Health Care Summit Thread

Filed in National by on February 25, 2010

Might as well put up a thread.  Begins at 10:00.

If you’re watching please add your thoughts in the comment’s section.  I hope to catch a lot of this.

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A stay-at-home mom with an obsession for National politics.

Comments (65)

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  1. cassandra_m says:

    This is playing on CSpan.org if you can watch from work. Cspan says they are live Twittering (?) this (cspan) and doing coverage on Facebook.

  2. anon says:

    Reid just pulls the “entitled to your opinion, but not your own facts” line on Lamar! , basically calling him a liar, after Lamar! asserted America doesn’t want comprehensive HCR.

    Interesting – Reid attributed the line to Sen. Moynihan.

    Reid continues marshalling an impressive list of facts countering Lamar!’s opening statement, hitting the “these are the facts” theme. Too bad Reid’s sudden combativeness is in the service of his crap Senate bill and not a public option.

  3. cassandra_m says:

    Reid also schooled Alexander on the deal on reconciliation.

  4. anon says:

    Obama is taking a little advantage of being POTUS to interrupt and dominate Lamar!… too much of that and he will start to look bad.

    Lamar! made a inaccurate claim about costs of Dem HCR, and WHAP! Obama knows it cold and smacks it down. Wow – this is impressive if Obama turns out to be correct on this.

  5. anon says:

    Coburn pulls out the musty ‘waste and fraud’ thing. And tort reform.

  6. pandora says:

    Hmmm… Republicans keep talking about money.

    Is that really a good strategy for the Rs – especially since the Ds keep putting a human face on HCR.

  7. V says:

    It’s kind of hilarious Coburn wants to talk about medical malpractice “extortion” since he once sterilized a patient without her consent.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27269-2004Sep16.html

  8. anon says:

    When are they going to get to the death panels?

  9. Desmond says:

    Kyl, just gave it to the Dems with the CBO numbers!

  10. anon says:

    Obama is calling out the GOP plan as junk insurance.

  11. anon says:

    Maybe we should think twice about Reid making them filibuster… ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz…………

  12. a.price says:

    wow. he just put mccain in “time out” “the campaign is over, john”

  13. pandora says:

    It twas a thing of beauty – and one I fully expect the press to jump on. Ouch!

  14. V says:

    oh my god i hope they do, i missed it!

  15. a.price says:

    Obama looks like he wants to kill Cantor.

  16. anon says:

    Obama had the Secret Service sweep the room for public option advocates this morning.

    Left cspan running during lunch break. Paulbots calling in.

  17. nona says:

    Obama sure gets testy when facing a “summit” not packed with suckups lackeys and rent seekers already on board with him.

    No doubt that “shut up, we’re right, you’re only here to agree and that’s all, otherwise get out” will prove really winning strategery for the WH.

    This will be a debacle for the Dems. No amount of emotional pap and sob stories can distract from the nuts and bolts insanity of the Dems government takeover of health care in those 1000’s of pages.

  18. cassandra_m says:

    This is the kind of testy that you see when all you get for having some thought out and reasoned positions are already debunked talking points and silly political theater. This was supposed to be an exchange of ideas. All the repubs brought were their usual talking points — which is probably tough to see since this is largely your own language when posting here.

    These repubs could do themselves a favor by offering up something that may get the job done.

  19. romeo says:

    Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the health summit: “It’s about jobs. In it’s life, it [the health bill] will create 4 million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”

    so lower costs with millions more on the payroll… more magical “thinking” from the political left.

  20. a.price says:

    nona is proof that all the rethugs have left is false Rove written talking points. keep effin that chicken, guys.

  21. cassandra_m says:

    and romeo (RICO, Lizard or whatever sockpuppet name you go by) continues to add evidence to my theory that innumeracy (and basic economics) are a predicate condition for being a conservative.

  22. nona says:

    And you two are proof that you got nothing except recycled ad hominems and childish name calling. Rove? Seriously? I’d say get out of 2008 but you haven’t even left 2007 yet.

