Tonight's the vote on whether to allow debate in the Senate on the health care reform bill. 60 votes are needed to begin debate….yes, BEGIN debate.

If you've been following this congressional soap opera develop…..in a glacially slow fashion…..you also know that it appears as if Senate Democrats will have the votes tonight to BEGIN debate. Joementum Lieberman (Lieberman Party-CT) will magnanimously (after consulting Yahweh directly) vote to allow debate to start,…so will, apparently, Ben Nelson (D-NE). Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Mary Landrieux (D-LA) are still playing coy, probably looking for the hand with the largest check amount on in….in order to decide.

Just think about what is happening tonight at 8 PM in the Senate. Democrats are being asked whether or not a Democratic health care reform bill should be introduced for debate. That's it. And trying to get an answer from Democrats on whether they'll even vote to allow debate has been like pulling teeth.

For tonight's vote to be so dramatic does not bode well for the future of the legislation.

The 40 Senate Republicans, having proven their high regard for fiscal responsibility during the presidency of Dick Cheney, naturally, will be voting no on allowing debate. Those 40 only want what's best for all Americans and are not simply attempting to bring about "Obama's Waterloo."

Will the bill eventually pass the Senate? How long will it take for obstructionist Republicans to exhaust their amendments, objections and stall tactics? Will the final bill….if there is a final bill…..be so mangled by corporate-pleasing Democratic senators that it will be totally impotent, except for increasing health insurers bottom lines?

Those are some of the unknowns….but The Reverend has predictions.

First….there will be no public option in any final Senate bill. Joe Lieberman, of the Joe Lieberman Party, will filibuster a final vote that contains a public option. Aside from carving out the entire state of Connecticut and designating it as the state of Lieberman…..Holy Joe will, once again, f*ck the Democrats over.

The Lone Republican Rangerette, Olympia Snowe (R-ME), said she MIGHT vote for a final bill which contained a "trigger" public option. A trigger assumes that health insurance and medical costs are not really that bad YET. Quite an assumption, but Snowe is still a Republican….and Republicans always know what's best for the vulnerable, poor and underprivileged. The trigger cop-out suggests that IF sometime down the road insurers and medical costs really, really get out of control…then, and only then, something else MIGHT be needed.

So…my prediction, all things being equal…is that a public option wll have to be sacrificed by progressive Democrats in order to get ANYTHING passed. That will protect corporate health insurers, thus pleasing the Republicans who will vote against it. Don't ask me….I never said it made sense.

Second…..This one is for the ladies. New far reaching restrictions on a woman's right to choose will most likely be included in any Senate bill with hopes of passing. The most likely outcome will be a harsh restriction on any "insurance exchange" plans from covering abortion, even though the majority of insurance plans today in America cover abortion.

This will drastically increase the scope of the odious Hyde Amendment which already prohibits tax money from being spent on abortion. Additionally,….though no Republicans will vote for it in the end,….further restrictions on a woman's right to choose will please Republicans. Republicans are in the minority and out of the White House, but America is really a conservative-Republican country in spite of having elected the most "liberal person in the Senate" as president, and putting 59 Democratic Senators in the Senate. If you can figure that sentence out…let me know.

Third….Sometime in early 2010, the Very Serious Senate will get around to calling a vote on whatever final piece of corporate-welfare and women-bashing legislation they've prepared. Having done everything in their power to please Republicans, except including a paragraph granting authorization to nuke Iran, Joementum, perhaps Snowe, the handful of ConservaDems and the rest of the self-loathing Democrats will get the 60 votes needed….TO BRING IT TO A FINAL VOTE!

Summary: If all that happens and something actually passes next Spring…..corporate-patriots of the health insurance variety will raise prices so high before the legislation finally goes into effect in 2013….that Democrats, who sought to please Republicans, just might be swept out of office in time for the GOP, America's Party, to rescind the whole thing.

Liberal ideas…truly liberal ideas…..are rarely ever considered by Congress. The reason is that liberal ideas, somehow, are never worthy enough to be called American….even though the strength and character of America was built primarily on liberal ideas.

Take, for example, the liberal idea on health care reform. The liberal idea on health care reform is single-payer government run health care. Single-payer is the most cost efficient and most fair way to deal with health care for all Americans. Because that is the case, it can never be considered. The liberal idea of single-payer was NEVER entertained by any health care reform congressional committees. When citizen attendees at congressional health reform committee meetings stood and requested single-payer representation…..they were arrested.

Whenever this very apparent dynamic is raised in earshot of Villagers, however, Villagers only smirk and say that Obama and Congress are doing the right thing by not caving in to those liberal loons. To the mainstream media "thinkers"….and this has been true forever….the worst thing a Democratic president can do is consider truly liberal ideas, take them seriously. If a Democratic president seriously considers truly liberal ideas….then that president is caving to the lefty loons. For the Village, the very worstest action a Democratic president can take …..is to, god forbid, champion truly liberal ideas.

