I think it is worth discussing, as we watch Congress try to cobble together some sort of health care bill that will cover tens of millions of additional people while still remaining “deficit neutral,” that the Bush administration Prescription Drug Entitlement, passed by the “fiscally conservative” Senate and the “fiscally conservative” house (loaded with members of the 1994 Republican Revolution who were now reneging on their term limit pledges) and signed by the “fiscally conservative” Bush administration, didn’t have one single penny set aside to pay for the promises.
And I don’t remember hearing howls of outrage from the Blue Dogs.
schrodinger's cat
I don’t remember all the concern-trolling about deficit, when it came to the Iraq war either.
The Saff
Yeah, selective amnesia.
Honestly, though, I thought this was a Lily post.
schrodinger's cat
How is his Tunchness? I think he ran away yesterday, because he is feeling neglected. Happens to all older siblings when they find that their parents are paying more attention to their little brother/sister.
Trinity
The hypocrisy of our elected officials knows no bounds.
And the MSM ignores/enables it.
Gah!
General Winfield Stuck
thank you for this post. I was thinking the exact same thing listening to Mcconnell and Boner presser just now opining about adding 240 billion to the deficit, when the Bushie/Gooper crew didn’t make a single effort to pay for their shit. IE Iraq, prescription bill, tax cuts for rich in wartime. And the press just eats it up without nary a word on the epic hypocrisy, while dems are scrambling hard to close the cost neutral gap as we speak. And the House is reauthorizing Pay-Go today with wingnuts fighting it tooth and nail.
Da Bomb
OT: I just got came from reading an online article from Mother Jones. It discussed aspects of the Health Care Reform bill, and then I read the comments section. It felt like I was being sucked into a void of stupidity from whence I wouldn’t be able to return.
When did that publication become abastion for Libertarian wankery?
Ed Drone
It’s the case of the dog barking in the night-time. If you recall your Sherlock Holmes stories, the point was the dog did not bark, meaning the intruder who stole “Silver Blaze” (IIR) was a member of the household, not a stranger. Applied to the pharmaceutical giveaway or the Iraq clusterfuck, it’s pretty obvious that the dogs of the MSM don’t bark at Rethuglicans.
Elementary, by dear Watson*
Ed
*- Which Holmes did not say in any of the stories, just in film and TV
someguy
Basically, the Republicans have lost their credibility so badly they should probably be banned from every raising questions about spending ever again. And while we’re at it, could we put something in there about making Eric Cantor and Michael Steele wear dunce hats? I know it’s not related to anything but it would be very satisfying to me.
Napoleon
@Da Bomb:
I don’t know about their comments section but generally I find MJ fairly wonky and level headed. Its not at all like that Nation and in a lot of ways not all that different then The American Prospect.
I think nearly everywhere wack jobs from the right disproportionately post in comment threads.
Comrade Jake
And yet you will find plenty of right-wingers who insist, with no proper sense of irony nor personal inadequacy, that this Congress is a “rubber-stamp” for Obama.
Alan
And remember the prescription drug benefit did nothing more than put the liability for prescription drugs onto the government in order to keep the supplemental insurance companies flush with cash–privatizing the profit while socializing the liability.
Tsulagi
Totally different. That was during the days of the serious adults reign. Like serious fiscal adult Cheney who said Reagan had proved deficits don’t matter.
Also don’t forget honor and integrity. Like DeLay promising political and financial support for a R-congressman’s son if he voted aye for the drug bill, or burying his son’s campaign if he voted nay.
Alan
@Alan: Moreover, the rightwing is able to complain about the runaway costs of drugs and Medicare while the insurance companies can stay profitable having cherry picked the healthiest in society.
gex
@Ed Drone: And only when he had a head cold.
:P
Alan
And regarding Jindal’s OpEd in the WSJ… How did “pooling” become a new innovation with respect to the insurance industry? The whole friggin business is modeled on pooling. The grand innovation is having the government pick up the liability for the most unhealthy in society. That’s why government costs are so high.
Violet
Republican-appproved expenditures don’t affect the deficit. The deficit is only increased by Democrat expenditures. Duh! Didn’t you guys get the memo?
Oh, and being fiscally conservative means spending money on something Republicans want to spend it on. Everything else is wasteful spending.