    It must suck to own your failures so blazingly? Get used to it.

  23. pandora says:

    Boy, nona sure gets testy when facing a blog not packed with suck-up lackeys and rent seekers already on board with him.

    Which is really quite telling.

  24. cassandra_m says:

    And here is nona who is the embodiment of recycled ad hominems and childish name calling.

    But he has plenty of experience with sticking to his own failures, so perhaps he will regale us with one or two tales of woe.

  25. romeo says:

    It’s good to be the King…

    spectator.org ^ | Feb. 25, 2010 | Philip Klein
    After Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell noted that Democrats’ opening statements had lasted twice as long as Republicans, President Obama responded that his time shouldn’t count in the calculation. “There was an imbalance in the opening statements, because I’m the President,” Obama declared. “And I didn’t count my time in terms of dividing it evenly.” Throughout the morning session, Obama repeatedly cut off Republicans, citing time constraints. Yet he took as much time as he wanted to respond to Republicans. Not only did Obama use more time, he also tried to limit the terms of the debate.

  26. Jason330 says:

    Playing catch up. Republicans just want to fuck shit up, Obama continues to indulge them. Is that the deal?

  27. cassandra_m says:

    AP Fact Checks Alexander’s bamboozement:

    When President Barack Obama and a Republican lawmaker sparred Thursday over what might happen to health insurance premiums in an overhauled system, both cited a nonpartisan analysis that looked at that very question. The president gave a fairer summary of what the analysis found.

  28. anon says:

    I think a lot of this is aimed at bringing House and Senate Dems together on the reconciliation bill. Some of the wavering Dems need cover to vote for this, and Obama is providing it. The optics are good too. But there will be a fight for spin on the “who won” narrative.

  29. anon says:

    Lamar! tried to get away with classic truthiness. He cited a number that was “accurate” but misleading.

  30. anon says:

    Blackburn still talking about “starting over.”

    Wants to have insurance companies sell across state lines.

    Great – then we will all have the worst insurance available in any state. It’ll be a race to the bottom.

    Hell, why stop there, why not get our health insurance from Russia or China or India? (we already get our mortgage money from China).

    Obama answering now…. says maybe, but there needs to be standards – offers up the exchanges.

  31. Delaware Dem says:

    RE Lamar!

    You know things are bad when the Associated Press basically calls Lamar a liar, because he is. President Obama was correct on the facts about the CBO.

  32. just kiddin says:

    CNN: Wolf Blitzer had Donna Brazil and Ben Stein on as a guest. He made an outrageous statement. Stein said, “the reason republicans are against the health care bill, is because we republicans pay more taxes than Democrats”? Brazil called it “patently false”. Stein commented, “well you make a big salary” to which Brazil stated, “I pay for my own health care, I don’t want to pay for someone else.

    Steins words, (as are Limbaughs) code for Obama being a socialist wanting rich people to pay for poor people (black and minorities). We know the majority of poor and minorities belong to the democratic party. Stein is a public whore for corporate amerikka and the republican party and Wolf Blitzer an idiot for bringing him and his rascist views on CNN.

  33. just kiddin says:

    To Anon: India and China thats where are generic drugs come from instead of buying in volume from Canada.

  34. Delaware Dem says:

    The winner of the Healthcare summit:

    h/t Progressive Delmarva

  35. anon says:

    Some hatchet-faced GOPer talking about starting over… didn’t catch the caption identifying him. Whines about Medicare cuts. Obama does a great job educating on the difference between Medicare Advantage (private) and regular Medicare.

  36. just kiddin says:

    Cost of Iraq and Afganistan Wars? $964,774,920,515 and still moving on up! No Congressional Budget office input, no republican/democrat debate for months, just war and more war. Both wars of choice could have paid for all the american health care costs and still had money left over. Nuff said.

