Mock, Paper, Scissors

The GOP has already tried to repeal Obamacare 33 times in 18 months.

…Earl Schieb will perform any surgery for $99.99?

“This is a huge moral question for the country, because I agree with George, that right now, most Americans do not see price in deciding whether to use health care. You see price in toasters, you see price in cars and homes, everything else. In health care, you don’t see price. And therefore, I have to believe, and I think your piece eluded to this, that when people go on Medicare, they really don’t see price, they tend to consume more than they otherwise would.”

“26 percent of all Medicare spending is last year of life. We don’t know how much of that is really efficacious spending. These are really tough moral questions for the country. But we’re going to have to deal with them if we’re really going to get health care under control.”

Because, you know, you’re dying, so why not shop around for a better deal?

What an assrocket.

(ABC News)

Thanks, Gomer.

In the never-ending quest to prevent a primary challenge from his right, SC Senator Lindsey Graham (R-Closet) has been on a manly-man quest to tack hard-right to please the teabaggers (a constituency he should know very well, if you catch my drift and I think you do). When he puts on his hunting togs–we’re thinking jodhpurs and knee-high boots, red velvet coat, and yes, we believe he has them in his closet, probably on a houseboy–we will have a good laugh.

Anyway, today instead of screaming Benghazi at us, he’s found a new show tune:

“Here’s my belief: let’s take Obamacare and put it on the table. If you want to look at ways to find $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade, let’s look at Obamacare. Let’s don’t destroy the military and just cut blindly across the board.”

Huckleberry hopes that screaming socialism will line up the rubes behind him. That boat done set sail, Senator.

(Think Progress has a non-snarky look at what cutting healthcare would mean in real terms. Senatorette Miss Lindsey Graham ought to be ashamed.)

I am SO DONE with right wing politicians and zealot religious groups inserting themselves into my lady parts. I AM the GENERAL OF MY WOMB, not them. When I was 21, I had an abortion. I stopped a process. Never, not once have I regretted my decision. Being a pro-choice/pro-life feminist, I always knew that if I got knocked up and it wasn’t on my terms, I would choose to terminate the process. Once I was in the situation, I needed a minute to figure things out and find my way, knowing all the while that nothing would change my mind. My point, this isn’t an easy decision. Whatever our reasons are for making it, I don’t think any of us enter into it lightly. Speaking for myself, I did it for all the right reasons. I wrote an essay about it here, Homesick Abortion (pro choice), if you want to read it. No pressure.

Among other things, when the Oversight Committee chaired by Issa convened on 2/16/12, which omitted women, my swelling desire to be a part of the conversation consumed me. Being a comedy writer/producer, I channeled all of that energy into my passion, to create a short film that put a new spin on the narrative chronicling the absurdity of the debacle unfolding before me.

As a result,  THE PENIS FILES, a political satire/mockumentary was born, a story that encapsulated women’s rights, LGBT rights and Obamacare. I had the privilege of working with many of my heroes in comedy. This is a short film, 16 minutes. Below, you’ll find the entire short and links to the two official trailers (30/45) seconds each. I hope that you will watch and share. I hope that for those of us who want to take action, do.

SYNOPSIS: Until “The Olson Penis” was created 10-years ago, historically men’s penises grew for procreation when a woman ovulated and retracted immediately. 200 years ago, men who were devoutly religious and in a married monogamous relationship experienced penile growth for procreation only. Conversely, women have always been born with vaginas and sexual freedom not governed by religion or politics. In February, a committee of women met to discuss “The Olson Penis” being covered by Obamacare.

Official Trailer #1, Official Trailer #2.

Katie Schwartz

“I want to make sure that we get Obamacare out of the way and replace it with something which will help encourage job growth in this country.”

–Willard

Replace it with… something?

