Howard Dean Blasts Baucus Healthcare Bill

[madfloridian]

From US News & World Report

Howard Dean Blasts Baucus Healthcare Bill

Howard Dean, former Democratic National Committee chairman, minced no words about Sen. Max Baucus's healthcare proposal, unveiled to the public this morning. "The Baucus bill is the worst piece of healthcare legislation I've seen in 30 years," Dean said last night at a healthcare town hall and book signing in Washington. "In fact, it's a $60 billion giveaway to the health insurance industry every year," he said. "It was written by healthcare lobbyists, so that's not a surprise. It's an outrage."

The Baucus bill leaves out some of the president's goals for healthcare reform, such as the controversial public option. While more palatable to Senate moderates, the Baucus proposal also drew criticism from Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, who said yesterday he would not vote for it in its current form. "I'm glad Senator Rockefeller is not going to vote for it. I wouldn't vote for it at all under any circumstances," Dean added.

[gateley]

1. Thank you -- I've been looking to Dean (and a few others) for clarification on

this issue. I trust him and I trust he knows what he's talking about.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. I have been watching for Dr Dean's take as well.

Proud Deaniac here.

I would like to know Hillary's thoughts, but I know it would not be proper in her current role.

[Parker CA]

7. Dean just shat all over that bill, just as he should've. No minced words. Garbage. nt.

[gateley]

14. Well I've become a staunch Deaniac! And yes, I'd like to hear what some of those

people REALLY feel (like Hillary and Biden) but unfortunately... I'm extra appreciative of Dean and those brave souls currently in office laying it on the line for us.

[Ruby the Liberal]

15. You don't hear much about my Senator, but I am VERY proud of him

He is a scrapper and on the HELP committee. He has pledged to fight endlessly for the Public Option.

I am very happy that he is representing us.

[gateley]

25. Who is your Senator --

and if I haven't extended a welcome already, Welcome to DU, Ruby the Liberal!

[madfloridian]

39. My senator just insulted us, said we were too dumb to understand the public option

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2009/09/bill_nel...

"Dropping a public option won't please progressives or, according to a new survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors either.

Nelson has now emerged as a supporter of co-op plans, and while talking to the St. Pete Times seems to denigrate the intelligence of supporters of the public option.

Nelson said most of the public option advocates "don't have a clue" about what it would take to create such a plan.

"The whole thing is so complicated you can't expect them to understand." "If a co-op serves the same purpose, what's the big deal?" Nelson added.

I suspect that the 63 percent of doctors who support a public option indeed have a clue, probably more so than Nelson. Plus, it doesn't seem any more likely that most people have much of a clue what a health-care co-op is. The AP has a rundown on the issue here. "


Check back with us stupid people next year, Billy boy. You don't have to ask us for money because you are richer than God....but you will need our stupid little votes.

[denverbill]

2. I wish he was a Senator. Or had won the nomination in 2004.

Baucus sucks.

[DesertFlower]

3. i knew he wouldn't like it. nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. This man should have been President.

[glinda]

27. I always thought so.

[DCKit]

6. While I applaud Sen. Rockefeller for his stance, I really wonder if his idea of a public option...

wouldn't be nearly as bad as "mandatory corporate insurance".

"Medicare 4 All" solves all the problems and would save consumers over one trillion a year (at France's rate of spending) - money that would go toward stimulating the consumer economy.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Retiring the Bush tax cuts will more than pay for it.

Nevermind the war quagmire.

Raising the capital gains tax back to Reagan (!) levels would do wonders as well.

The money is there. Lots of "theres". We just have to wrest it back from the money class.

[Dr.Phool]

11. They could raise my taxes some, and I wouldn't care!

H.R. 676 had a tax of 3.5% on the employee, and another 3.5% on the employer. No deductibles, no co-pays, everybody covered.

I'd take that in a heartbeat!

[Ruby the Liberal]

16. You and me both. I saw a bumper sticker the other day

that said "God only requires 10%" (or some such sentiment).

My reaction?

I would be thrilled to know my tax dollars were helping fellow citizens in need as opposed to randomly bombing Middle Easterners and would gladly pay a tax increase to see it happen.

