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50 Comments
- skipvt, on 10/21/2009, -2/+28In the end they'll put a band-aid over the gaping wound of a system out of control so both sides can claim victory. Thanks for standing up to the insurance companies and AMA congress.
- acroyear2, on 10/22/2009, -4/+22They're all capable liars you *****. Until this narrowed minded one-party mindset stops, all you guys are going to be duped. You know what was a lie? The Iraq war. I'm still waiting for that apology.
- fms45, on 10/21/2009, -10/+25gimmick Congress!! + 100 diggs for that word!
- gbudavid, on 10/21/2009, -10/+22If you can't dazzle them with Brilliance,
Why then Baffle them with B.S. - Insightful, on 10/22/2009, -15/+25Yeah, Dems totally suck... for using the same tactics that Republican Congress has been used for years! How terrible for those Dems! And I am not a hypocrite for not criticizing Republicans when they did the same thing for the past decade!
/s
Democrats like Reid and Baucus suck for all sort of reasons but this is just small potatoes. Milbanks, however, suck as usual.
Buried. - iamacyborg, on 10/22/2009, -2/+10Dude, this is the game politicians play. It's called a false dichotomy.
There is not an "exclusive or" relation between Democrats sucking hairy goat balls and Republicans sucking hairy goat balls. - Insightful, on 10/22/2009, -4/+10Yeah, RTFA.
"A decade ago, Congress passed legislation designed to limit health-care costs by slowing the growth of Medicare payments to doctors. Each year, Congress passes a "patch" to prevent the cuts from taking effect. Stabenow proposed to make this system "honest" by eliminating the cuts permanently."
Get that? Republicans controlled Congress until 2006 and each year they passed a "patch."
How about the nearly $1 trillion dollar the Republican administration and Congress used to fund the war though "emergency” supplemental spending bills instead of through the budget?
Case in point, in May of 2007, Bush signed an emergency supplemental bill of $100 billion to fund the war, coming shortly after the 2006 $70 billion funding. The average annual emergency suplemental funding during 1990s? $14 billion.
So, don't give me the faux outrage that Democrats are the worst spender and fraudster and somehow the Republican were clean, honest, fiscally conservative, or responsible.
2010 and 2012 will both be losing years for Republicans. You reap what you sow. - MWeather, on 10/22/2009, -5/+11"I, for one, can't remember the Republican congress trying to sell the prescription drug benefit for medicare as revenue neutral while shifting the cost to other bills."
I do. They accomplished revenue neutrality by not funding anything, hence trillions in aditional medicare deficits. - CySailor, on 10/22/2009, -2/+7Its ok for Democrats to do it because Republicans did the same stuff is not a great argument. It sucks no matter who does it and you should be equally outrage regardless.
- SpeedSteamBoat, on 10/22/2009, -7/+12You misspelled "Republicans."
Just thought you should know. - darkened, on 10/22/2009, -2/+7And people will bury anyone of us that will say there is no way this plan won't add trillions to our deficit. Well here you go, here's a great start on adding another trillion to the deficit.
Seriously how can this level of bribery be allowed? 250 billion to buy the AMA? WTF. - Insightful, on 10/22/2009, -9/+13Milbrank is a douche and always will be.
Milbrank want you to think Democrats is adding quarter of a trillion to the federal deficit next year! How dishonest are the Democrats! For shame!
Well, except it is not next year but really over ten years.
Furthermore, Democrats actually are the ones who wanted to be honest. FTA "each year, Congress passes a "patch" to prevent the cuts from taking effect. Stabenow proposed to make this system "honest" by eliminating the cuts permanently."
"Medicare is hurtling toward insolvency" warns Milbank. Guess what? Every single year from as far as I can remember (since Reagan) they have been making that claim. Letting Medicare be insolvent is like eliminating property tax deduction - no politician will let that happen unless they want to commit political suicide.