There is nothing like having a little surgery to remind one of how important healthcare is, and so while in a fog of painkillers and apple juice on the ride home, I heard on the radio that even more states than theocrat secessionist Rick Perry’s Texas and boy exorcist Bobby Jindal’s Louisiana are “proudly” turning down the expansion of Medicaid: Florida, South Carolina, Wisconsin…

The feds offered to 100% pay for Medicaid expansion for a few years, and then pay for 90% of it thereafter. I mean no one turns down terms like that, right? But these mooks did, and did so “proudly” as they say.

I’m sure that their uninsured citizens are pleased with the wingnut orthodoxy, after all dying “free” is a big part of the mythology. Texas alone has 25% uninsured, so this was a gift, a huge gift wrapped up with a shining gold bow, and they turned it down.

Anyway, they designed the ACA to have a carrot and a stick. The carrot was paying for Medicaid, the stick was significant penalties if they did not accept the carrot. What the Supreme court threw out with the ACA ruling was the stick. And now all of the Wingnuttian gubboners are proudly turning down the nearly free expansion that would cover their vast population of uninsured citizens.

There is a lesson here for all of us. You cannot negotiate with terrorists or with the insane. I’ll leave it to your own judgement to decide which of those options applies in those states:

“People now don’t die from prostate cancer, breast cancer and some of the other things.”

–Congressional Candidate NY-27 Chris Collins (R – of course)

Tell that to the 30,000 or so men who die from prostate cancer, and the 40,000 or so women who die from breast cancer each year. Assrocket.

The title of this post is what Chinless Mitch is really trying to say when cornered by Chris Wallace about what the GOP will replace Obamacare with, if they get to throw out the law.

But at any rate, I think ol’ Chinless is finally telling us the truth: this isn’t about 30 million uninsured people, this is about getting Obama at all costs.

Credit where it is due: Wallace actually tries three times to get an answer out of that prevaricating pissant.)

(Crooks and Liars)

“Because what this means, for the first time in the history of the country, Congress can force Americans to purchase any product, any service that Congress wants them to, which determines the price and we are forced to, which is a denial of liberty. We will never be the same.”

–Bachmann-the-Nut

(The Hill)

Media Matters

Really?

And the worst rug on Capitol Hill equates universal healthcare with slavery. Trust him, he’s a doctor!

“With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.”

As we’ve noted before, the GOP believe that the right to life ends at birth, so get out of the way of their profit motive.

(Raw Story)

Politico tells us…

A handful of moderate Senate Democrats are looking for ways to roll back the highly contentious individual mandate — the pillar of President Barack Obama’s health care law — a sign that red-state senators are prepared to assert their independence ahead of the 2012 elections.

Ben Nelson, of course, is one of them, as is Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

“They grow up so fast,” weeped Traitor Joe. “Hey, I’m still relevant!”

President Carebear suffered a body blow delivered by one of Saint Ronnie’s Florida Federal District judges, Roger Vinson, who has ruled that it is unconstitutional to require everyone to buy health insurance:

It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place.

Marco Rubio is already saying that this is further proof that the Senate needs to take up the repeal.

I’m sure it will be appealed all the way up the chain until SCOTUS Fat Tony and da boys get their hands on it, so in the meanwhile we return Granny to the tender embrace of the insurance companies, who only look out for her good.

As one of the comments at TPM notes…

• Minimum Wage: In United States v. Darby, the Supreme Court upheld a federal minimum wage and overruled a prior decision striking down federal child labor laws. This decision reversed a district judge’s opinion declaring the minimum wage unconstitutional.
• Social Security: In Helvering v. Davis, the Supreme Court reversed a court of appeals decision declaring Social Security unconstitutional.
• Whites-Only Lunch Counters: In Katzenbach v. McClung, the Supreme Court upheld the federal ban on whites-only lunch counters — reversing a district court’s decision striking down this law.
• Voting Rights Act: In Katzenbach v. Morgan, the Supreme Court reversed a district court decision striking down a portion of the Voting Rights Act (the Court since stepped back from the reasoning applied in Morgan, but the Voting Rights Act remains good law).

…so there is a chance that it might get overturned higher up the food chain.

