Day: September 25, 2009

Please…Give Them Time To React

As the Senate committee goes through the mark-up thing, tempers flair and the truth comes out.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) offered a defense of Bunning’s amendment by arguing that the 72-hour provision was critical because it provides time for senators to consult with health insurance lobbyists:

All the Senator from Kentucky is asking is for 72 hours to determine the cost. Senator Snowe has spoken eloquently about sunshine, and the openness, and the fact that the American people would support this 90 percent, 95 percent. But the thing that I’m trying to point out is we would have at least 72 hours for the people that the providers have hired to keep up with all of the legislation that we pass around here, and the regulations that we pass around here, to say “hey, wait a minute. Have you considered this?” And that’s all I’m asking for — is not only cost, but also the content of a bill. And that 72 hours, I think, is highly, highly important.

To be clear, Roberts is referring to health insurance lobbyists when he references the “people that the providers have hired to keep up with all of the legislation.”

How tacky!  He wants to give the very people that are fueling the fires of  misinformation time to reload and attack.  Do you think he is getting any money from the Insurance industry?

But there is a bright spot!  And for his actions and words, Sen. Jay Rockerfeller (D-WV) wins the “balls of Steel” Award for 2009.  He said:

If there’s anything which is clear, it’s that the insurance industry is not running this markup, but it is running certain people in this markup. […]

Thanks to thinkprogress.com for the excellent reporting.

All I can say about that is….BAM!….you nailed that.

The Senate will be the hardest part of the health bill…there are way too many taking the cash from the insurance industry…..but at least someone on the committee has the cajones to tell it like it is….thank you, Sen. Rockerfeller.

And The List Gets Bigger

Yet another name has been droped into the PAC game, you know those little sites that test the water for a presidential bid.

Poilitics In Minnesota is reporting:

It was only a matter of time until GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty formed a leadership political action committee to explore running for president in 2012 . The more interesting point is what he chose to name the PAC: “Freedom First.”

The naming of leadership PACs — particularly for lesser known candidates like Pawlenty — is not an inconsequential thing. The name connotes something about how the candidate views his or her candidacy, and it says a lot about the shape of the campaign the candidate means to run. Consider the names of the leadership PACs formed by the other Republicans looking to board Air Force One in January 2013. Recent Value Voters poll winner and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has “Huck PAC;” Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, “Sarah PAC;” and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, “Free and Strong America PAC.”

So the list gets longer…..everyone in the GOP is scrambling for the leadership role for the next nomination series.  Is Pawlenty all in or is this just a a ploy to check to see if he is attractive to the people?

Don’t you just love the names they choose for their PACs…”free and strong America” or “Freedom First” like it is some noble endeavor they are preparing for…..there is NO nobility in politics anymore…..scumbags all.

More Republican Health Proposals

The following is from a group calling itself “Republican Main Street Partnership” has offered up what it calls “Principles Of Reform:

1) Preserve, protect and strengthen the private system of healthcare and the private system of health insurance. To do so, we must oppose any proposal that provides for a “government option.”

2) Shift our emphasis from the current “treatment paradigm” to one that focuses on the prevention of illness and disease.

3) Work to lower healthcare costs across the system. We should make lowering the cost of healthcare a priority.

4) Eliminate fraud and waste in both the public and private healthcare systems. Fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid systems alone costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year.

5) Enact meaningful tort reform that protects patients but at the same time ends the abuse of frivolous lawsuits brought by unscrupulous trial lawyers. The current system fails both patients and providers.

6) Harness 21st century technologies and innovation. Health information technology, for example, can save money and save lives.

7) Encourage cutting edge research and the development of new life-saving and life-extending treatments by updating the research and development tax credit and making it permanent.

8) Empower individuals to have more control over their healthcare decisions.

9) Encourage competition across the healthcare system to help lower costs and improve quality of care.

10) Prioritize federal healthcare dollars – eliminate wasteful, inefficient or unrelated spending in Healthcare Appropriations bills.

These principles sound a lot like the proposals that were given out by the GOP in recent news releases.  But who are the Repubs Main Street Partnership?

Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP) is dedicated to promoting and building a pragmatic, thoughtful, fiscally conservative, and inclusive “Governing Majority,” where political debate is encouraged to promote solutions to improve the lives of all Americans. Embracing the full spectrum of center-right ideologies and values in order to build coalitions.

Impressive sounding bunch, huh?