Out of that dyamic of total nonsense comes the often-repeated, 'the new Democratic president must move away from his "leftist" base'…..'the new Dem president must move towards the center to be effective…yada, yada'….'the president's biggest danger is in caving to his radical left.'

Having said all of that…..just think about how the Villagers would have responded if Democratic congressional leaders spoke in front of a far-leftist group of protesters favoring single-payer. What if Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer encouraged a group of far-left liberals to gather in front of the Capital steps? What if those Democratic leaders each stepped to the microphone and cheered the far-left, single-payer crowd on…telling them to be of good cheer because the far-left liberal cause of single-payer will win the day?

What if single payer protesters held big banners depicting the Republican plan for health care as comparable to Dachau, Germany concentration camps?

What if the Democratic National Committee chairman, Tim Kaine, told all non-single-payer favoring Democratic representatives that if they voted against single-payer, the DNC will "come after them?" What if the DNC chairman went on to tell the single-payer protesters, "we want to partner as much as possible with you?"

What if "far-leftist", Dennis Kucinich, had communist-interest groups bus in 4000 protesters to rally in front of the Capital steps for single-payer….AND Democratic leaders, Pelosi, Hoyer, etc. spoke to the tiny crowd in support of their cause?

Wouldn't the Villagers, mainstream media, be telling us today that the Democratic Party had gone over the far-left edge….that the Democratic Party had now become totally unhinged….that the Democratic Party had now been taken over by dangerous radicals?

Instead of reporting on the extremely radical nature of the players and the crazed message of yesterday's astro-turf-organized, Michelle Bachmann-led, protest in front of the Capital steps…the "liberal" N.Y.Times treated the event with respect and dignity.

Here's the best the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, ever the narcissistic wanker, could come up with….

"But this protest was unusual because it was an official House GOP event, and because some of the remarks on the stage were as outrageous as those in the crowd."

Ya' think…Dana?

In a non-dysfuntional free nation, main national media would, still today, be reporting on the insanity, the crazed hysteria of the current GOP-TeaPartier alliance. In a dysfunctional free nation, like the U.S., such a mindnumbingly, ignorant, and potentially dangerous union of extremists and political leaders is only worthy of microscopic analysis and disdain if that union is made up of Democrats.

MSNBC.com headline: Bachmann shines among grassroots conservatives

ABCnews.com….

"But if you need evidence of where the political energy and excitement has gone, one year since Grant Park, a lunchtime midday rally in Washington isn't a bad place to start.

(Try to imagine the old Obama campaign army pulling off something roughly comparable in as short a time, with as little formal planning — or even with spreadsheets and call lists and marching orders, for that matter.)"

4000 folks bussed in at the expense of Americans For Prosperity is "where the political energy and excitement has gone."

CBSnews.com headline: Anger Fuels Anti-Health Care Rally

Instead of pointing out the demented and potentially dangerous alliance, "outed" yesterday in a noontime wingnut-fest with GOP congressional leaders and the TeaBaggers…..the new offical alliance was either treated as a ho-hum story or an alliance worthy of serious respect and consideration.

The Republican Party is now, officially, the Party of the Wingnut TeaBaggers. Media response…."Yawn."

John Boehner (R-OH), like the FOX "news" network, often practices the ancient mysterious art of "making sh*t up." That's what he did this morning in the above video clip.

"We first released our health-care plan in June, and over the last six months, we have introduced at least eight bills that, taken together, would implement this blueprint,"

So says Boehner. Did the GOP "release" their health care plan in June?

CNN reports…

The GOP released the guiding principles of its health-care agenda in June, but did not release a comprehensive legislative blueprint at that point. Republican congressional leaders have said the party is in the process of crafting a substitute.

The background here….

February 4, 2009…Boehner selects Roy Blunt (R-MO) to chair the Republicans' Health Care Task Force.

June 17, 2009…

Roll Call reported: "House Republicans presented a four-page outline of their health care reform plan Wednesday but said they didn't know yet how much it would cost, how they would pay for it and how many of the nearly 50 million Americans without insurance would be covered by it."

Blunt, that day….

"I guarantee you we will provide you with a bill."

July 10, 2009….Congressman Blunt praised his Party's four page outline on the radio and declared, "Our plan is actually much more detailed than their plan has been… I think we're more prepared to debate our plan than they are."

Twelve days later, July 22, Blunt, amazingly, said this….

"Our bill is never going to get to the floor, so why confuse the focus? We clearly have principles; we could have language, but why start diverting attention from this really bad piece of work they've got to whatever we're offering right now?"

You know, "why confuse the focus", by following through on what he and Boehner promised? No package of health reform alternatives were ever written or submitted by Republicans. Blunt, himself, admitted that Republicans had no legislative "language."

That brings us back to today's Boehner bullpucky….

Boehner's four points …

Number one: let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines.

Number two: allow individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do.

Number three: give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower health care costs.

Number four: end junk lawsuits that contribute to higher health care costs by increasing the number of tests and procedures that physicians sometimes order not because they think it's good medicine, but because they are afraid of being sued.

Once again…no numbers, no fleshing out of much of anything…..just four Republican talking points "guiding principles", the same ones we've been hearing for years. What we haven't seen, however, is a genuine alternative plan….what CNN referred to as a "comprehensive legislative blueprint"…..proving yet again, that Boehner, in typical GOP fashion, simply "makes sh*t up."

Let's review what are, at best, four GOP talking points. It's all we have to work with from the party of no.

Number one…..it is widely known that the biggest health insurance companies operate in virtually all 50 states. So, "buying across state lines" accomplishes, what, exactly? Would it much matter if you purchased health insurance from Aetna in New York or Aetna in Iowa..do you think? In addition, taking Boehner's number one seriously, health insurers would relocate to the states that are the least restrictive on them, which would result in less consumer choice, not more.

Number two….Boehner sets forth no larger picture view of how "groups" would go about "joining together", to theoretically, create a bigger, and thus cheaper, insurance policy pool. As far as I know, nothing prevents groups from pooling together right now…..so while Boehner may think his number two is some brilliant breakthrough, it's pretty much a puffball of rhetoric.

Number three…"give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower health care costs." Your guess is as good as mine on what the hell that sentence is supposed to mean. No further explanation, just like it's been all year for Republicans, is forthcoming.

Number four….GOP boilerplate. Tort reform. Wherever there is legislation being talked about, Republicans are always going after those Democratic-voting-and-contributing "trial lawyers." By implication, Boehner's idea of tort reform in health care would bring with it fewer medical "tests", fewer medical "procedures." Give health insurance companies a break by reforming punitive damage awards, capping punitive damages for doctors who might, you know, paralyze your child, or worse….which Boehner says would…..mean fewer medical tests and procedures. And that's supposed to be for whose benefit, again?

Just like back in June….Republicans have nothing to offer. No serious plan to extend coverage to all Americans….no serious plan to lower costs….nothing serious at all.

Still the party of the Boehner.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)
Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Sen. Thomas Coburn (R-OK)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)
Sen. Jefferson Sessions (R-AL)
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Those are the Republican senators who voted against cloture on a bill extending unemployment benefits. Apparently, those Republicans do not care too much about the plight of those who are unemployed and whose unemployment insurance checks have run out. And why would they care? Most of those senators are wealthy. Why would they be in a hurry to help unemployed Americans?

Although last night the senate voted in favor of cloture on the unemployment extension bill by 87-13….there's still one more filibusterable step left before the extension is made law.

What are Republicans dragging their feet about here?

The Republican amendments include at least two provisions related to ACORN; one related to the E-Verify program; one to pay for the UI benefits with unspent stimulus money; and one providing tax relief.

Of course we know why ACORN is being used as an excuse to stall unemployment checks. Republicans are at war with blacks in America,….because blacks vote Democratic. Not personal, you understand, simply political. So, any bill to extend unemployment insurance, a necessary measure in our depressed economic environment, is a great opportunity, Republicans think, to hold hostage those unemployment checks to more FOX-style bashing of ACORN. Good luck with lowering that 5%-of-blacks-voting-GOP…..down to one percent.

E-Verify has to do with monitoring immigration through the crosschecking of citizenship on employment applications. Naturally, documenting immigration status has nothing to do with extending unemployment checks to, like, unemployed American workers…..but Republicans could care less about that. Republicans know that their political party takes a ridgid stand against undocumented workers….Republicans are tough border patrollers, don't ya' know. Nation protectors. "Amnesty" rejecters. Republicans rarely miss an opportunity to bash the "other" (see Jennings, Kevin) (see Sotomayor, Judge), and that's what they are doing with the unemployment insurance extension bill. If bashing "illegals" slows down the unemployed's checks, well….that's just the cost Americans must pay for the GOP's vigilance in it's fight against non-white skinned people. Undocumenteds threaten our very existence…or at least that's what FOX and Rush tell us….and they run the information-arm of the GOP.

The third "concern" of Republicans, which simply had to be addressed by stalling an extension of unemployment benefits, is paying for any extension with "unspent stimulus money." I got an extra special kick out of this one. Three Republicans in the Senate, Spector, Collins and Snowe voted for the stimulus package back in February. That's it….and Spector is now a Democrat. I just think that it requires big brass wingnut balls to stall unemployment extensions while those who voted against the stimulus tell the rest how that stimulus money should be spent. Big brass wingnut balls.

The last stall tactic is typical boilerplate Republican policy. "Tax relief." I mean, Jesus…..is there any piece of legislation….ever….that Republicans won't try to attach a tax cut to? Think about it. Republicans are holding up an extension of paltry unemployment checks in order to consider more tax cuts. Republican tax cuts during Bush cost the Treasury $1.5 trillion….enough money to pay for 10 years of national health care AND pay the unemployment insurance extensions needed now. BECAUSE cutting taxes radically for the wealthiest Americans didn't really create jobs, as the numbers demonstrate….it's particularly ironic that those who have lost their jobs and need those benefits are having those benefits held up, delayed, by yet another attempt to cut taxes.

