If you missed Olbermann’s special commentary tonight, google that shit tomorrow, I doubled up on healthcare funnies tonight. He called Thune’s ass out tonight about getting government healthcare while denying it to the rest of us, he also told us Thune’s healthcare industry contributions this year:
$1,206,176
About 48 times more then the average South Dakotan makes a year in wages.
Thune, please go away. Please. You are delusional.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbWw23XwO5o[/youtube]
Here is the text (H/T – Gus)
Keith Olbermann to Expose Congressional Opponents of Universal Health Care Tonight!
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
We’ve just received an advance transcript of tonight’s Special Comment by Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC show. It is nothing short of brilliant — and if all of America were to hear what he is going to reveal tonight, we are certain the vast majority of Americans would be on the phone to their elected representative immediately, calling for an end to the private, for-profit, rip-off health insurance companies who have wrecked our country.
Here’s a brief section of Keith’s editorial tonight:
“Congressman Mike Ross of Arkansas. Leader of the Blue Dogs in the House. You’re the guy demanding a guarantee that Reform won’t add to the deficit. I’m guessing you forgot to demand that about, say, Iraq. You’re a Democrat, you say, Congressman?
“You saw what Sandy Barham said? Sandy Barham is 62 years old, she’s got a bad heart, and she’s hoping her valves will hold together for three more years until Medicaid kicks in, because she can’t afford insurance. Not just for herself, mind you. For her employees. She needs the public option. So do those six people who work at that restaurant of hers, Congressman Ross.
“And why should you give a crap? Because Sandy Barham’s restaurant is the Broadway Railroad Café, and it is at 123 West First Street North in Prescott, Arkansas. Prescott, Arkansas, Congressman Ross. Your home town. You are Sandy Barham’s congressman. Hers, Sir. Not Blue Cross’s and Blue Shield’s, even if they do insure 75 percent of the state and they own you.”
And here’s what Keith has to say about Senator Thune:
“Senator John Thune of South Dakota? You gave the Republican rebuttal to the President’s weekly address day before yesterday. You said the Democrats’ plan was for ‘… government run health care that would disrupt our current system, and force millions of Americans who currently enjoy their employer-based coverage into a new health care plan run by government bureaucrats.’
“That’s a bald-faced lie, Senator. And you’re a bald-faced liar, whose bald face is covered by… your own health care plan run by government bureaucrats.”
Here’s the Link. Great stuff. Keith even went after Blue Dog Dems. I was waiting for his shot at Steph. Damn. Maybe next time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbWw23XwO5o
I missed tonight’s show, but thankfully read about it here and LOVED IT!!! He gave it to all the obstructionists and gutless, self-serving hypocrites.
Here’s the link again — because it’s just to wonderful not to miss.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbWw23XwO5o
Is he actually “bald” faced?
Who gave Thune $5 million? What do they want in return?
Bald-faced Liar:
“having or showing a lack of scruples.
Bald-faced is the newest term; its first known print appearance dates back only 62 years, to 1943. Bold-faced is some four centuries older than that, dating to 1591. Although you might guess bald-faced developed out of a mishearing of bold-faced, the meanings of the two adjectives are not synonymous. Bold-faced means “bold in manner or conduct; impudent”; bald-faced has the same meaning as barefaced: “open; unconcealed”; and “having or showing a lack of scruples.”
Getting trashed by Olbermann, who is the Worst Person on Television, is a badge of honor.
Hardly a ‘trashing’ just pointing out who Thune is loyal to. It is about time someone in the MSM called him out on his BS besides Jon Stewart. Now if the SD MSM would just wakeup and report this stuff.
I am surprised that O didn’t call Thune out on the six figure income he received from Sioux Valley Hospital as a consultant when he lost to Johnson. Supposedly Thune advised the hospital on Medicaid.
I think it was the same time Thune was helping Dan Nelson be the Business Man of The Year. That also netted Thune six figures.
Even without a public option (if it doesn’t happen now, it’ll happen in this decade), the new health bill will drastically improve the way people buy health insurance. I say this as someone who, among other things, helps businesses find affordable health insurance for their employees.
The industry has needed these changes for a long time.
As I’ve said before, there’s no good reason to go to Universal care as candidate Obama had repeatedly advocated. It will simply crush our system, especially since there’s no political will to fix immigration first.
That said, we should make some reforms to help the 10-12 million citizens who are truly hurting. Christ, for the cost of this friggin’ bill we could pick up all of their private insurance tabs for a decade.