"I have never witnessed something more sinister!" an agitated Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) declared "
Really Bob? You are almost 60. You may not remember WWII but you have been through Vietnam war, Korean war, USSR as the evil empire, 9/11, etc and you have not seen anything more sinister than a bill?
The article proceeds to interview a bunch of Republican Senators, Fox News, and then produced only Stabenow and Reid.
Republicans, for example, is embodied by a President who requested and signed hundreds of billions in "emergency" supplemental spending year after year ($100 billion in 2007, $160 billion in 2008, for example) instead of doing it through budgeting.
Yet, somehow we should be furiously mad at Democrats who want to make permanent the $25 billion over *10* years measure that has passed every year for the last 10 years?
Spare my your faux outrage Milbank and the Republicans (25% of population and shrinking). - niradg, on 10/22/2009, -9/+13Damn those Democrats for giving into the evil greedy doctors!
/s - thecoolestguy, on 10/22/2009, -1/+4---I understand what the rich have to give up but what they are getting in return is too large. for the smaller 5% to make more than the 95% is too much.---
Why is it too much? Maybe them and their forebears have spent generations building up their assets. The world is not filled with people who are equal in ability and ambition.
And in any case it's not like their wealth doesn't help others. Their efforts to grow their wealth leads to more businesses being created, and more products/services being provided at lower costs.
The average citizen have never been as well off as they are now. A person considered poor today is far wealthier and has access to far better products/services than a wealthy person 2 centuries ago. Poor/rich is relative, and to only compare the masses' wealth to the richest members of society just leads you to support an envious policy of redistribution, rather than one that benefits the most people. - SpykerSpeed, on 10/22/2009, -6/+9Great idea! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? We could also print money, and write rules and regulations. Society will be so much better! What could possibly go wrong?
/s - monvalley, on 10/22/2009, -2/+5Appy the same rules to Congress that Obama applies to bailedout companies; if you run a deficit, then your pay is cut a minimum of 50% and you give up your perks. So Reid will be working for free until he's defeated in the next election. Then after he is out, go back and take another 90% of his pay.
- DrKnowitall, on 10/22/2009, -2/+5Some. Wish there were more of the good ones. As much as people blame Congress, how about the people who fell for the campaign ad and voted for them?
- PeppermintPig, on 10/22/2009, -5/+7When people earn money, they deserve 100% of it. Not that I'd expect someone with a 1% mentality to grasp the concept laboring to create value on a volitional basis.
You know, it'd be fine if you recognized that people are not merely animals to slave for the good of others, but I haven't seen much uncolored, non-hypocritical positions on this idea. - SpykerSpeed, on 10/22/2009, -2/+4This is a great question, darkescaflowne! The question isn't how to best steal money from the richest, to give to the poor. Rather, we should be looking at why the cost of living is going up.
I provide you with three reasons:
1. The Federal Reserve (inflation)
2. Taxation (in particular corporate taxes, which are passed on to consumers)
3. Regulations (which create a high barrier to entry for entrepreneurs and limit employment opportunities)
These are the culprits. Don't look to taxation as the solution, please. - sangjmoon, on 10/22/2009, -5/+7We don't need more government, Democrat or Republican, money and interference. Neither are fiscal conservatives. True reform is cutting back government programs that are economically unsustainable in the long run. Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security, already taking up half our federal tax dollars every year even before this economic crisis, are ticking timebombs waiting to shoot government spending through the roof when the bulk of the baby boomers retire. In 1962, 0.4% of our GDP went to subsidize the health care industry and this has risen to 6.1% of our GDP today which comes to over $870 billion and rising. This continuous pumping of money into the health care industry is the reason why health care costs are skyrocketing. Even today's economic crisis' major cause was the attempt by the government to "help" people who don't normally qualify for home loans to get them. Our dramatically rising food prices were caused by the government trying to "help" the ethanol industry through subsidies and mandatory use laws. Our failing auto industry was caused by the government "helping" them through subsidies, quotas and laws blocking domestic and foreign competition. Obama's "green" executive orders and Democrat "green" subsidies and legislation have increased prices, devalued the dollar, and hit our economy negatively overall at a time when we least need this. The government is the most inefficient allocators of resources, and what seems like a good idea for them to do today turns out to have far worse consequences down the road. Please, please, please tell the government to stop "helping" us before they help the country into oblivion.
