the Democratic caucus.” Controlling costs of the new system is a “difficult subject.”
So the very wealthy DiFi, who hasn't met an appropriation she wouldn't try to swing to her husband's company and ended up having to resign from the Military Construction Appropriations committee when this conflict came to light, and lucky recipient of free healthcare, courtesy of the U.S. Senate, doesn't think that the 59 (nay, 60, if Franken ever gets his seat) Democrats can actually pull it together to vote for the health care reform that a HUGE percentage of Americans want?
Pardon my French, Di, but WHY THE FRAK NOT???? Her answers don't make a lot of sense, frankly:
FEINSTEIN: Ergo, you have enormous problems in my state. California’s bigger than the populations of 21 states and the District of Columbia put together. We have an enormous health care industry, 350 hospitals. University of California alone has 34,000 health care workers, has health care worth $4 billion a year. So it’s complicated. Additionally, the state is in a state of financial catastrophe. I think that’s clear. So, if you change the Medicaid rate, for example, it has an impact on California between $1 billion and $5 billion a year. Now, how could I support that? Because it would take down the state.
Er...huh? Does the fact that these costs are offset by the savings to employers not come into play? How about the fact that by creating a public option, health care costs would be a lower percentage of the average income to individuals and companies? How about the greater costs we all absorb now to cover the uninsured and underinsured? This is not that complicated: COVERING EVERYONE WILL SAVE LIVES AND MONEY.
Then Feinstein becomes even more puzzling:
You also have enormous profit centers in the health care industry, in pharmaceuticals, in medical insurance. And I wonder about these profit centers. Because, unless you have some method to control these profits, premiums continue to rise in the private sector, as they have over the past eight years, substantially.
Therefore, controlling costs is a very major and difficult subject, as long as you have a large private-sector involvement. So this needs to be worked out.
The profits in health care are obscene. Look at what CEOs took home. Elizabeth Edwards famously said that $1 out every $700 spent in this country for health care went to pay the CEO of UnitedHealth. But here's where I'm flummoxed by this statement by Feinstein. If we have a public option that lowers the costs to consumers, doesn't the "free market" then naturally depress these profit centers in health care by forcing them to be competitive with the public option? Isn't that a good thing, Di?
The stakes are too high for these kind of nonsensical arguments from ridiculously privileged politicos ignoring the will of the people. Please consider donating to our Campaign for Health Care Choice to make your voice heard.
Transcripts below the fold
KING: Senator Feinstein, I see you nodding. I want you to come into the conversation to see if you agree with Senator Lugar, that it should be incremental. But first, I went out to the Cleveland Clinic this week. The CEO is very impressive, Toby Cosgrove. It’s a place where they give some of the best care in the world and they do it at a much lower cost than many places around the world. And he’s a big champion of reform, the CEO is, but he also worries about the cost. I’m going to liken it to the ketchup or mustard pack you get at that ball game. If you squeeze it too hard, it sprays out somewhere and you get unexpected results. He said he is worried. The president has said, as you know, and your state would be hard-hit by this, that the immediate savings should come from Medicare and Medicaid. That’s one of the ways to pay for it. Dr. Cosgrove says that might be fine, but if you do it too fast and you take too much out of the program, there will be huge negative results among them, he says could be this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. TOBY COSGROVE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CLEVELAND CLINIC: The first thing you still see happening is a deferment of all of the reinvestment in the infrastructure. Classic example of that what’s happened to the national health in England. They didn’t invest in any of their infrastructure for 50 years, and now a lot of the hospitals in England are 100 years older and way behind. So, you know, if you begin to take money out, it will make a difference. And it will hurt the system in some way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: As a leading Democrat in the Congress, is your president trying to seize this political moment because he has the votes right now and the political capital in the first year in office? And might he as a result potentially do more harm than good if you try to do this all at once?
