The state Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee held a work session last Thursday to discuss national health care reform, and how the various proposals might impact our state-administered Medicaid program. Testifying was DSHS staffer Roger Gantz, and almost from the start, Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R-Obstructionville) attempted to disrupt the discussion by threatening him with an ethics complaint.
Her beef? DSHS and the committee were using state resources to research and discuss pending federal legislation, an action she equated with illegal lobbying and campaigning.
What a load of shit.
As Sen. Ed Murray (D-Reality) helpfully pointed out, it is not an unusual practice for committees to have briefings on the scenarios the federal government may act on, and goes on to suggest that Pflug’s own efforts to threaten and intimidate Gantz, may in fact violate Senate rules on how they treat people coming before their committees.
But Pflug’s lack of etiquette aside, what this exchange really demonstrates is how incredibly frightened Republicans are to have a debate about healthcare reform at all, and how eager they are to shut it down. I mean, honestly, apart from the senators and the two people testifying, what are there, six other people in the hearing room, and maybe another couple dozen watching on TVW? And for this she’s willing to make herself look like an idiot by suggesting the Health and Long-Term Care Committee is ethically bound to avoid any long-term planning?
Coward.
Republicans are not afraid, they just have nothing to say.
On health care, they have no ideas. Really. You should take a look a “rising star” Piyush Jindal’s 10 point plan. One point is the same old, same old “tort reform” that would strip injured patients of the right to sue bad and negligent doctors, and the other 9 points are all already included in he Democratic bills (health care exchanges, bans on denial of service for pre-existing conditions or recission, and so on).
No ideas. No way to help Americans get out of the real problems they are facing. Republicans should collectively blow their brains out and get out of the way of those who want to DO something about our problems.
Really. Think about it, Republicans.
They are in fact scared shitless.
After the August craziness, pretty much every poll except (right wing hack) Rasmussen says there are supermajorities of Americans for a public option choice.
And Chait posits that reform is now a fait accompli: How Health Care Reform Won
Here: http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-pl.....reform-won
Here:
BTW, I am “represented” by Cheryl Pflug, who ran for and won Dino Rossi’s old Senate seat when he decided to try to sue his way into the governor’s mansion. Bitch. She don’t represent me.
And how like her to try to shut down substantive discussion on a burning current issue such as health care with irrelevant character assassination.
I mean, this is the basic shape of the Republican reply to Democratic dominance based on the will of the people for a party that will get things done that they like, right? It’s all about ape-like poop-flinging and nothing to do with proposing intelligent policy alternatives.
In fact, “intelligent” and “Republican” have become antonyms.
Live with that, you fucking jerks.
This is beyond weird. Pflug’s an RN whose Web site cites her sponsorship of no less than ten health-care related bills in the 2007/8 session, some of which make perfectly good sense.
The party leadership must be passing around extra doses of stupid pills these days.
Hey, I know that I am so far off-topic that I can’t eve see the topic from here. But I am watching the US Senate on CSPAN right now, passing the FY 2010 defense appropriations bill. 93-7 passed. No money to close Guantanamo was included in the bill.
So here’s my thought: Cynical and others seem to think that among other things they can run successful 2010 Congressional campaigns against Democrats by saying that “Obama said he would close Guantanamo, but he lied.”
And that if the people were to choose against all common sense to elect Republicans, what would they do? Well, one fucking thing they would is to keep Guantanomo open.
So how do Republicans think that “the Democrats haven’t closed Guantanamo” is a viable campaign issue?
Honestly, how fucking delirious and out of touch with poliical reality has this party become? It’s both mind-boggling and hilarious to think of the outcome. Bring it on, you psychotic fools.
BTW, on other CSPAN, Texas Republicans are pushing for offshore drilling.
Same old, same old. *yawn*
You do KNOW that the stimulus bill was 40% tax cuts, right?
If the stimulus bill “failed” (which it has not), then that failure is 40% a failure of tax cuts.
On other topics (I know), Justice Sonia Sotomayor today asked a bunch of questions during oral arguments in the first day of 2009-2010 Supreme Court session. She asked more questions than Chief Justice Roberts (may God blast his Federalist Society soul).