Don’t they teach anything in schools these days?
Bob In Pacifica
The neighbors’ dog next door barks all the time.
Joey Maloney a/k/a The Bard Of Balloon Juice
@Ed Drone:
I was 11 or 12 when I read the Sherlock Holmes stories. My favorite line was, of course,
“Good Lord, Holmes, I ejaculated!”
…well, it was something very close to that.
Senyordave
It should also be remebered that Thomas Scully, the Chief Director of Medicare at the time, ordered the head actuary to lie about the costs. This should have been a GIGANTIC scandal, but it was downplayed by the so-called liberal MSM. They lowballed the estimate to get it through. Scully ended up having to resign, and I believe the GAO recommended he be forced to repay his salary.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0312-01.htm
El Cid
At the time, they were too concerned with the FREEDOM enjoyed by pharmaceutical companies to sell medicine to the federal government without having to negotiate prices, because, you know, if the US government were to bargain for the pricing of pharmaceuticals it bought for Medicare, this would have been Stalin Soci_alism and libertarian Jesus would have wept, no matter how much money could have been saved.
Mike P
Come on…we all know the answer…recite it with me now:
IOKIYAR
Incertus
And I don’t remember hearing howls of outrage from the Blue Dogs.
If my memory serves, the major arm twisting in the House had to be done on House Republicans who actually complained about the cost (or the addition of an entitlement) in order to get it to pass–the Blue Dogs were already on board and the progressives were opposed because of the donut-hole feature and the inability of Medicare to haggle for best-cost from big Pharma.
ninerdave
That was different. That was a pay off to big Pharma. The current health care bill is a threat to insurance companies.
Blue Dogs:
Pay offs to big business who line my pockets = Good.
Helping out the American public who don’t line my pockets = Bad
Oh and John, is the title supposed to be a quote from Wild At Heart (one of my favorite movies)? If so it’s actually “My dog barks…some”
Balconesfault
If the Dems have made a huge rhetorical blunder during this campaign – it’s not coming up with a list of “economic benefits” that will accrue to the nation thanks to a public option, or even a single payer system.
Crank up some liberal equivalent of the Heritage Foundation to flood the discussion with papers putting some number of new jobs that are going to be created as small businesses turn over the costs of insuring their workforce to government, and use that saving to add workers. Put some number, however contrived, on the balance of trade effects from American companies not having to compete on an uneven playing field with companies with nationalized healthcare taking care of their workers. Throw in a dollar sum on saving to our economy from the number of people who go bankrupt thanks to healthcare costs each year being able to stay solvent.
Repubs learned the lesson years ago of dumping tons of funny numbers into the dialogue about the economic benefits of giving more money to rich people, and letting the media run with them. The Dems best pathway to winning this battle is using the same strategy. “Prove” how all the secondary benefits of a national system will end up more than paying for it, and these Blue Dogs will have the cover to tell the local Chamber of Commerce why Obama’s reforms are what’s best for everyone’s wallets going forward.
Bun
Reading political news is just so hard these days. I really wish I could just tune out, but I don’t have the willpower. If you really want to give yourself an ulcer, read any random Calitics post. The situation out here is goddamn dire.
ironranger
@Senyordave:
Scully was in the health care biz before & after he took care of “loose ends” as Director of Medicare. That revolving door thingie. No conflict of interest there, no sirree.
Tonal Crow
We need a bipartisan healthcare bill……..written by Greens and Democrats.
Tonal Crow
@Balconesfault: You got that right. Let the GOPers spend their time attempting to refute our numbers, rather than us spending our time refuting theirs.
Robertdsc-iphone
And yet none of those fucking animals would be willing to raise taxes by so much as a cent to cover the deficit. Ugh.
FlipYrWhig
That was a pay off to big Pharma
But big Pharma is _for_ this one, isn’t it? Aren’t the new “Harry and Louise” ads paid for by PhRMA, literally? Why don’t they have more clout this time around?
Punchy
We’re not getting health care reform, at least not with a public option. You heard it here first.
The level of bawt ‘n’ sold that Congress….especially Sens…currently enjoys is so absolutely corrupted that there’s just no way this bill passes with a public option.
inkadu
I’m still waiting for a detailed post on Lily’s barking habits.