FEINSTEIN: Well to be candid with you, I don’t know that he has the votes right now. I think there’s a lot of concern in the Democratic caucus. Senator Lugar’s point about the economy, the trillions of dollars that have gone into buttressing the economy, now we’re going to be dealing with regulation of the financial sector. What all of the impact of this is not yet known.
FEINSTEIN: Ergo, you have enormous problems in my state. California’s bigger than the populations of 21 states and the District of Columbia put together. We have an enormous health care industry, 350 hospitals. University of California alone has 34,000 health care workers, has health care worth $4 billion a year.
So it’s complicated. Additionally, the state is in a state of financial catastrophe. I think that’s clear. So, if you change the Medicaid rate, for example, it has an impact on California between $1 billion and $5 billion a year.
Now, how could I support that?
Because it would take down the state.
You also have enormous profit centers in the health care industry, in pharmaceuticals, in medical insurance. And I wonder about these profit centers. Because, unless you have some method to control these profits, premiums continue to rise in the private sector, as they have over the past eight years, substantially.
Therefore, controlling costs is a very major and difficult subject, as long as you have a large private-sector involvement. So this needs to be worked out.
The issue of coverage, I think, you raised -- over $1 trillion to cover 16 million people. We have 6.6 million people without coverage and below the poverty line. So just to cover them becomes a huge, huge problem.
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for those USAers that want socialized healthcare. Move to a nation that has it. Put aside all that patriotic political exploitation and manmade borders, and move. It's the ONLY way the that you will ever in many lifetimes have anything approaching the healthcare other nations have. That's the sad truth. Neither of these parties wants anything closely resembling universal healthcare and never will.
Conservatives don't hide their feelings about the little guy they don't support and the corporations they do support. This band of Democrats pretend to support the little guy, but in truth they care about as much as the conservatives. They got theirs to hell with everyone else.
As Maher said the other night, "These Democrats are the new Republicans". We don't have a party for middle class working people now.
It is the party of wealth, power, property and privilege.
It has two wings: a 'Right" wing--the Dims--and a Far-Right wing.
We have NEVER had a "workers' party." Wouldn't do to let the workers think they have any power. They might wanna have a piece of the action. And there's really only enough action for the parties we already have.
There will NEVER be a "workers'" or a "people's" Party here. The Owners would never permit it.
I agree completely. The democrats somehow became the republican party. Its really sad to say this but there is no more party of the people. It doesn't help that our bloggers seem to be falling lock step in the behind Obama bandwagon as well. Not naming names here but I will say that publications like the DailyKos seem to be less about the progressive movement now and more about being a Democratic support platform even going so far as to ban some progressives who were calling them out on it. Its really quite sad what has happened and in all honesty I am not sure who I am going to vote for in the next election. I will not vote wingnut and I will not vote wannabe wing nut, what is left? Ralph Nader?!?
I don't eat much and am cheap to keep.
!!!!
With "Democrats" like these, they'll never need to elect Republicans again.
Feinstein or Pelosi...
i have hated all three since the start of their political careers
feinstein is the worst of the lot
she is no dem
It sucks because about 20 years ago they had a conservative commentator, Bruce Herchensen I think, challenge one of the two of them for their seat ( I think it was Boxer) I voted for Boxer because not only was Herchensen a nut, he wanted to place oil rigs all up and down the coast of California.
20 years later and the same senator and that might happen anyway.
Au contraire, she is every bit a dem.
The river does not swell with clear water.
Remember "New and Better Dems"
Fieistein is neither. Time for her to go.
"Of course Public Health won't work", just like Public Roads and Bridges don't work, and Public sewers, and Public paid for stop-lights and, well, Government (well it does look to be rotting away from the inside).
Just like Social Security doesn't work, and Medicare & Medicaid, though popular ....don't work.
Liars, Liars everywhere, and me without my Super Squirter!
No Dems for me, I want a completely new model.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjHMf5TNsHQ
I have passed my limit on ysb links today.
The Democratic Party is dead and buried
And I do NOT support "The Public Option".
I support Conyers H.R. 676 which is a National SINGLE PAYER health care program.
