Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Carnahan Healthcare Forum Report #2


Here's a one-and-a-half minute excerpt from Russ Carnahan's (D-MO) healthcare forum on Monday. There are a couple of humorous moments from the event, and then it concludes with TheBlackSphere.net--Kevin Jackson--asking: "If it's so good why doesn't Congress have to be on it?"

Update: Welcome all my fellow Gateway Punditteers! You may be interested in my coverage of
the Patients First/ShowUsTheBill.com Rally or perhaps my Gateway Pundit photo gallery (at the end of that post).

Update 2: Thanks so much for all the links! Thanks to RedState. Thanks to National Review. Thanks to Glenn Reynolds. Thanks to Michelle Malkin. Thanks to RealClearPolitics. And thanks to everyone else, too! Wow. Just wow.

A very special thanks to Michelle at ATraditionalLifeLived.com for live streaming yesterday's event and working together on this report. And thanks to our "intern" Nick and to Kevin Jackson of TheBlackSphere.com for suggesting the video above!

In other Russ Carnahan news, I strongly recommend my coverage of McArthur's protest of the Congressman's vote for Cap and Tax. If you're an owner/operator, make sure you watch the last/fourth video there. Gateway Pundit has some followup on that story from yesterday.

15 comments:

The Black Sphere said...

I couldn't hear it, but I was there, and it was priceless!

Peg C. said...

Carnahan comes off as lying and stupid as Pelosi. Here's my question: why are all these Congresscritters (nevermind the Head Idiot Cheese himself) hemming and hawing, mumbling and fumbling, ahh'ing and umm'ing, reading (and badly) from scripts and TOTUSs, if they believe what they are spewing? Why aren't they looking straight at and speaking straight to the public? Clearly and articulately? They display no courage, no convictions, just very obviously lies and utter BS.

VOTE THESE THUGS AND IDIOTS OUT!!

Scott P said...

Re: the Congress remark- that's a really good point. Why don't we absolutely insist that Congress be put on any plan that they pass?

katablog said...

It's amazing that any human being, let alone one elected to represent others, could stand there and bald face lie. Where is this CBO report that reports health control as deficit neutral? I only saw the one that said, without admin costs of the 31+ agencies created, it would add $269 billion to the deficit and actually increase the overall cost of health care.

One question: exactly how do We the People insist anything anymore, let alone that Congress and the Impostor in Chief have the same health control plan? We the People have NO voice anymore. Congress has taken over the asylum.

JeanneB said...

It doesn't matter if they're on the same plan. The bureaucrats that will "make decisions" for us will simply give Congresscritters anything they want. You and I will never be the wiser.

Anonymous said...

This idiot says the healthcare bill will REDUCE administrative costs??? Is he full-on retarded or does he think WE are??

Democrat Health Care Diagram

dsm said...

@Peg C: As for voting these idiots out, that's why I started blogging. Here's my first post.

Simply stated, I do not think that legislators should be allowed to serve *consecutive* terms.

@katablog: I would argue that Obama and the Dem Congress have encouraged the silent majority to find its voice. Yeah, we're still clearing our throat, but there's a wild roar coming.

@JeanneB: I frequently reference this article. It wont make you feel better, but it is a fairly complete criticism of the broken incentive structure of bureaucracies. Key quote:

Fail. Whatever it is that your bureau is supposed to be doing, if you don't do it very well but can produce a reasonable argument that your failure is from lack of money (or enough power), then you can (if you've spent your budget) always ask for more money, i.e. to be "fully funded."

The Monster said...

Simply stated, I do not think that legislators should be allowed to serve *consecutive* terms.

Years ago, I thought of the same idea, but it would also apply to POTUS. I call it the "Grover Cleveland Amendment", because he's the only person to have served non-consecutive terms as POTUS; I'd like that to become the norm.

The language I chose allowed for people who take office in the middle of a term, by stating the disqualification thusly:

"No person who shall have attained the office of President, Senator, or Representative, prior to the final year of the term thereof, shall be eligible to the consecutive term in the same office."

This language does allow a House member to run for Senate, but since it's a different office, I don't see it as a big deal. I was inspired by the Articles of Confederation provision that no delegate to Congress could serve for more than three years out of six consecutive years, and by the wonderful example of Sen. George McGovern, who, after leaving the Senate and running a small business, has gone on record as opposing many bills he co-sponsored as a Senator. Traditional "term limit" proposals deny the opportunity to re-elect someone who had "come up for air" in the private sector.

I would also like to return election of Senators to the state legislatures, making it unnecessary for people to spend their entire term raising money to pay for state-wide ads. That's a nice side effect; the real reason I want that to happen is to restore the balance of power between the national and state goverments, by giving the latter delegates to the Congress.

I'm afraid that no state-level action could get this accomplished, because there is no Constitutional basis for states imposing any additional qualifications for office ("non incumbency" is a negative qualification).

Gregory of Yardale said...

Check the middle aged woman in the striped shirt in the video. She's grinning smugly through the whole thing. Then, when Kevin Jackson asks "If it's so great, why isn't Congress on it?" Her face falls like a melting glacier.

Unknown said...

NEVER take the pressure off of these rogues! NEVER!

MB said...

Re: the Congress remark- that's a really good point. Why don't we absolutely insist that Congress be put on any plan that they pass?---------------------------------------An ammendment to the bill was introduced and shot down before it even got to the floor, you don't really think they would subject themselves to the same treatment we receive? They are above that, in their minds.

letswakeupAMERICA said...

I LOVE it!!! I just posted it on my blog along with a few others you might be interested in. I can't tell you how much better I feel knowing that others are starting to stand up and fight. This is great!
Thanks for posting it!
Sara

Moneyrunner said...

I posted and linked on it HERE.

Some added thoughts ...

These are "Tea Party" folks. Following the advice they have received on the Internet, they are finding their voices in public forums like this. I would guess that Congressmen are not used to being laughed at and challenged by members of the audience in these forums. Right now they are trying to determine if these are few malcontents or if it's more than that.

The point is that it does not take a majority to make a movement. The majority in any society is always going to be busy with other things. But they may well be sympathetic ... the sea in which the activists swim.

There are a few predictions that I would make:
(1) Congressmen will try to get their supporters out to these meetings to drown out the dissenters; to clap and cheer at the right time.
(2) There may well be fewer "town hall" type meetings as government officials try to figure out how to cope.
(3) There will be more "tea party" types getting going to these meetings with video equipment as the word spreads.
(4) There will be attempts by the Left to reclaim their role as leaders in "street theater" leading to verbal and perhaps physical clashes.

Anonymous said...

Why do we in the US pay twice as much per person for health care and have poorer quality and less coverage than ALL other industrialized nations, i.e., France, Canada, Australia, Italy, Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Israel, Belgium, Austria etc?

What do we receive for paying twice as much if not improved quality? We have shorter life spans, higher infant mortality, and "higher deaths amenable to health care"(Health Affairs 2008 27: 58-71).

Our healthcare system is twice as expensive but still not even as good as France's.

Why not Medicare for all Americans? Has Congress dropped the ball? Yes. We need single payer and now.

Next: Global Warming!

Anonymous said...

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In order for the physicians to obtain payment for services these codes must be submitted in a timely fashion to insurance companies and they must be within the scope of usual practices.

Insurance companies also deny payment to the physicians more often than not and they need people to fight for their money.

Administrators allow physicians to concentrate of helping patients without the nagging concern of redtape and paperwork.

There are also budgeting, managerial and operational issues in healthcare offices or other settings that are handled by these professionals.

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