- scottc, on 10/22/2009, -8/+9I agree that the Democrats will lie and play the same tricks that the Republicans did when they were in power, but in this case what they are doing just makes sense. Why put a fix for the current Medicare problem into a new health care plan? The fix needs to be made, one way or another, regardless of whether health care reform passes or not.
- PeppermintPig, on 10/22/2009, -1/+2I applaud the idea of voting with your dollar. You can't compel others to uphold your own beliefs. The world you would like to live in depends on what YOU do.
- ptheroux, on 10/22/2009, -10/+11The Dems promised pay-go budgeting. They are liars.
- thecoolestguy, on 10/22/2009, -5/+6I don't know how you imagine the rich make their money, if you think they owe every one something. I think some people have an impression that getting rich is easy.
Building a successful business is a fragile endeavor that takes the prime of one's life and immense concentration and effort to accomplish. The product of a successful business is goods and services that people want and need. Businesses like Google are not stealing money from people, they are trading something they've produced for money. They make the world a richer place, and their founders are fairly compensated for that. - LastVisibleDog, on 10/23/2009, -1/+2Democrats (including Obama) - live by the "monkey see, monkey do" credo
Problem: Afghanistan War has become worse since Obama took change (the bloodiest month of the 8 year war was on Obama's watch)
Obama: Bush did it too
Problem: Obama said Bush's deficit spending ruined our economy - within three months Obama ran up a deficit over three times larger than the highest Bush deficit
Obama: Bush did it too
Problem: Unemployment was 7% when Obama took over the White House, now it is 10% (the highest in nearly 30 years)
Obama: Bush did it too
Problem: Bo took a dump on the Oval Office carpet
Obama: Barney did it too - reeds1999, on 10/22/2009, -5/+6Nationalize the health care system and end this whole charade!
- darkescaflowne, on 10/22/2009, -4/+5I will most likely be a lawyer and I would be willing to pay more of my salary so no person has to live without medical care. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is.
- BasalCellBossk, on 10/22/2009, -10/+11More whining from the bitter !right.
- thecoolestguy, on 10/22/2009, -4/+5Destroy liberty and no more confusion!
- Wosat, on 10/22/2009, -0/+1@Insightful
So Congress thought they could cut the cost of medicare... Only, when the time came to deliver, they couldn't bear to do it, so they pass the "patch" every year. And you believe this Congress *will* be able to come through on cutting $500 billion from medicare when the evil Republicans couldn't even cut a little? Really?
Yes, the Republicans payed for much of the cost of the war through emergency supplementals, but did they then turn around and refuse to count the cost of the supplementals towards the cost of the war? Did the media forget to include the cost of the supplementals in the cost of the war? Exactly how does that relate to what the current Congress is attempting to do, which is to use Enron-style accounting to fool the American people and lap-dog media into believing the plan they're proposing is revenue neutral???
And don't worry about me even trying to hint that the Republicans were clean, honest, fiscally conservative, or responsible. I didn't vote for any congressional Republicans last election. I think most of them are total failures.
We'll just have to see about 2010 and 2012. :-) - SpykerSpeed, on 10/22/2009, -3/+3Well good for you. But your personal decision to donate is your's. You have no sovereignty over my (or anyone else's) paycheck. And it's good you're planning on being a liar (I mean lawyer!) and not an economist.
- Barackalypse, on 10/22/2009, -8/+8They do give something back, whatever product or service made them rich. For instance, I owe my first job to Bill Gates, without him the software my company made would likely never have had a large enough market to warrant creating.
- schnikies79, on 10/22/2009, -8/+8Political parties are for pussies who can't think for themselves.
