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Grassley: Public Option And Bipartisanship Just Don't Mix
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, insisted today that there will be no bipartisan agreement on his panel's health care reform legislation if it includes a public option.
"We don't need any more government in the medicine."
The public disagrees with this sentiment, of course--notwithstanding Grassley's comedic, grandfather-like tendency to use teh unnecessary definite article. It's worth noting, too, that there's a great deal of terrain between bipartisan agreement on the principle of a health care co-ops and Republican support for the entire reform package.
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June 24, 2009 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let's all give Chuck the "who the fuck cares what you think response" and get on w/ real health care reform. Chuck and Max have the classic case of "hard-ons" thinking that they control the fate of the public option which is to assure that there is no public option. Chuck go twit yourself to the nth degree. I don't give a damn what you think and have to say! You are a relic of days gone by!
June 24, 2009 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here is my take: Grassley and much of the GOP failed state of mind is no different than the past House of Lords, they are privileged, come from white male privilege, use and hold the old guard of Christianity institutions and symbols in the face that the world has and continues to change.
Here is the bottom line economically. US spends 15+% of GDP on healthcare that is not resulting in better lifetime rates in any measure, not resulting in better healthcare prevention or treatment outside of expensive highly invasive responsive if you can get it, where the rest of the industrial world is getting better healthcare at half the cost (7-8% of GDP), with better outcomes.
That and covering the entire population.
The rest of the country has come to realize that so I say to the Dem's and more importantly Obama movement----ram down their throats.
June 24, 2009 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
There you go again, trying to use facts and argue policy.
Republicans create their own reality, in which private profit reigns supreme. Nothing else matters. If you're rich enough, you don't need health insurance, and if you're not rich enough, it's your own damn fault.
The purpose of health insurance is to make money, not to keep people healthy or heal them when they're sick.
Sheesh.
June 24, 2009 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
When did Chuck become Senate Majority Leader? Well, he can't be worse than Reid.
June 24, 2009 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with Grassley wholeheartedly.
Dems want a public option because we have decades of evidence that the private only system isn't working very well. It's one of the most expensive in the world, outcomes are not commensurate with the cost, tens of millions are uninsured, and if you have a pre-existing condition and don't work for a company that gives you healthcare (or have a spouse that does), you're f***ed.
Virtually every Repub Senator and Representative want to protect health insurance company profits and have no problem with tens of millions of people being f***ed. Those people simply don't matter.
So Grassley is right. No bipartisan agreement is possible.
June 24, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
You had me going there, at first! But the Dems need to understand that this is true as well, and just give up trying to appease these people who want only to sabotage health care; they should not be getting anything they want, and the Dems should forget about them! They should realize it is not the Republican votes they need; it is the votes of American citizens that they need, and it is their welfare that they should be considering.
June 24, 2009 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Paraphrasing Stephen Colbert last night:
Giving insurance companies a seat at the table for health insurance reform is like giving your drug dealer a seat at the table during your intervention.
June 24, 2009 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Grassley just proved that Baucus is either a liar or a shill. If his committee is close to a bipartisan agreement (as he claims), it's only because he's caved on the public option simply to make nice with Chuck Gross-ley!
June 24, 2009 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh. Okay. Then fuck bipartisanship.
June 24, 2009 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. That's the only lesson to take from this. Thanks for laying it out in terms simple enough that even Democratic senators might understand, Chuck.
June 24, 2009 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign.
Would be helpful if the POTUS realized this as well.
June 24, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Two Buck Chuck
As if we didn't learn that lesson on the Stimulus Legislation
June 24, 2009 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of course what Grassley forgot to mention when talking about Medicare/Medicaid is how our current private insurance companies drive up the cost because of overpayments.
http://www.afscme.org/legislation-politics/16084.cfm
Guys just keep emailing and calling your Rep's and Sen in Congress and tell them you demand a Public option. Of course not all public options are created equal, but as Obama has stated time and time again he will not sign any bill that he see's as not paying for itself over time.
Oh and it is frickin ridiculous that we can talk about war funding bills in the 100 billion range over one year and then at the same time watch the MSM have a hissy fit over the proposed 1 Trillion price tag of health-care reform over 10 years , with many of the details and incentives still missing from the CBO estimate.
June 24, 2009 11:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention endless railing against "GOvernment intervention" from a Party that had no scruples about the USG rebuilding two Muslim nations. Why I just saw a McClatchy dispatch out of St. Louis reporting that the Missouri National Guard was busy assisting with the rebuild of the Afgan agriculture sector
June 24, 2009 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let sum up what the Republicans are for.