The so-called "Public Option" is a smokescreen to make us think we're getting something. Any "program" that includes a FINE if I don't buy into it is a total non-starter for me.
If anybody should be FINED it's the F'ing Congress!!! for being shills of the corporate healthcare/pharma industries!!
I will continue to call for the level of health care insurance every member of Congress is receiving with OUR TAX DOLLARS!
Don't know how to pay for it Congress? How about cutting the Pentagon budget and stopping our illegal occupations all over the freakin' planet?
It's time to have the American tax dollars come back to the American People with something we all desperately NEED!!! Healthcare that won't bankrupt or kill us and our families!
Abbybwood, R.N.
Or Life vs. Death.
Exactly abbybwood.
How hard is that?
"Au contraire, she is every bit a dem.
The river does not swell with clear water."
Your master has taught you well Grasshopper but you still have much to learn. It is the non-swollen water that is drinkable.
what they deserve for voting them into power.
They have a word for women like this...and it doesn't begin with "b".
granted she is not that much better, but not in the same competition of utter incompetence and doubletalk as Pelosi and Feinstein seem to be engaged...
Yeah, I once signed an on-line petition calling for Bush's impeachment. I received an e-mail from her office, advising me that impeachment was "divisive" so she would not support it.
I don't know why some Democrats are so weak.
that tends to benefit her family's interests. Her utter support for anything related to military expenditure, and her husband's relation to the military complex don't strike me as "coincidental."
Mon, 06/22/2009 - 10:11 — Snidely Whiplash
Our reaction to Congress's foot dragging on the issue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj3DBcpfMNQ
I love the clip!
Bill Maher put it succinctly: "Democrats are the new Republicans."
And in fact it's true.
The "Southern Strategy" that put Reagan in power put the wackos in charge of the Republican Party.
Then Clinton co-opted the center-right corporatists who had previously been the central core of the Republican Party.
And Obama's WhiteHouse is crawling with Clintonistas.
DLCers.
they need to go to health. single payer please. and just how they rationalize their corrupt incompetent actions and deadly (non-actions, actually) is something to behold.
health care is about health. not wealth for privateers.
they wished.
The Dems are so f*cking stupid, that they apply a higher standard to themselves which basically guarantees a failure of almost anything they want to pass.... Oh, wait...
I'm sick of that BS "you need 60 votes to pass anything" argument, mainly because it isn't true. You can pass things during the reconciliation process without 60 votes, and Feinstein knows that.
She's just hoping the rest of us don't.
They think that only a few of us know how it works, and that the majority are too stupid or lazy to catch up.
they're right.
these people are our elected officials. Their purpose is to listen to and effect the will of the people (US). The people have said overwhelmingly that they want affordable health care - government run or otherwise. But we have OUR servants telling us NO - you CAN'T have that! It's too expensive! Hey, you found billions to fight an illegal war, you can find billions to fund health care.
This has got to stop. Maybe we have to start civil disobedience, marches, boycotts, etc.
And these spineless, out of touch, Democrat cowards need to be targeted in 2010 and 2012 for defeat.
Are too busy sitting in front of their big screen TVs catching up on the latest round of bread and circuses involving Britney Lohan or Paris Jolie or whoever the hell got thrown in jail, released from jail or provided the paparazzi with the latest crotch shot, sucking down hard lemonade and texting one handed on two different super phones at the same time to ever get off their asses and protest anything again. The closest you're likely to see to a good old fashioned mass uprising over anything in this country is an increase in indignant twitter posts or some flipping such.
We're pretty much consumers observers, tweeters and texters, not participants. As long as they keep bringing out new crap for us to buy in order to stay one step ahead of the neighbors, we're pretty much good to go with just about whatever they decide to do as long as the major effect is on the next lower spots in the food chain.
How many demonstrations have you attended, or better yet! instigated? If 75% of Americans support Public Option, we will get it- perhaps not as quickly as we want, but we'll get it.
which is, effectively, never...
