The segment actually ended with Anthony Weiner (D-NY) saying that he's "fighting for Taxpayers" and Maria Bartiromo (R-CNBC) responded "Well it's my job to fight for the investors"

hmmm... couldn't be more telling.

Dumb as a fucking rock. It doesn't take much in the way of intelligence to talk about what stocks are up and what stocks are down. Bartiromo is a hot chick who talks about buys and sells - that's all she is. She's on the teevee because the traders imagine her going down on them while they short-sell 20,000 shares of Cisco. Kind of the way conservative men view Sarah Palin.

"Why aren't you in Medicare?:" Is she really serious? Also, I don't think that she "inadvertently" thinks elements of the proposal are good ideas and make sense. She's was just going for the gotcha and tried to use Medicare as a tool to get there. And she used Medicare only because Weiner threw it out there as an example of government health coverage in the US - she clearly doesn't know anything about the program...I mean, the fact that Medicare is only available to seniors isn't just some little detail - it's the essence of the entire freaking program. This was all about having the opportunity to say to Weiner, "Well, then why don't you give up that gold-plated, extra special, super deluxe coverage you get as a pampered, stinking rich, elitist Congressman." It's the same BS the idiots at the town halls pull..it's straight out of Tea-Bagging 101 - "If you're going to force the public plan on us, why don't you enroll in it?" Of course, what's lost on these idiots is the word OPTION. (I mean, for the love of pete, a big component of the reform plans is the exchange. Obama has been talking about it since the campaign. It's a key part of all the proposed pieces of legislation. How the fuck do you have an exchange if there is only one option and everybody has to be in it?)

I watched her shoot her mouth off about a week ago and she demonstrated then that she has no idea what the debate is about. She's fucking clueless. She sat there and yelled that there aren't 47 million uninsured people, that it was much less than that and she thought that it was just a choice for most of them.

Get it through your thick skull, Maria. Millions and millions of Americans can't afford health care. They can't afford, and in many cases can't get accepted for, health insurance. They don't have friends and relatives and connections where they can just go hit somebody up for some money. They flat-out can't get it. Just because you can't imagine what it's like to be unemployed, foreclosed upon, or deathly ill doesn't mean there aren't millions of people out there having to deal with it.

Jeez, talk about a "let them eat cake" attitude.

Big shocker there. They're anti-health care until the end. Needs to stop, something needs to be said. If this goes any further before they start checking democrats.org. Some act like if health care passes, the planet will end. Doubt the inferno.

So if I offer to give Bartiromo ten dollars, she's going to refuse because I haven't offered to give her twenty dollars, right?

Also, I'm sure Weiner would be more than happy to have the public plan cover everything. If that's what Maria wants, then we'll certainly be willing to tax her for it.

She doesn't even realize that Medicare IS better. She actually thought he's on a private plan because he prefers it.

"But ironically, the idea that Weiner should be able to buy into Medicare seems totally uncontroversial to her. And that, of course, is the whole point of the public option."

Ideally, the public option would mean people under 65 buying into Medicare.

But the Blue Dogs want the public option to separately negotiate how much it pays doctors. That would mean more cost to the taxpayers, more cost for patients, and more money for doctors.

Is there anybody who does financial news, who is not a flaming idiot?

She's wrong about Erbitux.

Patients can get it in the UK.

=========================================================
http://www.pharmatimes.com/UKNews/article.aspx?id=16489

NICE issues final green light for Erbitux in colorectal cancer
27 August 2009

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has issued final guidance recommending the use of Merck KGaA’s cancer drug Erbitux on the National Health Service for patients with colorectal cancer.

Specifically, the cost regulator has given the green light for the use of the drug in combination with a chemotherapy regimen known as FOLFOX – 5-fluorouracil, folinic acid and oxaliplatin - as a first-line weapon against the disease under the following conditions: the primary tumour has been resected or can be operated on; disease spread is confined to the liver and is inoperable; and the patient is well enough to undergo surgery to remove the primary tumour or the diseased part of the liver if this is possible following treatment.

In addition, the Institute has given the all clear for the drug’s use in combination with 5-FU, folinic acid and irinotecan (known as FOLFIRI) as a first-line defence when the above criteria are met, and the patient is unable to take oxaliplatin. NICE has also stipulated that patients in either subset should not be treated with the drug for more than 16 weeks.

Approval of the drug for use on the NHS was based upon a cost analysis that concluded it would be a cost-effective use of resources, taking into account clinical evidence showing its ability to significantly shrink tumours as well as a risk-sharing scheme proposed by Merck, under which it offers a 16% rebate to the health service on the cost of treatment per patient.
=========================================================

Is Bartiromo really that uninformed so as to ask this question?