Republicans can't govern….they've proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt with the Bush/Cheney administration. Still today, GOP'ers repeat Father Reagan's wingnut advice…."government isn't the solution, government is the problem", and when in power, do everything to prove that government isn't the solution.

Then when only the government can provide the "solution", as with unemployment insurance extensions, Republicans do their damnest to stop that "solution" from being passed.

The Republicans in office are obstructionists. They are not a loyal opposition. They are the disloyal opposition. They don't care about typical Americans having health insurance. You've heard them….they just say no to health care reform. They don't care whether an unemployed American runs out of unemployment checks. They have stalled and drug their feet at every turn to slow down any extension of unemployment for America's unemployed.

These GOP'ers are beyond shaming. They are shame-resistant.

Yes, Congress will pass an unemployment insurance extension. But it won't be because the Republicans didn't try to stop it.

More than a dime's worth of difference in the parties when it comes to this issue, I'd say.

I've been busy. Normal daily blogging will continue tomorrow. Here's something quick on yesterday's health reform news-front.

Surprisingly, to me at least, the health reform bill to be introduced in the Senate will include a public option…..

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced what we've been reporting today – the merged health care bill will include a public option allowing states to opt-out.

"Under this concept states will be able to determine whether the public option works best for them," Reid told reporters. He said it was the "fairest" way to go.

The debate is just getting started….but I must say,….I didn't think a public option would be tolerated by a corporately-compromised Senate. I was incorrect in predicting that a public option would be excluded from any final legislation.

But what kind of public option will one with an opt-out provision be?

A divisive one.

What if Medicare had included an opt-out provision? Would it have been okay for conservative-voting states to have opted-out of Medicare for their states' seniors? What would Medicare look like today, how would seniors' healthcare be different today, if states would have been permitted to opt-out of Medicare?

Will this be the template for future legislation? For example: should the just-passed hate crimes legislation have included an opt-out provision for states that recoil at the thought of giving equal rights to gay Americans? If not…..why not?

While liberals consider a public option indispensable in light of Congress' refusal to even entertain the most cost efficient and universal-coverage method….single payer, government run coverage for all…..including an opt-out provision for an already limited public option, I think, will backfire.

In the age of TeaBaggers, BeckerHeads and Palin's Posse…is there any question that radicalized conservatives will pressure "red" states to "just say no" to the public option? Won't refusing the public option be proudly worn as a badge of honor by states where 57% of Republicans today think Obama is not a U.S. citizen?

Just consider the implied "secession" talk by Texas wingnut governor, Rick Perry, over the federal stimulus bill. Several "red" state governors tried to block their states from getting federal funds. With an opt-out-of-the-public-option health reform bill included in final legislation….what are the chances that the unhinged, townhall buster-upper groups will proudly opt-out?

Olympia Snowe (R-ME) will not vote for a bill with a public option even if it includes an opt-out provision….she said so. Bipartisanship, today, is similar to the existence of unicorns. Reid included the opt-out provision, I'm sure, to mollify conservative Democratic senators who want to have it both ways…..but why build-in such an opportunity for national division?

There will be a lot of discussion in the next couple of weeks about this opt-out issue. While I'm pleased, and surprised, that the final bill will include some form of public option…..with an opt-out provision, I also have serious concerns about further cracks in our national unity developing because anti-Obama, anti-Democratic states will claim victory over the evil socialists plan to destroy America.

I'm not sure how that helps the country in the long run.

I've purposely avoided writing very much about the alleged debate allegedly going on over health care reform. As I see it, up til now, we haven't been debating anything. However, now with President Max Baucus' (D-MT) immaculately-conceived version of health reform coming up for a vote today in his Senate Finance Committee, we're getting closer to starting the real debate. What we've had up til now has been the equivalency of a pre-game cheerleader dance routine……something to look at and divert our attention but having nothing, really, to do with the "game."

Worth noting is how Village conventional wisdom on health care reform legislation instantly coagulated around President Max Baucus' Finance Committee bill. You would never know that there are FOUR other congressional health reform versions to be considered, all of which, by the way, include a strong public option alternative.

Villager media members exist only to please the national status quo powers, therefore insuring continued "access" to those powers and maximizing their future career and financial opportunities. So it has been no surprise that the most conservative committee with the most insurance and big pharma-friendly version of a bill, the only bill out of five which does NOT include a public option, has been made the centerpiece of attention for most Village coverage of the health care reform process.

Baucus' horrendous piece of sewage-bill proposes exactly what I had predicted earlier. It hands over tens of millions of new customers to big insurance and big pharma, uses tax dollars to subsidize poorer new customers and does absolutely nothing to "bend the cost curve", nothing to keep for-profit, Wall Street listed, insurers from continuing their parasitical pillaging of the American people. No public option to keep insurers honest and no bulk discount purchasing rights for government to drive drug prices down.