None of the cowardly, sold-out sacks of feces is gonna change their stench.
They have no incentive. they're safe as houses in their legislative seats, they get the best of all possible worlds, and they have not a single fear for their own health or welfare.
"...they're safe as houses in their legislative seats.."
No they are NOT. And they're beginning to realize that.
is the most amazing thing
the dems are in the pockets of big pharma and the insurance companies
its over
give it up
and i will not cry when they are tossed out of power in 2010
for they are idiots and deserve shite
That's why the Dims cannot STAY in power.
People elect these clods in their hope to get a voice in govt.
And the Dims ignore the people time and time again.
But are you saying the "Dims", as you so cutely put it, are the only ones?
I'm just sooo disappointed in the Democratic party because they used to
be somewhat supportive of the working folk.
I don't even listen to the Greedy Oligarch Party anymore.
usually only one group of people call 'em "Dims."
thanks for pointing that out!
I don't watch teevee or listen to radio, so I'm ignorant of
some of these nuances.
This bitch is either a bald face liar or is serverely challenged in arithmetic.
Ya like yer wimmin like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M07v-h0pCD8
Tell the truth...
Are you sitting in your mom and dad's basement right now in your pajamas eating Cheetohs???
Ha!!!!!
(The funny thing is you're probably some Wall Street trader in a suit and tie with your feet cocked up on a desk with a secretary who's always wondering what the hell's so damn funny.)
Eliminate all private involvement by passing single-payer. The money will work itself out, especially if we end involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Problem solved.
exactly.
I am going out for batteries for my magic wand.
I'll be right back and we will fix this entire thing up right.
Make sure you get Dura-Shills!
Doctors and medical corporations still exist as private entities under single-payer, it is just the HMOs that become irrelevant. As they should.
It is astounding, that the will of the people is being completely subsumpted by a few corporations whose business plan consist mainly of increasing healthcare costs by almost 40% just to deny care to mst people forced to pay that extra 40%.
buying Congressmen/women?
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/lookup....
Mark this day on your calendars as the day Diane Feinstein publicly admitted that she has been bribed by the health insurance industry. I am making a list, so if anyone wants to add to it, let me know.
I'd love to have that list for a reference.
n/t
Frankly I'm pleased this "effort" to reform health care in America is gonna crash and burn.
Why? Because all proposals that have been "on the table" are just expensive bandaids on a broken system.
I hate to say this, but I think it's all going to have to get a whole lot worse (and I'm sure it will) before enough people un-elect their phoney representatives and replace them with ones who will do the will of the people.
I've always maintained the system will have to break before anyone will get serious about fixing it. So the sooner it breaks..
the sooner we can get down to some serious house cleanin.
The healthcare for profit of the free market system has failed. Clean house.
...the masses are content to hold their couches down and stuff their fat faces, and buy stuff they don't need.
But they could just as easily elect a corn pone nazi, a la Reagan. Or even worse, just imagine!
I know ..
And I shudder when I think about what the next 20-25 years might bring here in the US.
As for the system breaking, we haven't seen anything yet. There are three more trillion in losses coming down the financial sewer pipes in the next two years in alt A, option ARM and commercial mortgage default, and fifteen trillion in naked credit default swaps that may bust when the losses hit.
The banks haven't written down all of the losses they have now through the flim flam accounting allowed by the flim flam artists at FASB.
We have bailed the crooks out so they will be back.
Then there is peak oil. We have a rough ten years in front of us followed by a general collapse.
I am a bundle of joy.
No pun intended, but there are now solar powered magic wands that can be charged under a lamp on rainy days. Really.
EXACTLY what we need at a time like this!
Sign me up!
Those are low power models!
even asking for reform. It would be better leaving things just the way they are now, because you can be sure that anything that gets passed now that the corporations are so firmly in control will hurt us and benefit them.
My thought exactly - you put it quite succinctly.
And they are NOT from China!
Are you sure?
Just some wishful thinking on my part.
or are you just playing with us?
to no avail...