Olbermann is a tool who knows less about about how the ecomomy works than most of DC, which is scary indeed. You guys really dig his whiny-ass, faux outrage as he eloquently regurgitates DNC talking points? He’s down to about the population of Eastern SD for his national audience, so it looks like you might be behind the curve just a bit.
“MSNBC’s 8pm Countdown With Keith Olbermann show has seen its adults 25-54 audience, the demo that cable news advertisers target, fall by over 50% from 702,000 adults 25-54 in Q4 2008 to 350,000 adults 25-54 in Q2 2009.”
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/07/01/msnbcs-countdown-with-keith-olbermann-adults-25-54-audience-down-over-50-since-q4-2008/21842
And what the fuck is up with this crew and their constant assualt on US industry, during a goddam recession no less. Insurance is just like many other industries, with the exception that it is actually making decent profits these days. It employs lots of folks and is looking for more, just ask Dude. Millions of people own shares in Insurance companies and they aren’t all named Buffet. Whether it’s oil, cars, tourism, food, tobacco, etc. these fuckheads seem bent on taking any and all of them down a peg, regardless of how the actual market is treating them.
Now it’s Insurance’s turn to be the whipping boy. Didn’t we just bail that industry out? If they are so fucking evil why didn’t we just let them fail?
I disagree with Sy:
There is every good reason to go to universal health care.
There are no good reasons not to.
Randall,
I can think of about 54 trillion good reasons not to spend another couple trillion on a Government takeover of 1/6th of our Economy.
The money printer and all who want to run it into oblivion needs to be unplugged.
Sy, think Keith Olbermann’s show on the television ALL DAY LONG. Now switch from liberal to conservative point of view and voila! You have Fox News.
Is anyone actually pushing for Universal Healthcare in the same style as Britain’s NHS?
No. That’s nothing but a scare tactic from the right.
The actual reforms being debated in congress look nothing like that and really don’t look much like a single-payer plan like Canada’s either.
Looks like Obama will have to compromise.
Two really good things in the bill so far:
1) Doing away with pre-existing conditions. This, despite costing companies more money, is the right thing to do. Nobody should ever have to go without health insurance just because they had cancer before.
2) The health insurance exchange. Any company wishing to be on the exchange must meet certain requirements and offer different levels of care. What is covered in those different levels must be clear to anyone reading them. Basically, it makes all insurance policies look sort of like medicare supplement policies, which are relatively cut and dry if you’ve looked at them.
What this will ultimately do is level the playing field for insurance companies to compete with eachother. Instead of trying to add weasel clauses to their policies, they’ll have to compete using the same criteria as the life insurance industry – expenses, mortality, investment performance. Whoever is best at keeping costs down while still providing the required coverages will be the winner. Costs for private insurance will go down and companies will still make a tidy profit.
Randall,
I’ll take your word for it…I don’t watch much TV and no Fox news at all.
Although, I’d guess if it were as bad as you say they would have similar ratings.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/april_ratings_fnc_beats_cnn_and_msnbc_combined_115179.asp
As to the “takeover of 1/6 of our economy”, that’s also a scare tactic straight out of talk radio.
Just for illustration purposes, let’s say the feds were taking over the health insurance industry. Does this represent 1/6 of the economy? No.
How about if they took over health insurance and health care providers? Is that a sixth of the economy on its own? No.
They’d have to take over health insurance, health care providers, pharmacuetical companies and medical equipment manufacturers to get anywhere near that number.
The 1/6 comes from health care spending as a percentage of GDP.
To me, every penny not spent on health care (simply maintaining the ability to be productive) or insurance is a penny that can be spent in some mall or store somewhere to stimulate the local economy. I say this as someone who stands to make more money if insurance gets more expensive.
GoD:
Ask and you shall recieve:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk
This crew is all about doing it two ways; slam it thourgh in “Crisis” mode or do it by stealth in increments. First piece was in the “Stimulus” bill as they get everyone’s records online and under the new Health Czar.
I can’t wathc youtube at work, so i’ll have to take a peek at that when I get home.
Can you give us a synopsis of who, where, and what?