1. They want more taxpayer money to go towards health insurance companies. That is why they are demanding a mandate.
2. They want you to get less care and they want medicare to run out of money.
Grassley is against a public plan but he has no reform that would lower cost and expand healthcare. All Grassley is for is the transfer of money from the U.S. treasury to the insurance and pharm. companies. It is time democrats called a spade a spade and target these bums.
June 24, 2009 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly! He is pro-business as usual even though he acknowledges that the way the law is written today that medicare/medicaid will run out of money for pay-outs in 2017. Of course this is similar to Bush's plans to privatize social security because it will become insolvent in the far-future. We know now how bad of an idea that would have been had it been passed and billions of social security money would have disappeared at the same time our economy was tanking.
Grassley is for Big Pharma, Big Insurer, Big Agri-business, etc.
Grassley is against for profit Religious centers, wasteful defense spending, public health-care, raising taxes on the wealthy, etc.
June 24, 2009 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Point 1 is exactly right.
If you have a mandate that people must be insured, then it doesn't matter what insurance cost, people will have to buy it.
Basic economics folks, if the demand is inelastic (mandated) then it's tough to see an incentive to offer lower prices. Yeah, yeah competition from lower priced options. But there is a simple solution to that.
Since a manadate would guarentee everyone will buy insurance (with their own money or by increasing my taxes), then insurance companies simply need to be sure that insurance is legally manadated to cover EVERYTHING. i.e it is VERY expensive.
A mandate without a cost controlled public option is tantamount to armagedon for the economy.
June 24, 2009 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
ABC/WaPo
Would you support or oppose having the government create a new health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans?
62% Support, 33% Oppose
June 24, 2009 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
One must remember that to a Republican, "bipartisanship" means the Democrats cave.
Republicans do not matter in this fight.
Only Blue Dogs are worth courting.
Republicans only care about three things: Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money.
June 24, 2009 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, go tweet yourself, Grassley.
June 24, 2009 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Friends don't let Republicans use Twitter.
June 24, 2009 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another thing, how can we take Grassley seriously? Was he not asking exec's at the top companies responsible for the financial crisis to perform Harakiri on themselves. I am not really sure that this guy has a lot of input in what is the best solution to health issues when he ask for Americans to take it upon themselves in the face of failure to commit suicide. Or maybe he is some kind of crazy smart because he knows that if everyone just committed suicide health-care cost would go down.
If I was on air with this Sen, I would just look into the camera, then look at the Sen followed by looking back at the camera and ask if the American people could take his position seriously when he was asking the exec's to commit suicide as solution to their own personal failures.
June 24, 2009 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know who's really MIA in this fight? The business lobby, especially the national Association for Manufacturers. Their members are being bled white by the parasitic for-profit health industry, and yet after all these years (ever since Detroit first gave Walter Reuther the old FU on his plea to lobby for national health insurance) they are still too goddamn stupid to throw off their ideological blinders and support legislation that would actually lighten their burden. One doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.
June 24, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmmm... screw the 'bipartisanship' or screw 'the people congress is supposed to represent and their health', choices... choices...
yeah, real tough one that.
June 24, 2009 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
How many Repugs took donations from Big Pharm and insurance companies? Answer: ALL OF THEM!
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/robert_reich/2009/06/the-public-option-smokescreens.php=
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090610_why_so_scared_of_a_public_plan
The Repuplicans are afraid of losing the donation gravy train called big pharma and insurance companies.
June 24, 2009 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
No doubt. And just like the defense contractors, Big Pharma and especially the AMA and Hospitals have their fingers dipped very deep in every district you can imagine. Essentially they get to hold their money over the Pol's heads for fear that new legislation will disrupt business all across the country but specifically in each district. Just another reason that shows how the influence of money disrupts much of the political process.
June 24, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Even Grassley is not too stupid to realize that if Congress passes health care reform that works the GOP will remain in the minority for a long time to come. It is in his and every other GOP congresscritter's best interests to scuttle it.
That's bipartisanship, Republican-style.
June 24, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
But the bottom line is, they can't do it without help from slimy conservative "Democrats". So it's the latter who deserve our ire.
June 24, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. Baucus, Nelson, Landrieu, and the rest need to step in line.
June 24, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Screw 'em. If the Republicans are out no matter what, there's no reason not to do it through reconciliation in which case the Blue Dogs can go to hell, right along with their Republican friends.
June 24, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's the fighting spirit Steve!
June 24, 2009 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink