Replies to post #80039 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Kyl: Health insurance companies ‘don’t need to be kept honest.’

President Obama has explained that one of the reasons he supports a robust public option as a competitor to private insurers is to “force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who opposes a public option, tells the Wall Street Journal that insurance companies don’t need to be kept honest:



..........“The health insurance industry is one of the most regulated industries in America,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) on the Senate floor Monday. “They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”

Update - Last night on Countdown, Potter said:

..........In fact I'm fairly certain that the lobbyists for the health insurance industry and the analysts for the industry in New York were probably doing high-fives on the news coming out of Washington that the Senate Finance Committee might be voting on a bill that does not include a public option and also that the House is not going to be voting on a bill before the recess. It's giving a gift to the health insurance industry no doubt about it.

Kyl is simply expressing the conservative view that unregulated private industry functions best.

He might want to sit down and talk to Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive who has testified that he saw how first-hand how private insurers “confuse their customers and dump the sick — all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.”


embedded links
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/29/kyl-insurance-honest/

[StephanieVanbryce]

Baucus seeks bipartisan solution in birther debate

Montana Sen. Max Baucus stepped into the middle of the debate swirling around the still-unresolved question of the exact birth status of Barack Hussein Obama, proposing compromise legislation that Baucus believes will satisfy advocates on both sides of the issue.

......."By having an open and honest dialogue, I am confident that we can build momentum, find consensus, and bring about a solution to this problem," Baucus said.....

Baucus' bill would place Obama's birth at the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The senior senator from the Treasure State says the measure represents a compromise that gives everyone a level playing field: it would mollify those who maintain that the president was not born in the United States, while still giving Obama the ability to prove his side's claims of citizenship.

......."We applaud the efforts of Senator Baucus to try to make it a bipartisan approach because we think that will be thoroughly vetted and one where I think we're going to get more sustainable solutions coming out of it," said attorney/dentist/tae kwon do expert Orly Taitz in an interview with Reuters. .............

......."Fundamentally, legislation that is historic, that is comprehensive, that has a large number of senators supporting it is more durable," Baucus said in an interview. "It will be more sustainable and will inspire more public confidence.".........

Baucus, flanked by his senior adviser Alexander "A-Hip" Hippocrates (described by some as a much larger version of the bug-eyed pile of money in the Geico commercials – a veritable Andre the Giant of benjamins compared to Geico’s Hervé Villechaize), spoke to reporters enthusiastically about the results of his cooperation with Senate Republicans. He said he believes his bipartisan approach can be used to solve many other intractable issues that have divided Americans and the world in recent years, including:

.......[determining the exact age of the universe (early proposals call for a compromise that would split the difference between 6,000 years and 14 billion years, setting the number at 10,000 years);

settling at what age Obamacare will require Americans to submit to euthanasia;
confirming exactly which members of Congress are anti-American;

pinpointing precisely when the president became a secret Muslim;

settling which body part - head or groin - U.S. citizens should aim for when Obama’s federal agents come to take their guns;
revealing what really happened on July 20, 1969;

stipulating what part of Russia Sarah Palin can see from her porch;

ascertaining exactly where Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction are still hidden;

and, finally, resolving the question of annexation of the Czech Sudetenland (Baucus: "My Republican colleagues and I believe it is peace in our time. Now go home and get a nice quiet sleep.")]..........

by arnks

[StephanieVanbryce]

Nelson, liberals escalate feud

By Alexander Bolton
Posted: 08/02/09 02:23 PM [ET]

Liberal activists have significantly ratcheted up their brewing fight with centrist Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who will be a pivotal vote in the Senate’s healthcare reform debate.

A liberal activist working with an advocacy group founded by former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean has attacked Nelson as “bought and paid for by health and insurance interests” and suggested he is “corrupt” and “out of touch.”

Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), made the charges in a scathing statement that said Nelson “feels perfectly comfortable lying to his constituents” if he continues to object to a liberal TV ad criticizing him.

Green vowed to expand the ad’s frequency, escalating a battle that could affect healthcare reform talks in Washington. Nelson cast one of the deciding votes for a $787 economic stimulus package earlier this year after he persuaded Democratic leaders to cut billions in spending from the bill.

The PCCC and Democracy for America (DFA), a group founded by Dean, recently launched the ad in Nebraska, which slams Nelson for delaying healthcare reform and accepting political contributions from the healthcare industry.

Green’s strongly-worded statement came in response to a statement made by Nelson spokesman Jake Thompson, who criticized the liberal groups’ tactics.

Thompson said the group’s “scare tactics are certain to further divide the public on healthcare reform, make it less likely Congress will pass real reform.

“If this is an indication of the politics going into August, then healthcare reform may be dead by the end of August,” Nelson’s spokesman concluded.

Green subsequently accused Nelson of threatening to kill healthcare reform:

“Did Ben Nelson really just say that if the grassroots keep pressuring him, he’ll kill healthcare reform?” Green wrote in a public response. “That’s unacceptable in a democracy, so we will be increasing our Nebraska ad buy on Monday morning.”

In the controversial ad, Mike Snider, a Nebraska restaurant owner, accuses Nelson of “leading the charge to delay heath reform this summer.”

“That’s exactly what they want; the health and insurance companies that have given Sen. Nelson over $2 million know that if they can stall reform, they can kill it,” Nelson tells viewers.

Nelson’s spokesman responded: “Nebraskans don’t need outside special interest groups telling them what to think,” prompting a blast from his liberal critics.

Green then answered with a barrage.

“Ben Nelson just called a Nebraska small businessman whose health insurance costs went up 42 percent an our-of-state interest, while never disputing that Nelson is bought and paid for by health and insurance interests who gave him millions to vote against his own constituents,” Green said.

“If Ben Nelson stands behind his spokesman’s words, he just proved himself a fundamentally corrupt and out-of-touch politician who feels perfectly comfortable lying to his constituents and going to bat for private insurers who fear competition and want to rip off the people of Nebraska.”

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/nelson-liberals-escalate-feud-2009-08-02.html