(Unintentional irony here: if the Dims in all of their stupidity–I’m looking at you, Traitor Joe– had pushed for a public option or (gasp!) universal coverage, it would not have been found unconstitutional.)

(TPM)

…they are in Arizona, and ordered by the GOP legislature and governor.

The only political effort to implement death panels since Obama got his health reform bill passed has been in the state of Arizona. There the Republican-controlled legislature with the approval of GOP Governor Jan “there are headless bodies turning up all over our desert” Brewer has told 98 people waiting for transplants that they must die.

Those 98, who are either poor or uninsurable by private insurance due to pre-existing conditions, need bone marrow, lung, heart, and other forms of transplants. They were told by the state’s Medicaid program—Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS—that they qualified for coverage. But, this October 1, AHCCCS said it could not in fact pay for their transplants. Facing a billion-dollar-plus budget deficit, the Arizona legislature cut out all state funding for transplantation retroactively!

This means that people who were told they had a chance at life had the rug pulled out from under them without any warning. The Republican legislature not only acted as a death panel; it chose to balance the budget on the backs of the poorest and most desperate of Arizonians by welshing on a promise.

Just to be clear, the legislature and governor did not say there would be no more transplant funding going forward. They said they are telling those to whom coverage has already been promised to drop dead.

UPDATE: Olbermann has a piece on it. (MSNBC)

(Hat tip: @La_Diana and TexBetsy).

President Carebear sits down at his Macbook (MacBook One? A Preznintial Seal instead of the Apple logo?) and demonstrates that he knows how to find out about Health Insurance. So many questions!

Was he really the Demo-dolly running the show-me part of this video?

Did he design the website himself?

Why is there no Public Option?

Why wasn’t Single Payer on the table?

How did he lose control of his most important issue?

Why will his first example patient have to wait until 2014?

Well, whatevs. Imagine the same scenario with Chimpy McStagger. Hahaha, trick question! Chimpy would have the simpler plan: tell your limo to take you to the nearest Emergency Room.

Chimpy’s daughter, NotJenna, the one who is not Jenna, went off the reservation yesterday and said that she was glad that Healthcare Reform passed.

Why do people with money have good health care and people with lower salaries not have good health care? Health should be a right for everyone.

Then the flying monkeys showed up and took her away, screeching something about Bristol Palin and Abstinence Education.

The comment I made about bartering was not, and was never intended to be, a policy proposal. It was an example of how struggling families are working to pay for medical care in any way they can during these tough times.

The truth is that Reid is so out of touch with these hardworking American families that he needs political theater to distract Nevadans from both his own unpopularity and the costs of his plan.

Because, you know, spending a year fighting for healthcare shows how Harry Reid doesn’t understand healthcare. Take that, Harry Reid! Pass the extra crispy.

(Politico)

The Lowden Plan Medical Chicken Calculator is here to help you calculate your life-saving chicken needs!

Are we really this stupid, fellow americans?

A new USA Today/Gallup poll out this morning suggests that a plurality of Americans blame the Democrats for the incidents of violence and vandalism that have characterized the week since health care reform became law. Fifty percent said passing the bill was a “bad thing,” while 47% said it was a good thing.

When asked about the violence, 49% of the 1,009 adults surveyed over the weekend said the “Democratic tactics” are a “major reason” for the violent incidents. Forty-six percent said conservative media was responsible, and 43% blamed the attacks on Republican political leaders.

So 139% of the blame goes to…

UPDATE: at least there is a scientific expanation for Conservativism.

It seems Chachi is as good of a person as he was an actor.

…I want to help the GOP as they campaign to restore Pre-Existing Conditions to the American people.

As President Carebear said, “Go for it.”

Man, Wingnuttia discovers social networking and they all get stiffies.

The Tea Party Patriots –which if memory serves me correctly, is a Malkkkin-run astroturf project — is taking on the Federal Government by unleashing the awesome power of Facebook on the commies that crammed health insurance reform down their throats after a year of debate (in which the GOP refused to engage).

