Sarah Palin on why socializing healthcare is just plain dumb:
Common sense tells us that the government’s attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones. Common sense also tells us that a top-down, one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy. And common sense tells us to be skeptical when President Obama promises that the Democrats’ proposals “will provide more stability and security to every American.”
With all due respect, Americans are used to this kind of sweeping promise from Washington. And we know from long experience that it’s a promise Washington can’t keep.
Well, we thought “we” – the nation – knew it. And yet the Dems are in power.
For now, anyway.
Let’s talk about specifics. In his Times op-ed, the president argues that the Democrats’ proposals “will finally bring skyrocketing health-care costs under control” by “cutting . . . waste and inefficiency in federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid and in unwarranted subsidies to insurance companies . . . .”
First, ask yourself whether the government that brought us such “waste and inefficiency” and “unwarranted subsidies” in the first place can be believed when it says that this time it will get things right. The nonpartistan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) doesn’t think so: Its director, Douglas Elmendorf, told the Senate Budget Committee in July that “in the legislation that has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount.”
In fairness to the Administration, anything’s possible when you’re in fantasy world and/or making Chicago-style campaign promises.
Now look at one way Mr. Obama wants to eliminate inefficiency and waste: He’s asked Congress to create an Independent Medicare Advisory Council—an unelected, largely unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs.
In other words, empanel a new bureaucracy to tame a bureaucracy…
In an interview with the New York Times in April, the president suggested that such a group, working outside of “normal political channels,” should guide decisions regarding that “huge driver of cost . . . the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives . . . .”
Ah. That statement the Dems keep trying to stuff down the memory hole.
Read the whole thing.
Very disappointing. I was hoping for a photo.
Wonder who wrote all those words for her.
I’m going to play a game I sometimes play with Angryclown posts, especially early in the morning. I visually block out the post. mentally go over the post on which he’s commenting, and give myself points by the following system:
‘Wingnut’ – 1 point.
“Loonies – 1 point.
“Caribou Barbie” – 5 points
“Palin is dumb” references – 2 points
“Mets” – 6 points
There’s others, but I’m kinda tired today.
So let’s check Angryclown’s comment:
—————————–
Hm. Only two points. I’m a little off today. Or Clown is.
Who wrote the words? Palin. And then Janet Napolitano put her on the DHS watchlist.
I was wondering how much of the opposition to the public option is based on the fact that it”s employers who choose people’s health plans. I mean, the President has promised us we can keep out current plans, if we prefer them, but that’s not much of a promise if our employer decides it would be cheaper to opt for the public plan.
McCain and others in the GOP have been advocating reforms that would make self-insurance a real option – that would make it possible for people to actually choose their own plan, instead of having to live with the one their employer chooses.
Polls say that people are about evenly split over whether or not the government should guarantee universal health care, unless it means changing their own plan. Asked whether they would support government-run universal care if it meant that their own plan would change, people are opposed more than 2-1.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/may_2009/42_favor_free_health_care_for_all_americans_unless_their_own_coverage_has_to_change
This, I think, explains why the Dems see so much support until they actually make a proposal, then see that support evaporate when that proposal includes measures that would cause people’s coverage to change. Even when those changes are presented only as an option, people know that their employers will choose those options for reasons that are not entirely aligned with the quality of their individual health care.
Seems to me that a great many of the folks who are opposed to the public option are concerned over their employer choosing it, contrary to their own interests. And that a significant proportion of them would not be opposed, if they knew that they wouldn’t be taking the public option unless they were the ones who were choosing it.
That is, from where I sit, it looks like the Dem’s public option will always be politically unfeasible, unless the GOP’s policy of individual choice is adopted first.
Angryclown is trying to pretend the Mets don’t exist.
Angryclown is trying to pretend the Mets don’t exist.
The Mets exist. On the DL, unfortunately.
Oops, you forgot to quote this part:
“many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats’ proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by—dare I say it—death panels?”
She won’t always be hot, but she’ll always be a kook.
In an interview with the New York Times in April, the president suggested that such a group, working outside of “normal political channels,” should guide decisions regarding that “huge driver of cost . . . the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives . . . .”
