Healthcare

Apparently John McCain decided to use campaign money to put out a robo-call urging passage of his healthcare amendment. Here is the script:

On Monday I introduced the first Republican amendment to the massive health care bill, which would send the bill back to the Senate Finance Committee and stop the Democrats from cutting vital Medicare coverage for our seniors. I need Sen. Blanche Lincoln to join me in this effort. If you agree with me, please go to our website at www.healthcaretaskforce.org and sign a petition to Sen. Lincoln urging her to join my effort to fight a Washington DC government takeover of your health care.

CREW points out that using campaign money for official Senate business is a big no-no and has filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee over it:

CREW’s complaint alleges Sen. McCain violated Senate Rule 38, which prohibits senators from maintaining “unofficial office accounts,” meaning they cannot use private donations to support official senate activities and expenses. By urging voters to call their senators to urge them to support his motion, Sen. McCain was engaged in grassroots lobbying. This activity clearly was related to Sen. McCain's official duties. By using an outside entity’s funds -- those of the NRSC -- to pay for expenses related to his official duties, Sen. McCain violated Senate rules.

Melanie Sloan points out that if McCain wanted to send this message out then he should have used his own money. Apparently McCain either doesn’t believe in the ethics enough, or he didn’t really care about his amendment since he decided to break the rules when he has more than enough money to pay for the calls himself.

The health clinic held in Arkansans Saturday saw 1,500 uninsured Arkansans come through to receive care on the very same day Blanche Lincoln was toying with the idea of killing healthcare reform. Here is a video from the event:

But somehow Bill Clinton has totally lost the message on this great endeavor, lead by Keith Olbermann:

Bill Clinton told FDL’s Eve Gittelson that it would be problematic for him to attend a free medical clinic being held in Little Rock, Arkansas tomorrow because MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann had “politicized” the event.” He indicated that some were turning the event into a primary kickoff against Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

I guess Clinton has missed the entire healthcare debate, considering it has been nothing but politics. Two-thirds of Arkansans support the public option, yet their senator Blanche Lincoln is dead set against it, totally ignoring the will of the people she was elected to represent. That right there is fodder to turn the event into a anti-Blanche event.

Adding….I just wonder, since Clinton appears so supportive of Lincoln and claims to be so supportive of healthcare reform, has he even talked to Lincoln to try and get her to change her mind? Clinton is the former governor of Lincoln’s state, so it would be totally appropriate, yet Clinton never seems to signal that.

While many on the left side of the blogosphere seemed to enjoy Chuck Todd, I have never liked him. I don’t believe he is the “political insight machine” that so many credit him with and here is more proof of it:

John Cole, who caught this little tweet of <cough> brilliance from Todd, says this:

I guess he didn’t pick up on the fact that if they had failed to get the 60 votes, HCR would, for all intents and purposes, be dead in the short run, as the Republicans would filibuster. That is why this is such a big deal- they have overcome the obstructionism of the GOP, and the debate can advance.

Although in fairness to Chuck, he may be more concerned with why Obama didn’t reach out more to President McCain. Not to be too subjective, or anything.

When we see something as important as health care reform clear another hurdle then it is reason to celebrate. Todd’s just pissed because he doesn’t have some big failure to go on about. Screw the millions whose lives will be improved by this reform – Chuckles just wants something to give him more ratings and air time, and the more this babbling idiot is on TV the dumber America becomes.

It’s just another reason why my TV doesn’t turn to MSNBC as much as it used to.

Image via Wikipedia

Good news from the Senate on the healthcare front:

WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. Blanche Lincoln says she'll vote 'yes' on health care test vote, giving Democrats 60.

This morning Mary Landrieu said she would also vote yes today. Tonight’s the big vote, so keep an ear out. Things will get really interesting and the fear mongering will go into overdrive.

I had an interesting thought. The Republicans are constantly saying they want tort reform tied to healthcare. They have constantly argued that one of the reasons our healthcare costs are so high is because of malpractice suits against doctors. So, why not make the doctors federal employees, thus giving them the shield of protection? And the simple way to do that is government run healthcare.

There – problem solved!

Sick, sick bastard:

The only rapist here is Beck – raping whatever decency there is left in America.

Anyone shocked by this?

Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.

In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992.

So the drug companies promised Obama to cut costs by $8 billion, but first will raise those costs by $10 billion. I’m not a math whiz or anything, but that sure seems like a nice $2 billion boost for big Pharma.

I was thinking about drug prices yesterday while football was on. During one game there was the halftime report, and it was sponsored by Lipitor. I wonder how much that costs Pfizer? How about all those commercials for drugs and medical devices, like a common one for cardiac stents?

Drug companies spend billions a year in advertising for products that shouldn’t have to be sold to the public. To make this statistic even worse, they spend more in advertising than they do research. Why should Joe citizen need to be sold on Lipitor? One would think that would be the job of his doctor. If Joe has high cholesterol, then Joe’s doctor says “hey take this pill”.  The money pharma spends on advertising is a total waste that does nothing but drive up the costs of our medications.

If the pharma industry wasn’t necessary for people to live then they would have been bankrupt years ago. The mismanagement, which includes regular engaging in felonies and paying out fines as the cost of doing business, is the poorest of business models. That’s why I believe it’s time for our government to step in and tell them to change their operations or the government will. This isn’t things like cars, or other materialistic objects. We are talking about peoples lives here, and this is a perfect case for the government to do a takeover. Pull pharma’s seat from the negotiating tables on healthcare and deliver them an ultimatum. Let’s make real change we can believe in.