All the mouth-breathers have to do is sign the on-line petition, post it to Facebook, and the tweet about it, and Nancy Pelosi and all the dirty, rotten Hippies will squeal and run for the exits. The fat cats picking your pockets thank you for your attention.

(Enjoy the spam, teabaggers!)

Costa Rica, here he comes!

You can donate a buck to buy a ticket to send Junkie Limbaugh to Costa Rica, and if he doesn’t use it, the money goes to Planned Parenthood. Win-win!

Virginia will file suit against the federal government charging that the health-care reform legislation is unconstitutional, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office confirmed last night.

Nancy Pelosi walks up the hill with Civil Rights Icon Congressman John Lewis (who was called the n-word yesterday by the Teabaggers) carrying the gavel that was used in the 1965 Medicare Act.

The GOP/Teabagger heads will commence to explode NOW. This is one of those things where Nancy Pelosi really rocks – she knows how to get under their skins and do it with positive messages.

Open thread in the comments if anyone wants to vent or whatever.

(Via Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars.)

The chances for House passage increased Sunday afternoon after a possible agreement between Democratic leaders and Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who had led a group of anti-abortion lawmakers in opposing the bill, was revealed.

The potential deal appears to be based on a promise that President Barack Obama will issue an executive order that would provide more assurances that no public money would be used for elective abortions.

“If we get this thing resolved, then they’ll have more than enough votes,” Stupak said on Sunday morning.

As everyone knows, I hate this bill because it is too weak, and too much of a give-away to the fatcats who own our government. This thing could have been written by the GOP during Chimpy’s reign of Error for all the good it is going to do to us, which is exactly none.

I’m infuriated that again two men are using women’s right to control their bodies is a bargaining chip.

Oh, man, this is good stuff. Anthoney Weiner gives a (verbal) haymaker to Nooner! “…the most cliched, hackneyed assessments” is the golden moment where the gloves come off. It’s a longish clip, but it is sooo worth it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Someone bring Nooner a Mai Tai stat! She’s taking on water!

(Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her get dissed to her face, and she looks shocked.)

When the alleged left wants to punish Dennis Kucinich, probably the only true progressive in the House, we’ve reached the silly season.

Jane wants to primary him for supporting Healthcare Reform, and Kos wants to primary him for not supporting Healthcare Reform (both seem to be incapable of knowing that filing papers for primary challengers in Ohio is long since closed), Dennis is in the strange situation of being villified no matter what he does. And in the meanwhile, Americans are suffering from lack of insurance and access to healthcare, and megabucks insurance corporations are profiting off of the suffering of millions of citizens.

Focus on the real problem, Jane, Kos. You are allegedly grownups and intelligent people.

I’m having a hard time trying to love this HCR bill – I just don’t see any good side to it.

I am resigned to the fact that it will pass through some machination or other. I’m not one to care for the mechanism of passing a bill; I find no outrage that the Dims will use the same mechanism that the GOP used to pass Chimpy’s Tax Cuts for the Rich. But at least this reconciliation won’t require Blam-Blam to cast the deciding vote. Now that, my friends, was cramming something repellant down our throats.

I bet that HCR will not be amended for years, and years, and years until another crisis hits. My guess is that the first amendment will be to remove the affordability credits for low-income people; be prepared to hear about quadruple bypass welfare queens when it happens, too. And you know I am right.

I have hated this bill since day one, when single-payer was off the table, soon joined by the public option, also off the table. A mandate that everyone has to buy health insurance is not a solution, it is blackmail, and these companies — who make their profit off of the misery of citizens — are the true beneficiaries of this legislation. By removing the only incentive to improve itself to an already antitrust-exempted industry, in effect we have given these ticks access to an artery.

And remember, for the next four years, you can and will still be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions. And even after that, expect to be denied — the fine for denying treatment is tiny, something like $100/day per person denied. Do a cost-benefit comparison for a $100,000 surgery and you’ll see that even after three years of denying your surgery, the insurance companies will still come out ahead; you, however, will probably be dead.