Did you know there are quite a few sites referring to dildos as "magic wands"?
Yeah..me either, lol!
To each their own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okd3hLlvvLw
One's house doesn't have to burn down in order to repair it: even if the foundation is rotten. You don't 'total' your car before taking it to the mechanic- even if it has 2 blown head-gaskets. If you have a broken leg, you don't break all your other bones before getting the leg fixed.
A total collapse of the US Government, the economy, and society in the USA would be calamitous, a nightmare of civil war and Balkanization, similar to that of Russia in the 90's. The criminal & drug Mobs, the Religious Crazys, and the International Corporations would destroy us. We'd be a lot like the Yugoslavia-breakup situation, only bigger.
Anyone able (financially or just quick on his/her feet) to do so, would LEAVE. Even MAD MAX.
We know the system is rotten and corrupt, and We (Bloggers & many others) are working to clean out the rot and fix things NOW. And demanding & getting Single Payer is a HUGE step in the right direction, which is why the forces of staggering Greed and absolute Power are so terrified, so insanely AGAINST it.
We need to think of and apply New & Better ways to change and improve the system. The internet is the best tool/weapon since the printing press, heck since writing was invented! Don't underestimate Twitter just because it hasn't instantly brought peace & freedom to Iran. Twitter has assisted them in beginning to change.
Twitter is also very very good at demonstrating to Us how utterly contemptible and stupid so many of our politicians are. That's useful. The People should NEVER trust or "have faith" in Government. Constant vigaelance, and so forth.
Phew, I'm pooped.
I agree on how awful a complete breakdown of the system would be. Massively brutal.
Health care is a CIVIL RIGHT!
And we've already BOUGHT IT!
Maybe a class-action lawsuit against the Federal Government is in order.
The majority of the citizens are demanding to have the same healthcare that Congress is ENJOYING.
The same peace of mind that they and their families have.
All I know is that the time for TALKING is OVER!
We need to take ORGANIZED ACTION NOW because these Crooks and Criminals in Congress have this legislation on a Fast Track!
you're 100% right!
What do you propose?
I will say one thing for all of this. More people are becoming involved in politics.
So, you are
"Sorry to say this- Frankly I'm pleased this "effort" to reform health care in America is gonna crash and burn."
You sound pretty damm pleased to me. Do you enjoy car wrecks, burning houses, earthquakes & floods. Just wondering.
but better democrats.
she needs to be shown the door. like yesterday. same with pelosi.
That is the tactic Feinstein and others are taking to appease their corporate sponsors.
Estimate are that Kennedy's plan would cost $1.6 Trillion - over 10 years.
And the Dodd et all proposal would cost $1 Trillion - over 10 years.
The US spends a Trillion Dollars on "defense" EVERY YEAR.
And just gave SEVERAL Trillion Dollars to the Banking Crooks - in LESS than one year.
Too expensive ???
pffffft
Was $1.3 Trillion too expensive for W to give away in his tax cut? Was his unnecessary war worth what it cost? Get over this expense and know that the premiums now paid wil reduce that number significantly along with savings from efficiency. We need Single Payer.
Compared to the current "system" - Single Payer would save $400 Billion PER YEAR in administrative costs AND cover everyone.
It's a no-brainer.
Why don't they stop advertising their poisons on TV and in magazines, and pay for the whole thing with the savings? Why is it that advertising of drugs is illegal in all civilized countries except the US and New Zealand.
are going to put that $1.6 Trillion in their pockets.
if we spend the money on healthcare...it will reduce the dollars we can give to big business..which means they won't be able to pay out big bonuses...which means they wonn't be able to hire the best and the brightest...our industries will collapse...our economy will spiral...and then....and then...THE TERRORISTS WIN!!!
.
the War On Iraq. with the money we've spent there to date, we could have funded this and a few other programs. Imagine what we could done with all the money we will eventually waste in Iraq.