She has asked more questions in one day than stupid, unqualified sexual harasser Justice Clarence Thomas had asked in his first THREE YEARS in his undeserved position as a Justice of the Supreme Court.
Daddy Love, they don’t want to let perfectly good propaganda be upended by pesky little facts like you bring up. Conservatives and reality, never the twain shall meet.
It’s frightening how much emotion is detectable in Pflug’s voice. It is pretty clear that emotion is all that drives Republican positions nowadays. Reason ran away from them long ago. Of course, if the Senate did not plan for contingencies like federal healthcare reform, the Rs would scream about that.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. posed this hypothetical: What if someone was arrested for joy riding in Maryland, invoked his Fifth Amendment protection, and was never convicted? Could police in Montana question him as a murder suspect in Montana 10 years later?
When Davis said no, Alito replied: “And you don’t think that’s a ridiculous application of the rule?”
When Alito raised the hypothetical ante to a crime committed 40 years later, Sotomayor joined in.
“He is arrested for joy riding, he is let go, and you are saying that for 20, 40 years he is now immunized from being re-approached by the police?” Sotomayor asked.
So Alito asked a great question and Sotomayor repeated it.
@11…
So fucking what, blockhead…do you have a point, for once?
11
It’s actually a very interesting issue. The 3-year delay in the interrogations does seem relevant to me in trying to determine whether the second was constitutionally permissible. And, I say that as a strong proponent of Miranda rights. I’m not sure how I’d rule on this one. We know that Alito will side with law enforcement. He always does. He’s as predictable as pissing follows beer drinking. Sotomayor’s follow-up question shows that she is quite likely an independent thinker who recognizes the nuance that hard facts etch into the law. How refreshing.
Obstructionville?
More like Airheadville.
Or, Cluelessville. Or, Talibangelistan. Or, Backwaterville.
“Why are Republicans so afraid to even talk about health care reform?”
For the same reason they’re afraid of the Bible everyone has been using for the last 150 years.
Yep, you read that right, the conservatives are rewriting the Bible to make it “more conservative.” It seems they got tired of trying to stuff a camel through the eye of a needle.
“A collaborative online project seeks to update the Bible with a more conservative translation ….
“The Conservative Bible Project is the brainchild of … Andy Schlafly, a son of conservative standard-bearer Phyllis Schlafly.
“His Bible-related Wiki, which allows contributors to … suggest tweaks or fixes, went up this summer. The project quickly drew fire.
“Schlafly said he aims to counteract modern translations, not edit the Bible. ‘I think liberal bias was less of a problem in older translations,’ he said. ‘It’s refreshing to read anything that is free of liberal bias, and the Bible is the most well-read book in the world, so that should be the first thing to clean up.’ …
“The 10 commandments of the project include … expressing ‘free market parables.'”
(See link above.)
Okay, so from now on, the limited number of spaces in Heaven are reserved for the highest bidders?
These people would be laughable, except they have millions of followers, and neither they nor their followers respect our system of democratic elections.
This young man cut a ridiculous figure, too, but unfortunately we know where that went …
http://listverse.files.wordpre.....2.jpg.jpeg
I must have something, you keep replying to me like a trained monkey.
Or only 144,000 if you’re a jehovah witness.
When they come knocking on my door, I always ask them why they are prosthelytizing if there are a limited number of open seats in heaven.
Wasn’t her question just parroting what alito said?
Poor Marvin: He thinks our attention means that he is doing something good…here is a big hint maroon Marvin, we are laughing at you.
Your ignorance amuses us. Your inability to think logically and to form a plogical argument reminds me of the third graders who throw out insults in place of really having a coherent reply.
You come on this blog with your right wing crap that has no basis in reality or fact – throw it out there with no proof and laughably cannot support a damn thing you say.
Still waiting for your description of the republican health care plan….you brought it up fool, and you have nothing as usual.
Until you produce a plan – you have no credibility (Not that you had any anyways with your third-grade level arguments).
Seen today on reddit:
I was at the intramural fields today. A soccer player broke his leg. He yelled, “Please don’t call EMS! I can’t pay for it!”