  37. Delaware Dem says:

    Kevin Drum distills this all down:

    The one topic that Democrats keep hammering on over and over is the problem of insurance companies refusing to cover people with preexisting conditions. [….]

    For Obama, this is the ballgame. My guess is that he wants to maneuver Republicans into either (a) admitting that they’re unwilling to do regulate [insurance companies denying coverage for preexisting conditions], which would be highly unpopular, or (b) admitting, however grudgingly, that the practice needs to be banned. Because if they admit it has to be banned he can make the following argument:

    * If insurance companies are forced to take on all comers, then people can game the system by buying insurance only when they get sick. This would obviously decimate the private insurance industry.

    * So you have to require everyone to buy insurance at all times. It’s the only way to have a broad pool that keeps costs down (another frequent Obama talking point.)

    * But obviously you can’t force poor people to buy insurance they flatly can’t afford. So if you mandate coverage, then you have to subsidize low-income families that can’t afford insurance, and you have to provide incentives for small businesses so that they can cover their employees.

    * And if you do that, you have to have a funding source. Preferably one that also helps rein in premium costs. Like, oh, an excise tax.

    […] [T]he preexisting conditions problem is one of the few issues that almost universally resonates as unfair with the public, and Obama’s job is to get everyone to understand what it takes to fix it. If he does, he’ll come out of today’s summit in better shape than he went in.

    I will go one step further, the above is why you have to have COMPREHENSIVE reform that includes MANDATES. Because if you do not, and do reform incrementally by just banning the insurance co. practices of denying and rescinding coverage, then premiums will skyrocket 500% or more.

  38. anonone says:

    Mandates without a public option is extortion. Forcing people by mandate to pay for insurance company profits before their own food, housing, transportation, and actual health care costs (like deductibles) in unconscionable.

  39. anon says:

    Boner says Dem HCR will bankrupt the country… (never mind CBO score that says it wont). Now says it is govt takeover. Says individual mandate is unconstitutional (teabaggin’ it up!) Now here comes the whole list of talking points… abortion taxes bankrupt takeover…. can’t keep up.

    Obama is taking up so much time because he has to keep smacking down crap like this.

    Obama responding… calls Boner out for “talking points,” that are “not true.”

  40. MJ says:

    Two interesting items I found on the summit – http://www.americablog.com/2010/02/republican-spin-on-reconciliation-is.html and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/25/obama-to-mccain-we-are-no_n_476726.html

    I fell asleep listening to all of the GOP pontificating, especially from Coburn. What an ass.

  41. Jason330 says:

    Anon, boner said HCR would declare war on Iraq while cutting taxes and deregulating financial markets? Golly.

  42. cassandra_m says:

    Dick Durbin FTW — really he just did an outstanding job dismantling the talking points.

  43. romeo says:

    CNN Poll: Only 25% want Dems to pass their health bills….

    Washington (CNN) – Although the overall health care reform bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate are unpopular, many of the provisions in the existing bills are extremely popular, even among Republicans, according to a new national poll.

    A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday also indicates that only a quarter of the public want Congress to stop all work on health care, with nearly three quarters saying lawmakers should pass some kind of reform.

    Twenty-five percent of people questioned in the poll say Congress should pass legislation similar to the bills passed by both chambers, with 48 percent saying lawmakers should work on an entirely new bill and a quarter saying Congress should stop all work on health care reform.

    …snip…

    According to the survey, Americans are split on a public option, and they don’t like the idea of requiring everyone in the U.S. to have health insurance. The poll’s release comes one day before a critical televised health care summit hosted by President Obama that will include top Congressional Democrats and Republicans.

    The survey indicates nearly half of all Democrats say Congress should pass legislation similar to the bills passed by both chambers, with nearly 4 in 10 Democrats saying Congress should start from scratch and just 1 in 10 saying lawmakers should stop all work on health care.

    …snip…

    Fifty-two percent of Independents want Congress to start work on a new bill, with 27 percent saying lawmakers should stop all work, and 18 percent saying that the current legislation should be passed into law.