Meanwhile, Rep. Herseth-Sandlin speaks:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/blue-dogs-strike-deal-no-health-vote-before-recess-2009-07-29.html
Keith explained it perfectly – Public Option is not a replacement for private insurance – but it is an alternative for those who can’t afford it. It is competition, it isn’t a take over. The ONLY people that don’t like this would be the insurance industry who has been making a killing at denying people coverage, raising rates, and making medical decisions by insurance choosing what procedures it will pay for vs the doctors.
We’ve got folks lost in the system with insurance tied to jobs. If you are a farmer, a small business owner, or someone who works as an independent contractor – or if you are unemployed — and if you are in the age range of 50 – 64 – it is out of many people’s reach to get affordable insurance. Blue Dogs and GOP are bought off by the industry. They are NOT representing real people.
A sound Public Option is needed to keep competition with affordable rates. It means the insurance industry can’t gouge the public as they have been for so long.
GoD:
“They’d have to take over health insurance, health care providers, pharmacuetical companies and medical equipment manufacturers to get anywhere near that number.”
Have you ever played Monopoly? Insurance would be the equivalent of Boardwalk with a hotel and Providers would be the same as Park Place with a hotel.
While you and me need to start at Baltic Ave and work our way around the board a few times to put a house up, these guys are going the other direction under their own rules.
Do you not think that part of the ever-encompassing “Cost controls” will be to dictate what someone will charge to develop a drug or what cost to sell a dialysis machine for? Once those private companies are driven out of business, the Government will simply take them over, like they’ve done with Autos.
Did you even fathom that as early as 3-4 year ago that two of the three US automakers would be state-owned by the time your first child was born? I know I didn’t.
I just find it comical that the Republicans were in power for how many years with no action taken on healthcare whatsoever. They soundly defeated the efforts of Clinton and ensured the status quo remained in effect until present day.
Yet when speaking of healthcare, they are quick to say they know the system is broken but that the Democratic plan isn’t the solution.
Great – but where are your ideas? Why do you need to wait until the car is headed over the cliff before you check the brakes? It isn’t like we didn’t know healthcare was an issue for the last 20 friggin’ years.
Frankly I’m sure the Obama plan has all sort of problems. I’m sure if the two parties would work together they could come up with something which makes much more sense, but I’m as equally sure that will never happen because they are incapable of working together in any constructive manner. So be it – that is how the system works. Frankly at this point even if they take things too far, it will probably be better than what we have now. Eventually the GOP will get a grasp of control again and they can help bring things back to the middle where common sense will prevail.
That being said – Thune can start bitching about healthcare as soon as he gives up his government funded program. Until then I see no reason why he should tell us the system works better in the private sector while he is using a public solution.
Ironic Johnny indeed. Say what you will about those darn liberals, but at least they are trying to give the rest of us a plan that is on par with what they give themselves. Sure I might not need it, but until someone tells me I have to give up my existing medical coverage to be under the government program I’m not about to stress over it.
Do you not think that part of the ever-encompassing “Cost controls†will be to dictate what someone will charge to develop a drug or what cost to sell a dialysis machine for?
No. This will never happen. Under the current bill, the only things regulated are what insurors must cover – not how much those things can cost. Lower premiums will result from actual competition – the part of my last post you skipped over.
Did you even fathom that as early as 3-4 year ago that two of the three US automakers would be state-owned by the time your first child was born? I know I didn’t.
The government will be selling their share of auto makers as soon as the companies are stable enough to survive without further bailouts. IMO, the CARS program should have been done from the get-go using about a fifth of what the companies actually recieved in bailout money. That would have allowed them to sell off their inventory and regain some liquidity.
The government doesn’t want to be in charge of auto-makers any more than we want them to be. But if we had to shell out money to keep them alive, it’s probably best that we get something back when they’re stable again.
Wow, hose! You did a lot of research on that. Very informative. And I thought his face just lacked hair.
Ask and you shall recieve:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk
This crew is all about doing it two ways; slam it thourgh in “Crisis†mode or do it by stealth in increments. First piece was in the “Stimulus†bill as they get everyone’s records online and under the new Health Czar.
Finally got to watch this vid.
Interesting how several different speeches from several different years by several different people can be taken out of context and warped to mean whatever you want.
What I saw as I watched it (though I had to mentally put the speeches back in chronological order) is his position moderating a bit as the reality of what he wants to see vs. what he will be able to do sinks in.
The two democratic legislators in the video are but two voices in a very large, and very moderate, crowd.
BTW, I watched the entire speech from the beginning of the video and it does not say what this video’s creators would like it to say.
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Sy – You talk too much.