An unaccountable (politically) group making policy decisions on that “huge driver” of costs? And these costs can be reduced how? By denying care? No, they won’t call their policy committee meetings “death panels”; they’ll say they’re thinking of the children or, better yet, “thinking Green”. Soylent Green, that is…
Let’s make Angrybuffoon happy and call them End-of-Life Panels.
“Wonder who wrote all those words for her. ” — You expecting her to drop her “g’s” when she writes?
angryclown: Sarah Palin is dumb.
angryclown: Sarah Palin is crazy.
Either she’s too stupid to write the words herself, or she’s a kook because she so horribly mischaracterizes these panels whom “should guide decisions” of “the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives”, because we need to control health care costs.
I obviously need another chorus of “angryclown is so smart” here because I am losing faith. :-/
Let’s make Angrybuffoon happy and call them End-of-Life Panels.
Lets call them what they already are Case Management or Organ Transplant Committees
Seems to me that a great many of the folks who are opposed to the public option are concerned over their employer choosing it, contrary to their own interests. And that a significant proportion of them would not be opposed, if they knew that they wouldn’t be taking the public option unless they were the ones who were choosing it.
I think that’s part of it (at least the part that’s gotten most of the attention) but I think there’s another part that hasn’t gotten as much attention that people would be aware of. Under HR 3200, all private plans will be required to offer the same benefits and limits on the patient’s portion of health care expenses (e.g. co-pays, deductibles, co-insurance) as the “public option.” For people who have an existing plan, this will still happen but it will be phased in over five years (about the time it takes for the “public option” to go into full effect). Unless of course you have any changes in your policy, in which case it has to happen right away.
People forget (or rather it wasn’t widely reported and McCain-Palin failed to point this out during the campaign) that when Obama said “you can keep your private health insurance if you like it,” he qualified that “promise” by adding “so long as your private plan is as generous as the ‘public option.’” In other words, you will either (a) be enrolled in the “public option” (possibly by having your employer dump you in the plan) or (b) ultimately every private plan will within five years be rewritten to be virtually identical to the “public option” but still called Private In Name Only.
Angryclown often uses conjunctions to avoid repetition and save typing, Troy. Check this out:
Sarah Palin is dumb and crazy.
Try it!
Faith still flagging, unfortunately. If she was too dumb to write the words, you can’t really use the words to insinuate she’s crazy, can you? Of course YOU can, but you are not bound by the rules of logic, your thoughts are magical! 😉
Angryclown is worried that the Mets will have to stand before the death panel. Never mind, they’re already dead.
And, has the Mets prove, throwing a few billion dollars at the problem doesn’t make it any better.
If they were dead, Mr. D, we’d save tons of money on their contracts and go out and get some new guys.
Notice that AC doesn’t challenge Palin’s logic, but rather her authorship, of the piece. Nobody really wants the IRS to be running their healthcare, not even AC, in his heart of hearts.
And for reference, the agency most responsible for the public option in the Waxman bill is…
….you guessed it. The same guy who does your tax audit would be telling you whether you get a colonoscopy. Joy.
No problem. The IRS LOVES colonoscopies!
Bubba realized “Notice that AC doesn’t challenge Palin’s logic”
Clownie never challenges logic. I think he finds logic itself challenging.
Logic isn’t a currency that’s honored at SitD. Before Angryclown enters He exchanges His logic for ridicule and mockery.
Logic isn’t a currency that’s honored at SitD. Before Angryclown enters He exchanges His logic for ridicule and mockery.
Try exchanging them for carbon credits as well; they’re just as effective as what you’re already getting.
Clownie is getting a very poor exchange rate. Or perhaps a realisitic one.
Seems to me that a great many of the folks who are opposed to the public option are concerned over their employer choosing it, contrary to their own interests
If I don’t like my health benefits my employer offers I can quit and find a new job with better benefits. (Strangely enough, health insurance was first offered as a way around salary controls.)
I don’t see myself being able to do that under the “public option.”
What a shock! Bozo again reverts to name calling and refutes nothing of what Palin said. But she`s dumb! Which makes you dumber.
Thanks, jimf. But Angryclown doesn’t bother arguing with Sarah Palin any more than with Trig. To do so would be a shameful waste of Angryclown’s considerable talents and intelligence.
angryclown said:
“a shameful waste of Angryclown’s considerable talents and intelligence”
Apparently exhibiting any of these “talents and intelligence” would waste them as well.