[targetpractice]

9. I'm PO'd that "lowering insurance costs" is not longer a stated goal...

I'm hearing "slowing the rate of cost increase" as new terminology from the President and others.

Am I the only one who has observed this?

[Ruby the Liberal]

10. You are not alone. Implementing controls and mandates without SPECIFIC premium

caps is a recipe for disaster.

Dare I say it, but I would rather see it fail than see the MaxTax be signed.

[inna]

34. i thought *i* was the only one who noticed!

this point rarely gets brought up for some reason.

Obama mentioned slowing the rate of GROWTH of costs by 1/10 of 1% (!!) in his address to the congress last week, and everybody pretty much swallowed that, although it was a truly horrible way to phrase it. in other words, NO CONTROL of costs.

[liberalmuse]

12. I detest Baucus.

I wish he'd keep his greasy fingers off of our healthcare bill.

[glinda]

28. When he spent 100 hours in that room was he discussing his change to Republican?

[spin]

13. Of course it's a $60 billion giveaway to the health insurance industry...

wait until we all find that the cost of our insurance is going to skyrocket when this plan takes effect and we will have to buy it or get a SEVERE fine.

The evil bastards who run the healthcare industry are drooling as they think of the PROFITS to come.

They own the people we elect and the media. They are blood sucking leeches and leeches are hard to remove.

edited for spelling

[Ruby the Liberal]

18. I'll take the fine for $400, Alex

...on principle alone.

I still question the legality of telling people that they are mandated to purchase a commodity (which is what healthcare coverage has become) from a (even selection of) private, for-profit enterprise(s).

Repeating the tired mantra, I can choose not to drive, I can't choose not to breathe.

[Generator]

17. Hey I was just going to post this!!!

Thank God for the truth tellers. Written by healthcare lobbyists-are those called Blue Dogs now?

[tucsonlib]

19. "the CONTROVERSIAL public option"??

[madfloridian]

21. Yeh, I noticed that commentary from the article also.

It's amazing how they do that.

[midnight]

20. K&R for Dr. Dean.

[troubledamerican]

22. Baucus' anti-Obama "fines" were proof

that Baucus' intention was to kill reform from the start. The "fines" were a poison pill.

[troubledamerican]

23. Harry Reid looooves the bill, too, I'm sure

[David Zephyr]

24. K&R.

!

[ThoughtCriminal]

26. Isn't It an Amazing Piece of Art?

I really did not think it was POSSIBLE to design a health care system that would would be more dysfunctional (or malfunctional) than the system we have in place now. Baucus has really managed to create something so blindingly, awesomely ugly and toxic, that it is almost a work of beauty in an evil kind of way.

[glinda]

29. Leave art out of it. Toxic and evil sums it up.

[inna]

35. and corrupt to the core.

he should not be writing that bill in the first place because of the massive conflict of interests, it's beyond me why institutionalized bribery ($3 million by insurance/health industry in his case) is legal.

he should be thrown out of the senate, as far as i'm concerned.

[madfloridian]

36. You are right, he should NOT have been in charge of the health care bill.

Not in any way at all.

[glinda]

41. I think he got it because of seniority.

[Vidar]

30. Recommended for Howard.

[Swamp Rat]

31. k&r

[jannyk]

32. k&r

[Libertas1776]

33. Thank You

Gov. Dean!

[madfloridian]

37. Can't say it much clearer than that.

He did not mince words.

[yoyossarian]

38. These guys are shameless...

...but even Baucus looked totally sheepish as he hawked
this stupendous piece of shit he pulled directly from
the asses of the health insurance lobbyists!

When will these vile creatures, these republicans, evolve
something resembling a true sense of conscience?

How much longer must this circus continue?




Great tee-shirts, buttons and such at
Laugh City!


President Evil Online
has risen from the grave!

[FlyByNight]

40. Thanks to the good doctor

Not only did Baucus utterly fail to produce anything meaningful, he did just the opposite of what's needed. His "bill" is completely worthless.

[Dr Fate]

42. I'll trust A DOCTOR over a corrupt, bribed conservative any day.

n/t

[mdmc]

43. ..