Indeed, in a classic Village piece in the Washington Post yesterday, Ceci Connelly, obediently, told us what her Insurance Masters are really thinking. Astonishingly, or perhaps not, big insurance….the same big insurance that President Max Baucus is seeking to guarantee tens of millions of new customers to without any cost control mechanisms……responded to those proposed giveaways and handouts by saying something like this….

'F*ck you very much.'

Big insurance really knows how to express their appreciation.

Villager Ceci, by now probably capable of channeling the brain-waves of the powerful status quo players, tells the unwashed masses that in appreciation for all the Mad Max giveaways, big health insurers are promising to thank him, and us, by significantly raising the prices of all Americans' health care premiums.

I've never seen a more persuasive argument for adopting a single-payer, government run health care system in my entire life.

What we're seeing with big health insurance is the same attitude we saw with the banksters. Banksters showed their appreciation for tax payer handouts by refusing to negotiate troubled mortgages, by rejecting any transparency of how they spent all those tax dollars, and by a continuation of their in-your-face practice of rewarding billions in individual bonuses. Insurers are now doing the same.

It is only more proof that "too big to fail" corporate monsters, whether in banking or insurance or pharma or whatever…..control our federal government, and thus, control important aspects of every American's life.

Now to the crux of the matter, the pivotal point, where the rubber will hit the road…or any other stupid, yet applicable, cliches pertaining to health care reform…..

For those who would like to see effective health care reform legislation passed (that excludes most Republicans and conservatives) pay close attention to the final cloture vote in the Senate, which is still weeks away. Obstructionist Republicans plan on filibustering the senate bill no matter what it contains, which means that Democrats need 60 votes to bring the bill to the floor of the senate for final amendments and then on to a final vote which requires only 51 votes for approval.

The still-unknown dynamic is whether any senate DEMOCRATS will join in with the obstructionist Republicans to try to stop any bill from moving forward. Further muddying the situation is the fact that Senator Byrd (D-WV) is in poor health and may not be able to vote at all.

If a bill reaches the floor of the senate, if a filibuster by obstructionist Republicans fails, then there is a 50-50 chance that a public option will survive the final bill and tougher people-friendly provisions will be included. The final bill, in this scenario, could actually benefit the American people.

If the obstructionist senate Republicans are successful in blocking the will of the people from moving forward….then the "reconciliation" process may have to be resorted to in order to accomplish any reform worth the paper it's written on. That's a subject for another day.

In 1965, Congress passed and President Lyndon Johnson signed into law legislation creating Medicare, a socialized version of health care for all U.S. seniors.

In 1965, I believe, the Democratic Party was more liberal than today's party and the Republican Party was much more moderate.

In that 1965 vote in the House 237 Democrats voted in favor, 49 opposed. 70 Republican House members voted for Medicare, 68 voted against. In the 1965 Senate 57 Democratic senators voted for Medicare, 7 opposed while 13 Republican senators voted for Medicare and 17 were opposed.

About half of all Republican Congressional members in 1965 voted against Medicare. Republicans in 1965 were divided down the middle on whether America's seniors should have a guaranteed, government run, health care system preventing many seniors from going bankrupt and living in squalor.

In 1961, the Patron Saint of today's GOP, Ronald Reagan, shared his views on the Democrat's suggestion of creating Medicare…

"Behind it [Medicare] will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country until one day, as [Socialist Party leader] Norman Thomas said, we will awake to find that we have socialism."

In this 1995 quote, ex-presidential candidate, Bob Dole waxed proudly over his no vote on Medicare back in 1965….

"I was there, fighting the fight, voting against Medicare . . . because we knew it wouldn't work in 1965," said Dole, the front- runner for the GOP presidential nomination.

Medicare is still with us in 2009 and other than Dick Armey (Asshole-Tx), I don't know anyone receiving Medicare who wants to opt out of it. Yes, Medicare has a long range revenue projection problem, but that would be alleviated somewhat by an overall lowering of national health care costs.

Many conservative apologists point to The Decider's leadership on Medicare Plan D, passed in 2003 with a Republican president and a narrow Republican Congress, as evidence that modern conservatives, modern Republicans, are actually in favor of Medicare. However, we must remember that The Decider needed to get re-elected in 2004 to continue building Karl Rove's, you know, permanent Republican majority. Additionally, as many seniors now know, Medicare Plan D, while helping many poorer seniors, was designed to bring a windfall to insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry….and it did.

Then there's that "donut hole" trickery, calculated ever-so-carefully ahead of time by health insurance beancounters to guarantee profits while sticking it to poorer seniors. I have two relatives, that I know of, who are in the "donut hole" starting this month and must rely on free samples until January or empty their meager savings to pay the inflated prices….or go without medication.