Joey Ramone was right about a lot of things, but he was (sadly) wrong about Maria Bartiromo.

I saw it. Mind-bottling.

Medicare for ALL.

Gawd she's sofa king stupid.

Bartiromo's cluelessness is just more evidence that the public in general is totally lost; Bartiromo really isn't stupid & she's at least peripherally in the news biz; if she hasn't absorbed anything about the proposed reforms, is it any wonder that the general public is mystified & myth-spouting?

The Constant Weader at www.RealityChex.com

This is just too perfect. From her Wikipedia page:

In March, 2006, Bartiromo appeared as a contestant[1] on celebrity Jeopardy. Matched against CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper and Kweisi Mfume, President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. After two rounds Bartiromo finished with $0, having only attempted to answer two questions in the Double Jeopardy round, answering only one correctly. Because her balance of $0 following the Double Jeopardy round would have made her ineligible for the Final Jeopardy round, Maria was 'gifted' $1,000 in order to keep playing. Maria answered the Final Jeopardy question incorrectly, and finished the game with $300 of the $1,000 she had been 'gifted'.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Bartiromo

Joey Ramone is spinning in his grave. Johnny Ramone is hoping Maria's into necrophilia.

CNBC??? Heh, did she replace Jim Cramer?

She was tripped up by just regurgitating hypocritical a.k.a. republican talking points, uhmmmm.

It just goes to show that you can send a Republican to college, but you can't educated them.

.../head-desk

When did Bartiromo become a right wing hack?

She's the perfect partner for Jim Cramer!

Wow, I mean this is basic facts 101. I'd say even the crazies at the town halls know that only seniors qualify for medicare(even if they don't realize it's a government program).

Yep, just another cable tv, MSM Republican shill. Oh, what a surprise, the supposed "expert" didn't even major in economics or finance, just like her little protege, Erin Burnett(another Republican shill and hack). They're both great at reciting information from cue cards, but when they actually have to discuss an issue and think for themselves, the complete ignorance is on full display.
And not to get too superficial, but why are these women considered so attractive? I can see more beautiful women walking down my nearest street--and I'll bet they know more about Medicare(not a tough threshold).

This is just really sad. I have a friend with an MBA who is absolutely brilliant who has been looking for work for the past year...and this woman is getting paid (how much?) to discuss health care on CNBC and she doesn't even understand you must be 65+ to enroll in Medicare? This is one of the most pathetic displays of ignorance I have seen on television, even including Fox News.

Baritiromo and Miss Palin share the same attitude toward reading: Just say no.

So sometimes they complain that the public option will be so awesome it will drive insurance companies out of business, here Bartiromo wonders if the public plan will be subpar.

Weiner was good to school her about how happy people are with Medicare, but he should have added. "look Maria, even if I were to concede that it might be subpar, which I DONT, than people simply wouldn't move to the public option and would instead buy private insurance on the exchange with the help of the subsidies they recieve. I don't hear alot of people on the anti-reform side telling us they fear that type of outcome because they know that most likely any public option will be very competative against a private plan. If the public plan will be so subpar they have nothing to worry or their insurance industry friends because it wont be able to compete. Its very telling though that most anti-reform people argue instead that THEY wont be able to compete with the public plan. Why is that huh?"

Hey Maria-I used to work at CNBC-sometimes even with you!

Unfortunately the company wouldn't put me on staff even after I worked there for 2 years as a "permalancer". Do you know what that means? NO HEALTHCARE!

The ensuing years have not made you any smarter.

We are discussing the wrong issue. We shouldn't be concerned about a public 'option' we should be concerned about the validity and legality of mandating the purchase of health care coverage. Why does everyone think that health care is a right? It's not! It's a privilege. It is something that you have to earn, pay for, etc. Is it possible to make it more affordable? Absolutely. Should the taxpayers who already have adequate health care have to pay for those who do not? Absolutely not. If I'm not mistaken that is what makes this country so great, we can choose our own path and make our own decisions. I understand that there are individual cases of severe health issues, but when making policies, anecdotal evidence should not be taken into account.

I totally believe in and support a single payer universal health-care system.

However I think the administration could do a better job of informing the public and lawmakers of what good health care really does for a nation.

Hans Gosling (see link to video below) demonstrates that when a nation improves its health, its wealth actually increases. Not the other way around. Countries get healthier first, then they make money. Therefore Republicans who are arguing against healthcare reform are also arguing against a more viable capitalist economy. Supposedly the thing for which they most stand.

Address of Gosling video: http://www.gapminder.org/videos/200-years-that-changed-the-world