.
these are not Dems but republican light. I'm going to do the same thing I started doing in reference to republicans and start spelling it democrat with a small d. they are not even close to what I would call a " Democrat ".
to "get hurt" here in the U.S. for a cause so they get away with this racket.
"
I'm going to ... start spelling it democrat with a small d.
"
Yes, that should make a big difference.
(Feinstein) is lower than the worms in pig shit.
or for that matter pig shit by lumping them in the same sentence with Fienstein.
Obviously this is clearly the "message" being spun.
getting something for themselves.
why would we even need medicaid? The state could eliminate that cost.
if they would only give We the People the legislation that would help us.
Hahahahahahahahahhaaaaa!
What am I thinking?
DiFi = facepalm.
She really should change political parties, her long charade of being a "democrat" is getting old.
are taking turns stepping into the limelight to attempt to quash 'Single Payer'. I wonder if they draw straws or use "Rock Paper Scissors?" to decide whose turn it is this week?
Their efforts aren't working well. "We haven't got the votes" they snivel. And We reply (flashback to 'Paper Moon' where Tatum O'Neil says to her dad: "THEN...GET....IT")
So Ms. Fi: GET the votes.
"We have an enormous health care industry, 350 hospitals. University of California alone has 34,000 health care workers, has health care worth $4 billion a year. So it’s complicated"
The problem is that so many greedy bastards have turned what should be a public service concern into a big freakin' cash cow - cash comes in from health insurance for COVERAGE OF HEALTH NEEDS, and is turned into enormous salaries, bonuses and perks for the '''entrepreneurs''', and all the while the '''insured''' are taking it up the wazoo when those paid by the health INDUSTRY work to prevent the covered from getting good coverage. No kidding it's complicated. AND it's highway robbery.
Too complicated for us pea brains? I read once that a sign of genius is the ability to whittle complicated ideas down to easily understandable terms. Let's see her do that. She has staff.
It is complicated, but the solution is simple.
Single payer, the government of we the peons says what will be paid.
Genius in the wrong body is used to make something simple sound impossibly complicated.
scores. The "have nots" have limited income, so they can only be taxed so much. That leaves the "haves," who do not want to pay any tax at all, especially to care for the "have nots." Therefore, through attrition, which includes in a big way, as little health care as possible, the "have nots" are eliminated. That is what will satisfy the "haves," also known as corporatists. The whole process becomes know as "genocide."
Congress needs an enema!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT2qK_FCH6A
I made my suggestion yesterday.
You want public healthcare...everyone mail the Congress a stool sample.
to anyone. And that you are being a joker about it.
I also know it takes weeks for snail mail to reach a congresscritter, what with all the security stuff. They'd never get it in time, even if it got through.
Small box, saran wrap, FedEx...done...and NO...I'm not kidding.
What? Saran wrap?
How bout some o' them glad freezer bags inside of those disposable food container thingies?
They make all manner of festive designs and colors nowadays!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La2wjN0Fps8&fe...
Im against the "public option" for the healthcare reform discussion thats currently ongoing in Washington, but I dont understand you dems. "Cost control" is obviously going to be a major roadblock to the "selling" of this reform to the general public and congressional leaders. Here's the solution......get ready......why dont you combine Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP and any other federal subsidy program that deals with healthcare into the public option. Reform the Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP programs and use the taxes that are ALREADY collected through employers/employees as a way to fund the "public option." What people are seeing is just another welfare plan on top of numerous other welfare plans that have failed. COMBINE THEM!
Additionally, as another way to sell your "public option" to a much wider audience.....consider this........
1) To decrease the fears of people who are afraid that government will continue to raise taxes to pay for a failing program (the public option).......include in the healthcare reform bill a provision that states that the government has to "break even" every year. If the government generates a "profit" then those profits can either be put back into the system to increase efficiency or put into some sort of financial savings account for future use when the government needs it. Secondly, this will eliminate people thinking that this is going to be another entitlement program running wild with no end in sight. If the government cannot "break even" then it must CUT benefits. This kind of fiscal responsibility will put the government in DIRECT competition with private insurance. This way, both public and private insurance have to pull in revenue to "break even." This in compliance with traditional American values.
2) Since the government will have its hand in the insurance game with the "public option"....the government should release the private health insurance companies from all mandates that were placed onto them. This way, when the government competes with the private insurance sector toe to toe.....there can be no excuses as to who the winners and losers are. Everyone is on the same platform.
Insurance "game?" We know what side you are on.
Dont kid yourself. Politics is a game. Not of these "elected" officials really have a clue what its like out in the real world.
And this is where the discussion breaks down, everyone has to be on a SIDE. Either you have to be FOR the insurance companies or FOR the government. You can't be for both......which is where the solution for our healthcare system is going to come from. Both the private insurance companies/providers and the government.
Until people wake up and realize this, one of two things will happen
1) Nothing will happen. We will go on "as is" and the broke system will remain.
2) Congress will pass a piece of healthcare reform that is so loaded with favors towards special interest groups alongside no real clear definition on how any of the "reforms" are sustainable in the long-term....that it will ultimately be pointless.....and a complete mess.
And if you think there are no sides to be taken, they you are naive. And I can see that you are not naive. So, you are entitled to your opinion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnjT1AloSNw&fe...
That was an entirely tactlessly insulting comment.
But (s)he was saying that Feinstein is right, Obama may not have the votes.
Really, where is the surprise there?
This is the Senate that just passed by unanimous consent the 'Graham-Lieberman bill, which seeks to make it illegal to make public any images of US prisoner abuse and torture from the Bush era'.
The Senate from hell.
I think there's at least four or five health reform bills, all coming from Democrats, with only a broad outiline from President Obama, for Congress to fill in.
So they are essentially cancelling each other out.
It must be good. I have never seen such deference to such a black-hearted lying cheating thieving bastard ever.
It's called snark and irony.
But hey, much better to be insulting, isn't it? What are YOU doing to contribute to a productive conversation.
Why would you need Medicaid, Medicare, SCHIP, and Im probably missing a couple of other federal subsidy healthcare programs when you create the "public option"? The public option should cover everyone regardless of age. You can then pull in the taxes that are already being collected from the American populace to fund Medicare/Medicaid and apply it towards the "public option." Why do we want 5 different welfare programs when the option is there to have only one and to ultimately make it much leaner and efficient?
Again, I dont support the public option.....but if I did....then this would be the first solution I would be throwing at my representative when talking about upfront "cost."
at 10:34
"Again, I dont support the public option"
So- what brand & type on medical insurance do you have? What do your premiums cost, what is your deductible? Are you married? Do you have kids, and if so do any of them have serious allergies of handicaps? Ever felt a lump in your breast (and men do get breast cancer) and wondered if you should have it checked ASAP, or maybe you should wait?
Are you wealthy, or are you living from paycheck-to-paycheck? Or are you somewhere in between, with savings in the bank and a low mortgage? with a trustworthy bank?
Can you give me three accurate and true examples of the "Free Market" being beneficial to anyone but the Rich?
Is your job completely secure?
The American people, (not the rich ones), are going to have to develop a "Takin' to the street" attitude". Our so called represetatives are kicking us to the curb.
It's OK to disagree with her position on health care reform and other things, but to call her a Democrat in name only just flies in the face of facts. She's consistently been rated highly by groups that espouse liberal views or supported by liberals. That's hardly a DINO.
Again don't mind if you disagree with her, but it's stupid and undermines your argument if you're going to call her something when her voting record says otherwise. Please visit Project Vote Smart to see such ratings.
I have a long history of being represented by Dianne Feinstein.
Believe me when I tell you that no one would term Dianne Feinstein a liberal. She is at best a moderate Democrat, and that's being charitable.
Support for choice and gay marriage does not a liberal make.
We need everyone on the left to go change their voter registration to independent. You're not saying your voting conservative, you're saying you have the right to not vote for them and pick a third party and if you're really pissed you can vote for a rightard. When they see a rush of Dems changing to Indies they'll know. All we need is an organized movement. I'm headed downtown Wednesday and I'm stopping at the courthouse to change to an Independent (not a Liebermann Independent). I've had enough of these week useless Democrats. I'll vote for Nader or Barr next time.
Barr!!!!!
BARRRRRRRRRR… FFFFFFFFFFF!!!!
Don't worry about 'Independent' how about Socialist.
about as useless as the pope's balls.
On second thought, don't answer that question.
Don't get me started!
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/myst...
I will do that too. Its a start.
...when the insurance industry has our elected representatives (House and Senate) in their back pockets??
then we need to knock the insurance industry onto its ass. Everyone who has been bribed or otherwise corrupted by it needs to be exposed and suffer consequences. That'll happen. Sorry. I lost my mind for a minute.
a call to action, requesting that the congress critters reinvest their $$'s received back into health care -- in clinics serving the people either in their own states or DC -- providing care, meds, surgery, radiation treatments, glasses, prosthetics, in home nursing, etc, etc.
"Sorry. I lost my mind for a minute." --- ooops, me too.
If we put aside pressuring Congress for a week or two. Instead:
instead, if all (or a lot) of people went out this week and cancelled their med insurance, whether it comes thru work or 'other'.
This would mean the Gov would end up paying up the medical tab, one way or another, and the Insurance Companies would loose a chunk of money. Such a 'strike' might give us -the people- a bit of power.
The Insurance Co's AND the Government are aware of this: that's why they want to make med insurance mandatory. I wonder what the penalty will be if one doesn't get med insurance? Suspension of- ? what?
Or would it mean...Jail?
The people who do NOT cancel their insurance will pay with increased premiums and lesser coverage. Rule #1 of corporations: We NEVER lower our profits.
I used to really enjoy reading this blog, but lately it is not giving me the information that I need and want.
Dianne Feinstein is wealthy. What does that have to do with the merits of what she is saying - that it might be risky to enact health care reform right now, which is going to dramatically affect the economy in some way, in the midst of a massive economic crisis, and that taking money out of Medicaid to pay for it is going to impact a lot of people?
It might be that her reasons for being hesitant to enact health care reform are not valid, and if so I want to know why. But the amount of money she has, the health plan that she uses for her own medical care, and a gratuitous reference to a past conflict of interest situation concerning military contracting, which she addressed by stepping down from a subcommittee charimanship, tell me absolutely nothing about the how best to proceed with health care reform or how to evaluate the statements she makes in this clip.
I would really like more substance and less irrelevant ad hominem snark on this blog, which has been so informative in the past.
would lower the cost of healthcare and be the biggest and best boost to the economy. Take away the 30-50% of administrative and profits that the insurance companies have and put that money into the pockets of citizens and the economy would flourish.
Is that it appears to blind her to the needs of her constituents. She is not suffering, so therefore, she sees no reason to be motivated by the HUGE public sentiment for a public option.
The rest of that snark is really to reinforce that DiFi's a DINO.
As to the reasons that her stated hesitation is invalid, I DID offer up some suggestions as to why that might be incorrect. It's not my job to give you answers. It's my job to raise questions as to why this woman does not want to do the people's business. We've offered many, many links in past posts to show why we think single payer is the ideal but a public option is a minimal requirement for health care reform.
But moreover, Dianne Feinstein is playing into Republican memes about healthcare reform. Stupid, idiotic politics and I'm not afraid to say that to her face. The Democrats should not be fracturing on this, but they are, and they are doing so because of their own personal benefit (hence the conflict problem in DiFi's past), not because there isn't overwhelming public sentiment.
She should be on TV castigating Republicans for being obstacles to what the people want, not using nonsensical and illogical arguments to bolster their obstructionism.
Actually vote in the interests of her own but millions of other constituents? Art tha daft, girl?
That might cost her a couple THOUSAND $$$ in donations from her wealthy, PUKE patrons in SFO, where she lives and hangs out with the other wealthy Pukes
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