I regard Medicare Plan D as a split-the-baby-down-the-middle kind of thing by Republicans whose real intent was to reward their insurance and pharmaceutical donors with an avalanche of new demand while simultaneously portraying their new "compassionate conservatism" as people friendly. The Republicans who originated Plan D rejected the idea of driving pharmaceutical pricing lower through governmental bulk purchasing power or re-importation from Canada provisions.

The Republican Medicare Plan D legislation, then, was primarily a cynical political manuever…..which also helped some poorer seniors. Drug prices, in the meantime, have only continued to go up.

.

When it comes to the present day debate over Obama's broader national health care reform, Republicans, though shy about broadcasting it, did suggest back in April how to reform Medicare….

The plan, drafted by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, top Republican on the House Budget Committee, called for eventually replacing the traditional Medicare program with subsidies to help retirees enroll in private health care plans. Current beneficiaries would keep their coverage and those 55 and older also would go into the current system.

Critics of the plan said the Medicare subsidies would inevitably not keep pace with inflation and that people in poor health might end up uninsured

Once again, even though Ryan's proposal was about dismantling and then reconstructing Medicare, conservative plans are designed to reward private insurers, the same private insurers who have been raising prices at 3 times the rate of inflation for quite awhile. Republicans, as Ryan's Medicare plan indicates, would guarantee private insurers a new demand bonanza, complete with tax dollar subsidies, while doing absolutely nothing to control costs.

Republicans, then, have been somewhat consistent over the last half-century or so when it comes to national health care issues. If private, free market, mega-corporations will benefit handsomely from reform, Republicans are in favor of it…..but only if nothing is done to hold costs in check.

And by the looks of Democratic Finance Committee Chairman, Max Baucus' proposal, at least some Democrats now embrace Republican ideology. The Baucus bill as unveiled looks very similar to Republican Paul Ryan's offering to reform Medicare.

There may be as many as a dozen Democratic senators who have decided, just as Republicans have, that protecting huge corporate profits is more important than lowering costs. Of course, Max Baucus, like many Republicans, is only trying to reward the same powerful interests who continually finance his re-election campaigns.

Now the point of all of this……in 1965 only about half of Republicans voted against a socialized health care plan for seniors known as Medicare. Today, NO Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee will even vote for the Baucus bill…..which in reality, is a Republican bill rewarding the status quo corporate powers while doing nothing to check skyrocketing prices.

That says something about today's Republican Party. Anyone want to take a stab at what that "something" is?

Updated below

Humans will lie about almost anything…..check that….Humans will lie about anything. I'm not sure whether the human habit of lying can be attributed to evolution or not. Perhaps we have been programmed over 15,000 years or so to deceive other humans for self-preservation purposes.

Whatever the reason…..dishonesty, lying, deception….have always been human traits.

In the 90's, the last time we had a Democratic president, rich conservatives took it upon themselves to orchestrate a mass media lying and smearing campaign against Bill Clinton. Clinton, according to those widely circulated lies, was a drug runner, a murderer, a real estate scammer and a serial rapist. None of those lies were true but they were continually repeated by the liars and then, by those who believed, or wanted to believe the lies.

One year after Justice Scalia appointed George W. Bush president, the lies and deceptions by Dick Cheney and his band of PNAC warmongering crusaders led to the senseless murders of 4400 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Corporate media, with very few exceptions, helped Cheney spread those lies. The lies were spread from the "liberal" NY Times' Judith Miller directly to the late Tim Russert's Meet the Press on "liberal" NBC……the network that Mary Matalin, Cheney's political advisor, said was the best for getting Cheney's "message" out.

Cheney's lies and deceptions worked. Iraq posed no threat to the U.S., wasn't involved with 9-11, and had no ties to Islamic extremists. Iraq had been decimated from a decade of U.S flyover bombings and painful sanctions. Yet, the corporate media's wholesale spreading of Cheney's lies coupled with America's still fresh emotions of vengeance from 9-11, led this country into what is still considered a disaster today inside Iraq.

Believing in lies often leads to dire consequences. Such is Iraq.

Now with Cheney gone, except for appearances on corporate-whore teevee, incoherent sore-loser Tea Partiers, like the arrival of the Holy Ghost in the book of Acts, have had the deceptive-working power of Dick Cheney wash over them like flames of fire. Tea Partiers, or 9-12'ers if you prefer, though not as polished a group as their Dark Master, have been as successful as The Dick was in deceiving the overall public.

I wonder how many needless deaths will happen this time.

The Twelvers lie about virtually everything. They lie about an already partially socialized America becoming "socialist." They lie about Obama's desire to kill the elderly. They lie about Democratic health care legislation covering undocumenteds. They lie about Obamacare mandating tax dollars to be used for abortion. They lie about Obama's citizenship. They deceptively compare Obama with Hitler, Castro, Mao, and Stalin. They falsely assert that they "want their country back", when their country hasn't gone anywhere.

They even lie about how many Twelvers showed up in D.C. last Saturday.

