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Now for the Ugly Part…

Posted by ROBERT STEIN in Health, Politics.
Oct 14th, 2009 | Comments

The assembly line in the Congressional sausage factory is ready to roll, to stuff what Max Baucus’ butchers have hacked up into a casing with scraps from four other committees in the Senate and House.

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the “Bill Blenders” start work today in a process that will make the past few months look like the Lincoln-Douglas debates as lobbying groups across the spectrum flood Washington with “a torrent of spending and grassroots activity” to influence what gets into the final product.

Underlying all the din will be the central question: How much control over American health care will remain in the hands of the profiteers who have made it the most expensive and one of the worst systems in the world?

The White House, after months of trying placate the implacable, is finally framing the issue openly as Obama’s deputy communications director puts it: “The insurance industry has decided to lead the charge against health reform, and everyone recognizes their motives: profits, We are going to make sure they can’t sink this effort at the last minute.”

The saddest part of the spectacle in the coming weeks will be the near-impossibility of a rational public conversation about the issue in a time when TV ads will make “Harry and Louise” look like “The Waltons” and the staged public outrage will make the Tea Parties look like tea parties.

Read the rest of this entry.

  • DLS
    Rationality became impossible given the lib Dems at the forefront of news-making in DC this year.

    As to the ugly, hard stuff still to come: Well, it's time for the real work to start. I look forward to hearing what Ed Schultz has to say to spur the foot soldiers of the far Left (in support of the public option); Thom Hartmann was already on the air and on record insisting that lefties need to tell Harry Reid they want to see action and real results now. (While I don't support the crazier lib Dem craziness this year, at least far lefties like Hartmann and Schultz are direct and forceful about what it is that they want with health care.)
  • dduck12
    Does Mr. Limburger have an alter ego? the above piece makes it seem so. Yes, that is an insult to your thoughts on the matter. Any moderates left around here?
  • Leonidas
    Lay on the Pork! they need moderate democrat votes. Bribe them with more taxpayer money!
  • Silhouette
    They may do what they like but We Majority will have our Public Option come hell or high water. And there will be a website each election cycle where voters can check how different incumbants weighed in [or not] on the matter until we have this basic human right.
  • dduck12
    Be careful that in their desperation to get any bill signed, that you don't drown (in debt) in the "high water".
  • JeffersonDavis
    I'm a moderate. Well, I would say being a conservative Democrat would make me a moderate in any case.

    You don't have to be Limbaugh to agree that the direction they are going sucks.
    Public Option sucks. Baucus sucks. Status quo sucks.

    Here's a MODERATE position:
    Regulate what we have now! Bust open the lobbyist-congress cartel by hitting the entities that line their pockets - namely the Insurance industry, the Pharmaceutical Industry, the Healthcare Industry, and the Tort/Trial Lawyer Industry.

    If any of them had the sack to do that, the problem would be gone!
    Is that moderate? I hope so.
  • Dr J
    If we had a light amount of regulation now, calling for more might qualify as moderation. But healthcare is already the most heavily regulated and least functional industry we have. That's no coincidence.
  • redbus
    Robert Stein notes:

    Underlying all the din will be the central question: How much control over American health care will remain in the hands of the profiteers who have made it the most expensive and one of the worst systems in the world?

    I've lived outside of the U.S. for more than a decade, and have sought medical care in three other countries. That experience has shown me that Stein's statement is over-the-top. U.S. health care is top-notch. (One can always cherry-pick exceptions). On the other hand, living overseas has also shown that our system is too expensive. My American employer encourages us to seek equivalent treatments (as available) when posted overseas, and not when back in the U.S. on leave. Why? Because it's more cost-effective.
  • DLS
    "Lay on the Pork!"

    Ah, yes, "sweeteners" (a permissible term if it passes Dem legislation, even in PC-food-lunacy times).

    Actually, even though they aren't as "disconnected" as Sil and her statements are, the "progressives" on far-lefty talk radio are pretty enthusiastic (as well as impatient and exasperated) in wanting to see a good effort being made, and the avoidance of conceding anything much toward people like Olympia Snowe just to have a token (and bogus) "R" stamped along with the big "D" on the final legislation.
  • DLS
    "But healthcare is already the most heavily regulated and least functional industry we have. That's no coincidence."

    Imagine the "public utility" as well as "managed cartel" model that logical reform might lead toward.

    [cringing]
  • dduck12
    Nice to hear some first hand praise about our health system. Thanks
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