I know her shit-rolling habits in detail. Heck, sometimes I catch a scent of it off of my monitor. But barking? Haven’t heard a word.
jeffreyw
Our three dogs sing along with the missus when she showers.
Zifnab
@Punchy:
Obama has been doing some serious arm twisting. If he doesn’t expect to get the public option at the end of the day, he’s doing a really good job faking it.
I’m betting there will eventually be a showdown in the Senate that will decide it.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Punchy:
Yer just rebroadcasting my predictions and taking credit for ’em, Punchy.
Anyway, without a public option it’s just another corporate giveaway and deserves to die.
inkadu
I had a dog that howled any time I played the piano. It was good, because I was always looking for an excuse to stop practicing.
John Cole
@ninerdave: Yes, that is where I got the title. I just misremembered it, I guess.
Sly
That’s what happens with habitual liars.
Xecky Gilchrist
And I don’t remember hearing howls of outrage from the Blue Dogs.
It all makes a lot more sense when you realize the Blue Dogs are Republicans.
They’re still running from (to?) Scary 1994 Newt Gingrich.
demkat620
I have the list and I am calling them all. They need us for fundraising.
Not one dime more until they start acting like democrats and get this passed.
Punchy
@Zifnab: Sure there will…..and fucks like Nelson and Snowe will kill it.
I had no idea, until I watched TDS last nite, that the Cap-and-Trade bill passed by Congress has almost zero teeth, almost all “voluntary” mandates, and no enforcement mechanism at all (EPA shut out). That’s enough to tell me that Congress no longer gives a shit about anything
General Winfield Stuck
Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves.
Blue Dog
Huh? When did this happen again?
I think I was supportin’ my Preznit cause we was at war and he was a War Preznit.
Well, we finally won them wars so now I can go back to bein’ outraged at fiscal stuff, like this health thing and Social Security.
lotus
And while we’re at it, could we put something in there about making Eric Cantor and Michael Steele wear dunce hats?
Whoa! Don’t forget Inhofe and Sessions. And Grassley and Kyl and Boehner and Bachmann and Campbell and Blackburn and, and, and . . .
inkadu
@lotus: Note bene: You can’t wear a dunce hat sideways.
But Steele could find a way.
CT
@Balconesfault:
This x 1000. I saw Sebelius on the Daily Show and thought she did a poor job laying out the case for the proposed reforms. Covering folks with no insurance is a nice thing to do, but it would help in terms of selling the program. to also have a price tag on what we are all paying RIGHT NOW to cover the uninsured when they get so sick they have to hit up the emergency room. This is hidden from us because its not a payroll deduction or a check we write every month, but its real, so lets stick a dollar sign on it-“the average American family pays $1,412/year (made up #) to pick up the costs of the uninsured.” That, and hammer home how many people have lost not only their jobs, but their health care for themselves and their families, this last 18 months.
Demo Woman
@CT: I pay $7000 a year with a 1000 deductible and a max of 4000 out of pocket and I feel lucky. I would love to be able to decrease that amount. So far out of pocket ytd I have spent under $300.
In my case, I just feel fortunate to have health insurance and it does not appear that the insurance company can drop me.
Zifnab
@Punchy:
212 House Reps saw fit to vote against that toothless voluntary bill. So they clearly give a shit about something. Getting anyone to vote on these clean energy and pollution fighting measures is like pulling teeth. No one wants to pull the trigger on a measure so clearly anti-corporate, even with the carrot of “trade” to bring the Wall Street folks to the table. It’s a miracle it got passed at all. The fact that so many people oppose it should suggest that it’s got some kind of value.
Gregory
I’m sure the “liberal media” will be all over that one. Oh, wait…
Johnny Pez
That’s because the Blue Dogs value bipartisanship above all else. Nothing gives ’em that special tingly feeling like voting along with the Republicans. They’re for anything the Republicans are for, and against anything the Republicans are against.
Phoenix Woman
You know what this means, John? You’re officially now a “lefty”, at least as far as the TradMed’s concerned.
That’s right: A conservative who isn’t a hypocrite and who is sane and compassionate is now a Dirty Effing Hippie.
Your Ché Guevara shirt is in the mail.