Tea Partiers, now imbued with the Evil Lying Spirit of Richard Cheney, carry on their Dark Father's tradition of lying in order to get what they want. Cheney wanted to attack and occupy Iraq. Twelvers want health care reform killed and the presidency of Barack Obama, like Clinton in the 90's, marginalized.

In both cases, corporate-whore main media was johnny-on-the-spot in helping to spread the lies. In 2002, in excess of 100,000 anti-Iraq war protestors gathered in D.C. The Washington Post, you know, that "liberal" rag, covered that rather large protest this way….

The Washington Post put the story not on the front page, but in the Metro section with, as the paper's ombudsman later lamented, "a couple of ho-hum photographs that captured the protest's fringe elements."

The Post, representing the lies and deceptions of Dick Cheney over Iraq in 2002, couldn't possibly take 100,000+ protesters seriously…..their paper repeatedly had argued for attacking a country which did not threaten America.

However, if the protest is smaller and based on incoherent deceptions and lies, like the TeaBaggers in D.C. this past weekend…..then the "liberal" Washington Post strategically places those lies and deceptions on their front page….with pictures….

Tens of thousands of conservative protesters, many complaining that the nation is racing toward socialism, massed outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, angrily denouncing President Obama's health-care plan and other initiatives as threats to the Constitution.

100,000+ protesting the lies of Dick Cheney which resulted in 4400 U.S. soldier caskets and no definable benefit to America…..Metro section coverage. 60,000 protesters lying about any and everything Obama…..front page news.

I no longer believe that America is in a "battle for it's soul." I think that battle is over and the forces of light and truth have lost. The liars and deceivers have won out. Cheney lied and he got what he wanted….a U.S. quagmire in Iraq with thousands of dead Americans. The Twelvers lie and deceive and the whore media, just like with Iraq, assist them in getting what they want…..a watered down, feckless, piece of drug and insurance industry-friendly legislation which will only make our problem with high costs and availability even worse.

Update: Here is the picture used by my blog friend King in his post yesterday….

The picture is from the 1997 Promise Keepers rally…..not from last Saturday's TeaBagger gathering.

Humans will lie and deceive about anything.

Minnesota Republican governor Tim Pawlenty has been touted as a potential GOP candidate for president. Pawlenty's name came up quite often as a possible vice-presidential pick for John McCain in 2008.

Ex-Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, Senator John Ensign (NV) and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford have also been touted as possible GOP presidential candidates for 2012. Each one has been having their own personal difficulties of late, to say the least.

Governor Pawlenty, though he hasn't resigned his governorship, like Palin….nor been caught committing adultery with a staff member or hiking the Appalachian Trail, like Ensign and Sanford……has been making some rather interesting public comments lately.

Listen (starting at the 1:30 mark) to how Pawlenty answers the question about Obama's health care reform bill "killing grandma"….

Pawlenty…"those are not irrational concerns." Worrying about whether a new Obama-led Democratic health care reform bill will "kill grandma" is not, according to Pawlenty, "an irrational concern."

Here's what Governor Pawlenty had to say about Obama speaking to America's school children…..

Pawlenty said that showing the address….. could be disruptive and raises concerns "about the content and the motive," he said on WCCO radio early this morning. He also said that the speech is "uninvited."

…"At a minimum it's disruptive, number two, it's uninvited and number three, if people would like to hear his message they can, on a voluntary basis, go to YouTube or some other source and get it. I don't think he needs to force it upon the nation's school children," Pawlenty said at the State Fair during a brief interview with members of the media.

On the radio, Pawlenty said he understood the address would encourage school children to write to the president.

"There are going to be questions about — well, what are they are going to do with those names and is that for the purpose of a mailing list?" the governor said.

Pawlenty's most recent statements sound similar to the secessionist talk heard from Governor Rick Perry (TX)…..

"Depending on what the federal government comes out with here, asserting the 10th Amendment may be a viable option," Pawlenty said, when asked about it by a caller on a Republican Governors Association conference call. "But we don't know the details. As one of the other callers said, we can't get the President to outline what he does or doesn't support in any detail. So we'll have to see, I would have to say that it's a possibility."

Pawlenty made it clear that he and other Republican governors will be more assertive about the 10th Amendment: "I think we can see hopefully see a resurgence in claims and maybe even bring up lawsuits if need be."

Other more wild eyed Republicans have been suggesting the same thing.

The Tenth Amendment….

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Here's what Article one, section 8 of the Constitution says….

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States;….

Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veteran's Administration have been, socialistically, providing for the general medical welfare of millions of Americans for decades. Yet, Tim Pawlenty says that Republican governors may have to resort to claiming exclusion from Obama's health care reform legislation on 10th amendment grounds.

This is reminiscent of Palin, Sanford, Gov. Jindal (LA) and others claiming they could, and would, refuse to take their portion of Obama's stimulus monies. The states took the money.

Tim Pawlenty, the alleged rising-star in the GOP, in just the last 30 days, has hitched his electoral wagon to three preposterously outrageous far-right extremist views.

