Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse dares Republicans to run against the signed health care reform bill.
WHITEHOUSE: I think victory looks good to the American people. I also think as they become more accustomed to this bill, as the President said As it's reality, confront some of the rhetoric we have heard about it. They will learn some very important things about what this bill does. I think the Republicans have painted themselves into a corner. If they want to run against us in November on opposing closing the donut hole on seniors, protecting children with preexisting conditions against the insurance companies denying them coverage. Opposing $1.3 trillion in deficit reduction. Opposing tax credits for small business. They put themselves in a tough position.
Rep. Alan Grayson goes on Hardball and says Dick Cheney should STFU. Literally. Grayson also talks about the changes in the health care bill. He wants all Americans to have access to the Medicare provider network.
Howard Dean went on Hardball to discuss Barack Obama's health care proposal. There is no official bill. Tom Daschle was to be Obama's health care point man. Daschle's nomination went down in flames. Daschle failed to pay $128,000 in taxes. On Daschle's nomination: Obama admitted, "I screwed up."
Obama's campaign health care proposal lacks specifics. Obama will have the health care industry join the nineties by keeping patient files computerized. Another issue that needs to be addressed is more competition amongst pharmacal companies to lower the price of medicine. Bush promised, in 2004, to end the ban against pharmacal drugs from Canada. Matt Yglesias notes Bush never ended the ban. Wal-Mart lowered prescription drugs prices by buying in bulk. Bush made it law the federal government could not negotiate by buying in bulk.
The Medicare prescription drug law specifically bans the federal government from negotiating bulk discounts on drugs even though the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs saves 50 percent and more off the list price of drugs it purchases for veterans as a result of bulk purchasing. Therefore, a larger share of the $400 million earmarked over the next ten years for the Medicare drug program will pay for overpriced drugs and drug company profits.
What is good enough for Wal-Mart is not good enough for the free market advocate Bush.
The Obama plan sounds a lot like the John Kerry 2004 plan. Kerry pitched lowering health care costs and giving health care recipients a choice of health care provider. The Kerry plan would be similar to health care coverage members of Congress receive.
KERRY: The fact is that my health-care plan, America, is very simple. It gives you the choice. I don't force you to do anything. It's not a government plan. The government doesn't require you to do anything. You choose your doctor. You choose your plan. If you don't want to take the offer of the plan that I want to put forward, you don't have do. You can keep what you have today, keep a high deductible, keep high premiums, keep a high co-pay, keep low benefits. Here's what I do: We take over Medicaid children from the states so that every child in America is covered. And in exchange, if the states want to-they're not forced to, they can choose to-they cover individuals up to 300 percent of poverty. It's their choice.
My problem with Obama is his lack of health care policy details. Obama is urging quick action on health care. With Obama's approval ratings, the time is now. It would help if Obama actually had a health care point man.
Christopher Hitchens forms at the mouth with Hillary Clinton hatred. Hardball, The Hitch debated Salon's Joan Walsh about Barack Obama's national security appointment. The Hitch could let go of his Hillary hatred.
HITCHENS: Is it left or right for Hillary Clinton to get her husband, after a huge Pakistani fundraiser-I'm speaking about something very important to us right now-a few years ago-huge Pakistani fund-raiser in New York, organized for her by Lanny Davis-she got him to change his plan to visit India and to build in a visit to Pakistan on the way, in return for a huge campaign donation. Everyone in Pakistan knows she's open for business. This is not a left-right question. It's a matter of integrity.
WALSH: I think this is ridiculous. I think...
HITCHENS: Do we want such a person as secretary of state?
WALSH: Christopher, your views...
MATTHEWS: Joan, your turn.
WALSH: Christopher, your views on the Clintons' integrity are well-known. I consider them eccentric. I believe that you cherry-pick...
(CROSSTALK)
WALSH: I'm not going to say that they are perfect, but I believe you cherry-pick the worst possible interpretation, as well as facts that aren't necessarily facts, and come up with this analysis.
Hitch has Clinton hatred aimed at Eric Holder for the Marc Rich pardon.
HITCHENS: The actual date doesn't matter once you start talking about that. an I just add, though, that I thought Obama's answer just there was incredibly cheap and evasive. I mean, he was right the first time to say this woman doesn't, in fact, have foreign policy experience, and he could have added, which also came up in the campaign, that the experience she has claimed, such as in Bosnia, was fake, was fabricated. And he could also have added that she, like his other nominee, for the attorney generalship, main qualification in politics is being a friend of Marc Rich, which I don't think has changed.
I voiced my own displeasure about the Holder nomination and Hillary's Bosnia comments. Holder was Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department. Clinton served on the Armed Services Committee and spent debate decades meeting world leaders. They have experience. What Hitchens doesn't understand is he questions their judgement. I never argued that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld lacked experience. My complaint was their ideas are batshit insane.
Media Matters asked why MSNBC keeps bringing Hitchens back. For the same reason people watch professional wrestling and reality television. It's show business, baby!