- SpeedSteamBoat, on 10/22/2009, -11/+10I wonder how many partisan tools it took to cry every time an article they liked got buried.
Oh, looks like just one. Nevermind. - darkescaflowne, on 10/22/2009, -3/+2Whats the point of working, as a lower class worker, when it doesn't even provide you the basic necessities. I understand what the rich have to give up but what they are getting in return is too large. for the smaller 5% to make more than the 95% is too much. The nation is not taken care of by those 5%, the 5% don't represent the entirety of America and certainly the 95% need to be somewhat secure in their livelihood. Why would people continue in this system if the evidence is that it isn't their for you when you need it.
- professor357, on 10/22/2009, -4/+3Your Federal government at work. They can't even coordinate an efficient flu vaccine program, but they want to run the entire health system of the United States, and claim they can do that without raising the cost.
Read the news. They've screwed up on the H1N1 vaccine program.
"Fairfax cancels two swine flu vaccine distributions" - Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic ...
In the health system...
"Service Denied - People Died" - Samueul, on 10/22/2009, -2/+1Easy to say when you have nothing.. Get back to us when you actually MAKE SOMETHING OF YOURSELF..
- Barackalypse, on 10/22/2009, -9/+7From the looks of it, someone needs to stand up to Congress. They're responsible for nearly $12 trillion in debt and climbing at a double digit percentage every year.
- thecoolestguy, on 10/22/2009, -4/+2are doctors supposed to not be greedy? It's extremely naive to generalize groups as uniformly greedy or good, but hey this is digg, and ignorance is fashionable!
- MWeather, on 10/22/2009, -8/+6"Oh well, I'm sure HuffPo, MSNBC, and the NY Times will be all over this story any day now..."
What story? - jaytek13, on 10/22/2009, -12/+9Washington Post: The Fox News of print media
buried because I don't care about their nonsense. - Wosat, on 10/22/2009, -11/+8Oh noes. I've been called a name. I guess I'll have to change my behavior. /s
- Wosat, on 10/21/2009, -19/+16Remember, we're supposed to trust the people behind this gimmick that they'll eventually get around to cutting $500 billion from medicare to offset the cost of the new plan. Yeah, right!
- iamacyborg, on 10/22/2009, -7/+3Yes, generalize. It's like saying "I would NEVER have sex with a boy goat."
The adjective before goat invites a few questions. - Barackalypse, on 10/22/2009, -14/+9The scary thing is that not all of the distortions and trickery in the 176,276 word legislation (HR 3200) are as obvious as this. If they're this dishonest about the President's simple promise, imagine what sort of nastiness lurks in a massive bill almost nobody will have read completely (to say nothing of the unintended consequences).
- Wosat, on 10/22/2009, -16/+10Care to provide any examples?
I, for one, can't remember the Republican congress trying to sell the prescription drug benefit for medicare as revenue neutral while shifting the cost to other bills. I mean, if you want to distill all this down to "political jostling" then, sure, all politicians are guilty. And I'm not saying the Republicans aren't guilty of many things. (Hell, I even derived some schadenfreude from seeing the Republicans bounced out on their asses, and I'm a Republican.) But do you really have any specific examples of the last congress engaging in this sort of legislative fraud, or are you just knee-jerking to spare yourself the cognitive dissonance of being let down by your own party that was supposed to bring a "new era of transparency"? - darkescaflowne, on 10/22/2009, -16/+10Just tax the rich already, these people do not deserve all the money they have and its about that top 5% that makes more money than the bottom 95% gives something back to the people that keep them rich. Most people support healthcare and the taxes in this nation are too low.
- iamacyborg, on 10/22/2009, -8/+1Please have lots of children, Mr.
- Ferretman, on 10/21/2009, -27/+19What a dishonest, lying bunch of weasels these Dems are.
- Wosat, on 10/22/2009, -20/+11I wonder how many dems it took to bury this story.
Oh well, I'm sure HuffPo, MSNBC, and the NY Times will be all over this story any day now...
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