Many commenter related similar stories.
My brief similar story: I had stomach pain, had a friend take me to the ER (Northwest Hospital, great place), got admitted, and had surgery (for an obstructed bowel). I apparently didn’t jump through all the hoops to get preapproval, got stuck with the bill (~$7,000). My doctor went to bat for me, as she always does, the hospital’s social services tried valiantly, and the insurance company wouldn’t budge.
@23 More and more, it appears that the medical-insurance industry, or a large part of it, has jumped the shark. “pre-approval” for surgery for an obstructed bowel? That’s an emergency. What’s next-if you’re in cardiac arrest, do you need “pre-approval” for use of a defibrillator?
What this says, plain and simple, is that once your insurer had your (or your employer’s) money in its grubby hands, it didn’t give a corporate flying fuck whether you lived or died.
And yeah…Northwest’s pretty much “old school”. You go in there sick and their first priority is getting you well. How quaint!
RR @ 16: Unbelievable.
Look, there are lots of different translations of the Bible. I’ve got several of the Protestant versions at home, including the “traditional” King James, the New International Version (which appeared in the 1970’s and still has some resistance among very conservative churches), the New American Standard Bible, the Living Bible, and another one where I can’t recall the name right now (it’s an expanded version, giving multiple synonyms for key words in the text). I’ve even got a Bible which lists four different translations of every verse, printed side-by-side in four columns. We also have a set of Mathew Henry’s Commentary, which gives a discussion following each portion of the scripture. Heck, we even have a Samoan Bible at home (no, I can’t read Samoan).
In all my reading of the Protestant translations, I’ve yet to find anything in them where the meaning of the text is significantly different among the various translations.
So what changes are they proposing to make the Bible more “conservative”? My first guess is a change to that rather inconvenient verse which says that it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. I’ve heard lots of people trying to explain that one away.
Providence in Everett seems to be doing a pretty good job, too. Of course, it’s a Catholic hospital (not-for-profit).
More than a decade ago, someone close to me had a ruptured appendix resulting in peritonitus and a miscarriage. The abdominal surgery scar was over a foot long, she was in the hospital for a week (Stevens Hospital). The surgeon informed her that an insurance adjuster paid him a visit, insisting that he discharge her after 48 hours because their “statistics” show that only 24 hours is required for an appendectamy. The surgeon said he told the adjuster to go take a flying leap, that she obviously hadn’t read the file. Luckily, the surgeon was on the insurance company’s panel which determined whether proceedures were “reasonably necessary”, so he had some weight to back him up.
I happened to run into the surgeon last year. I asked him if he was still on the panel. He said the insurance company doesn’t have such local panels anymore, and haven’t for quite a few years. They just have “managers” (claims adjusters with more than 2 years experience) who make those determinations based upon guidelines issued by the national office.
rhp6033 @ 26
Why would you want doctors participating in healthcare?
Seriously, for a moment, sure there’s room for improvement. We need panels; it’s the feedback loop that enables continuous improvement. I’m aware of quality of care metrics, procedure checklists which are proven effective, more effective auditing (anti-fraud), etc.
Alas, two key ingredients are missing from the corporate insurance rationing panels: transparency and objectivity.
Corporate insurance profit by denying care. It’s a closed process, with no right of appeal. It’s an obvious conflict of interest.
Now, saying that there’s room for improvement ignores the pink elephant standing on our chests. The biggest source of waste in corporate healthcare insurance is claims processing. Because the incentive is all wrong; corporations profit from our disease.
Having a single payer corrects the incentive overnight. Through a system of captitation, which focuses on preventative care, the players are rewarded for improving wellness. IIRC, care providers in the Canada and the UK are paid using the capitation model.
All these other efforts to improve healthcare are minor in comparison. The public option, an incremental improvement, will minimize corporate insurance privateering, but it doesn’t change the incentive structure.
rhp6033 @ 26
PS-
Damn.
Monetization of human misery is the ultimate earthly evil.
@16 If Saint Jerome is watching this, he must be thinking, “I busted my butt for 32 years, and this is the thanks I get!”