    The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall survey.

  44. romeo says:

    C-SPAN 3 ^ | Feb. 25, 2010
    Biden at Health Care Summit: “It’s easy being vice president – you don’t do anything.”

    Our Joe, every once in a while the truth just slips out.

  45. nona says:

    HCR 2010 = WMD 2002. Obomba lies while HCR dies.

    Best HC line ever.

  46. a.price says:

    oh very good! you learned how to debate using bumper stickers. next up, learn hoe to make ice!

  47. nona says:

    “learn hoe”?

    Learn to spell before you write!

    HCR 2010 = WMD 2002. Obomba lies while HCR dies!

  48. cassandra_m says:

    You are lucky a. price, to get something as coherent as a bumpersticker from nona, frankly.

  49. nona says:

    Oh lord here goes Patty Murray with sob story # 753 for this hour.

    Start the soundtrack of tiny violins and muffled sobbing.

  50. nona says:

    Mr. Creative Tax Man himself Rangel pontificating now. What a moral authority this guy is.

  51. nona says:

    John Dingell. One great Democrat. Didn’t he get started in the Jackson administration?

    Just what we need is a 67 term incumbent heir to his father’s Hoover era congressional dynasty managing the country’s future.

    What a crew those House Dems.

  52. a.price says:

    nona, those “sob stories” are you fellow americans, you heartless bastard. I hope you or anyone you love NEVER has to experience what it is like to chose between medicine and food.
    THAT is the problem with america. too many people don’t give a shit about their fellow americans. And

    I honestly could not care less about those people’s opinions since those opinions are based in selfishness and greed.

  53. cassandra_m says:

    See what I mean, a. price?

  54. Delaware Dem says:

    Nona is your typical Republican ghoul.

  55. pandora says:

    Sob stories? Such a sad statement.

  56. romeo says:

    Libs are full of compassion when they are spending someone elses money

  57. just kiddin says:

    Romeo and others: It is not that Democrats, Independents and some (sane) republicans want to reform health care. Its that those who are engaged and have some knowledge are not approving the Senate Bill, considering it to be another insurance company giveway. The majority want a public option. When this issue began 70% of americans wanted reform. But the repukes put out so many lies and confusion about a very complicated issue, people were getting their news from people like, WDEL Rick Jenson, or Rush! They assumed these people were telling them the truth, instead of realizing they were being bamboozled by corporate talking heads.

    Carpetbagger Carper on Fox News tonight pushing the terrible idea of buying across State lines.

    Obama just moments ago used the analogy of comparing insurance companies to credit card companies all moving to one state,(a rush to the bottom). Well Obama should have known it was Biden, Carper and Castle who pushed for, an created the horrific credit card ponzi scheme. The credit card companies ran to Delaware where they could use their tricks and interest fees and ultimately scammed all Americans. I wished the camera had been on Joe to see if he was wincing!

  58. Jason330 says:

    The mental indolence of the modern GOP is on full display in this thread.

  59. Delaware Dem says:

    As is the purism of some on the left.

  60. Sometimes it seems to me that Republicans don’t really understand how little some people are paid. I still remember my days as a grad student. I had enough money to get by, but it was paycheck to paycheck. Any extra expense would topple over the whole thing because your paycheck went to paying rent, food, car payment and gas. After you paid all that you had very little to play with. Even if you’re saving the money, you’re still putting away $100 here and there. Some prescriptions are that much alone. How are you supposed to pay for that with that amount of money. I was lucky as a student to be healthy and have insurance, but a lot of people in low-paying jobs do not have insurance.

  61. anonone says:

    As is the blind loyalty to support anything Obomba puts in front of them.

  62. anonone says:

    But, surely, U.I. Americans have an extra month of pay per year to help fund insurance company profits, because that’s what this bill does. Nevermind that they will have to pay co-pays on top of that to actually, you know, get healthcare.

    HCR 2010 = WMD 2002. Obomba lies while HCR dies.

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