Pawlenty rebuked Obama for daring to speak to school children about working hard and staying in school, claiming that school children writing letters to the president is only an opportunity for Obama to develop a scary list of names, or something.

Pawlenty says that wondering whether Obama wants to "kill grandma" is not an "irrational concern."

Pawlenty, wrongly, suggests his state, and perhaps others, will have to invoke the Tenth Amendment to fend off Obama's health care reform policies.

Republican Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty, is a proud "Schooler', Deather" and "Tenther."

What he isn't…..is presidential material.

Just consider…..Tim Pawlenty is the leading contender for the GOP presidential primary in 2012.

What does that say about today's Republican Party?

Nine big health insurance companies own 76.7% of the health insurance business in America.

Unitedhealth Group, WellPoint and Aetna, collectively, insure 48.3% of Americans who have private health care insurance.

With Obama explaining last night his version of what a health care reform bill would look like,….including a mandate to buy health care insurance…..we can expect that 9 large, publicly traded, for profit, health insurers will eagerly gobble up 30 million out of the, approximately, 40 million new health insurance customers. Those large companies are the best positioned to take advantage of the "exchange" Obama plans to set up.

Does anyone honestly believe that these 9 insurance companies, confronted with an avalanche of new mandated demand for their "products", will do anything other than raise prices? Higher prices are what the "reform" is supposed to be driving down.

I point this out because Obama continues to say that the public option is only "one piece," "one sliver" of the health care reform legislation. He purposely diminishes the importance of having a public insurance option in with those 9 private insurance behemoths.

Obama, some Democrats and, naturally, the Village Dingleberrys, flippantly tell us that legislation pending will bring costs down. Outside of the public option inclusion….I don't see any other significant cost cutting provisions. To start to bend the cost curve even by the .1% per year Obama mentioned last night….it is ESSENTIAL to have a public insurance option available.

Because a public option is the only serious cost containment provision in the bill…..and the primary problem with health care is its high costs….then, a public option may be only "one sliver" of the bill, but it's, arguably, the most important sliver.

Obama gave a good speech last night. He pointed out the childish nonsense being carried out by an ever more extreme conservative movement. He promised to call the Palin-and-Grassley-type liars out for their lies. That's good. F*ck 'em.

The president outlined a comprehensive plan that made a lot of sense. In spite of the "you lie" temporary-wingnut-insanity interruption from South Carolina's Joe Billy-Ray-Bob Wilson, Obama successfully conveyed the reasons why this bill must be passed, what provisions are in it, and how it would be paid for.

His most important point last night was the moral one. Health care is this generations civil rights issue. American human compassion finally rejected separate but equal social conditions in the 60's……American human compassionate can surely win out over selfishness and greed when it comes to human sickness, suffering and death in the 21st century. Health care reform is about "who we are as a people."

We'll see.

One Villager call-out…..NBC's Chuck Big Head Todd. It's been quite interesting watching the development of Big Head into a full fledged Villager. He earned his Village Youth Camp badges scribbling on boards and fiddling with a bunch of digital number charts and sh*t during the presidential primary and general campaign. He was the guy wringing his newly manicured Villager hands over whether the black Obama could win over those pesky "white voters".

Here's what Chuck Todd wrote before Obama's speech….from MSNBC's First Read…

Fixing the public option fetish: But the speech also will be a failure if progressives — Obama’s second audience tonight — are still obsessing over the public option a week from now. …. But there is no doubt that the public option has fired up the left, and how he sells them near-universal coverage and lower costs — even if it means no public plan – could very well be the trickiest part of tonight's speech…….Indeed, that the White House allowed this to become the be-all, end-all on the left ("Public option or die!") remains a mystery.

Chuck Todd has been trained well in the ways of the Village, and he knows it's always, and only, about the "game". Facts and truth and reality….well….Chuck doesn't do that stuff. He "reports" on the political game and who's "commanding" the most media time….who's "grabbing" those headlines.

What I've just described as an essential "sliver" of health care reform legislation, Big Head dismisses out of hand as some unnatural fetish. The only provision in a big bill which has been touted as "containing costs",….high costs being the number one problem with health care,….and all Chuck can see is some liberal hippies unnaturally fetishizing over some crack-inspired pipe dreaming.

People who want to force price competition with a government-offered plan are "obsessed". Chuckie chastises the silly Obama White House for not getting those "obsessed", fanatics with a "public option fetish", back in their rooms where they, you know, belong. How embarassing. The NBC "reporter" explains how misguided Obama was in allowing this obsession, this fetish to become the "end-all, be-all."

Chuck wrote that piece of rubbish before Obama's speech. Obama spent a significant portion of his speech addressing the public option, and the purpose for it. While Obama did slap progressives during the speech, I think incorrectly, by saying that health care reform in America has always been about universality of coverage and, therefore, not primarily about a public insurance option (kind of beside the point, really)….he also made it clear that he was in favor of a government competitor in the new "exchange" he wants to set up.

The next 8 weeks should be interesting.