It turns out that abortion wasn’t the only thing covered in the RNC health insurance. Take a look at what Think Progress found out:

But ThinkProgress has noticed that Cigna, the RNC’s health insurance provider, also urges beneficiaries to think about end-of-life services. Cigna’s website has a page called “Care at the End of Life,” which covers topics such as how to talk with “loved ones” about “end-of-life choices” and whether to stop life-prolonging treatment:

Again – this is “bad” for you, but perfectly fine for employees of the RNC. This shows that every argument Republicans have made against healthcare reform were fake. If they were serious about abortion or end of life counseling they they wouldn’t cover those things in their parties insurance policies.

You got to love it when people play politics while thousands upon thousands of American citizens suffer and die. How can the Republicans even claim to be the “party of life” after they have been exposed for these hypocrisies this week?

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), one of the pro-life Democrats, is dropping hints that he will oppose the Stupak amendment in the health care bill:

Senator Casey has been a vocal supporter of health care reform and voted for the HELP Committee bill in July. He supports the public option to increase competition and reduce costs. And he is offering amendments to improve health care for children. Senator Casey thinks that health care reform should not be used to change longstanding policies regarding federal financing of abortion which has been in place since 1976.

He continues to work with his colleagues in the Senate and with the White House to ensure that the Senate health care reform bill protects existing federal and state conscience protections, existing state abortion laws and contains strong language to prohibit federal funds from being used to fund abortions. He voted for amendments in the HELP Committee that would maintain neutrality on abortion. Until Senate bill language is released it is premature to discuss next steps.

Hopefully Casey has opened the door for other pro-life members of Congress to give opposition to the Stupak amendment.

Here are the public faces that aren’t in Congress and oppose a public option:

AmandaCarpenter: Thanks to our vets today. Here is the 2009 Veterans Day poster from the VA

MittRomney: Read my statement on Veterans Day here : http://bit.ly/4sECtC

KarlRove: Wishing a happy Veterans Day to the brave men & women who sacrificed to keep our country safe & remembering those serving our nation 2day.

michellemalkin: Veterans Day 2009: Thank s to all who have served, sacrificed & preserved our freedom. - http://bit.ly/3Vjdzz

townhallcom: Meredith Jessup: Remembering Our Veterans: Please take a moment today (and everyday!) to remember all those who.. http://twurl.nl/2gcbd1

timpawlenty: Remembering all of our great veterans today. Thanks for all you do to protect freedom

GovernorPerry: Called my dad this AM and wished him a Happy Veterans Day. Do the same to those you know and love and the rest who make freedom possible!

ToomeyForSenate: We need real health care reform. Sign our petition today!: http://bit.ly/29bUTM #toomey #specter #sestak #tcot (Don’t be fooled by this. He is opposing the public option)

Today’s event was really an eye opener for me, someone who really doesn’t use Twitter. One thing I learned is that Republicans are way ahead on the Twitter front than Democrats.

I do have a special page put together where this list will always be accessible. While it did take a lot of work digging through tweets, I felt it was the least I could do given the news that started this off – last year alone over 2,200 veterans, who couldn’t afford healthcare in our nation, died. The fact that these people say they “honor” our veterans, yet don’t want to be part of the solution to this travesty is utterly appalling.

In closing I would like to provide you with a tweet from a long time Republican blogger:

I couldn’t have said it any better myself. As I stated numerous times throughout the day, actions speak louder than words. The politicians I highlighted today are a shining example of just that. They like to say that they “support our troops” and are “honored”, yet they can’t prove it. Instead they are the very cause of the problem with America – an inability to conquer any big problem anymore. Could you imagine if these same clowns were in charge when Kennedy declared a mission to put a man on the moon? It would have never happened.

Not really thanking them or honoring them directly, just asking them to go to his campaign website to view this:

Yet somehow Gresham overlooks the grueling fact that over 2,200 veterans died last year and didn’t have health insurance. Gresham was also another “no” vote for healthcare this past weekend.

Rep. J. Gresham Barrett (R - SC-3) Website http://www.barrett.house.gov/index.html Phone 202-225-5301 Fax 202-225-3216 Contact http://www.barrett.house.gov/?sectionid=82§iontree=16,47,82 Additional Information

A truly humbling idea:

Even more humbling would be thanking the vets with affordable health care coverage. Imagine if the 2,200+ veterans that didn’t have this necessity and died last year received thanks like that.

Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R - IL-10) Website http://kirk.house.gov/ Phone 202-225-4835 Fax 202-225-0837 Contact http://www.house.gov/kirk/zipauth.shtml Additional Information

How nice of him! And here is the picture he is sharing:

Maybe he is explaining how he can’t support a health care bill that would have helped provide coverage to the 2,200 veterans who couldn’t afford it and died last year? Nah…I doubt it.

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R - FL-13) Website http://buchanan.house.gov/ Phone 202-225-5015 Fax 202-226-0828 Contact http://buchanan.house.gov/contact.shtml Additional Information

Here’s his tweet:

Yet interesting enough as this appeared on Issa’s Twitter feed, so did this:

Let’s think about those 2,200 veterans that died last year from lack of health care coverage and wonder if Issa is thanking them also.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R - CA-49) Website http://www.issa.house.gov/ Phone 202-225-3906 Fax 202-225-3303 Contact http://issa.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm Additional Information

Somehow I don’t think Don mentioned how he could not support healthcare reform in light of the news that over 2,200 veterans died last year and couldn’t afford coverage.

Rep. Donald A. Manzullo (R - IL-16) Website http://manzullo.house.gov/ Phone 202-225-5676 Fax 202-225-5284 Contact http://manzullo.house.gov/zipauth.aspx Additional Information