Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

Once again, my dear friends, Barney Frank proves himself the bane of stupid, as he pummels Rep. Paul Ryan into abject admissions of Con failure:

In an CNBC debate with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) today, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) railed against a government takeover of health care until CNBC host John Harwood interjected and asked him, “Congressman, do you not agree that the private market is failing the American patient right now?” Paul agreed that we “do not have a market system working in health care today,” and said, “Let’s fix health care, let’s fix insurance, let’s make sure the uninsured get insured, let’s make sure we have a fix for people with pre-existing conditions.” Frank then interjected and called Ryan out:

FRANK: I just want to ask Paul one question. … When did you figure that out? Because apparently for the 12 years that the Republicans were in control — eight of which had a Republican president — that hadn’t occurred to you. So I’m glad you now understand that. Can you tell me at what moment the revelation occurred?

RYAN: First of all, I introduced on this subject about six years ago.

FRANK: You had control of the Congress. Why didn’t the Republican Congress fix it?

RYAN: I will have a moment of bipartisan agreement. We should have fixed this under our watch and I’m frustrated we didn’t.

Why do I have a hard time believing that "frustrated" bit? Oh, it could have a little something to do with the fact that the failed legislation he's attempting to defend himself with would've "eventually replace[d] Medicare with subsidies to help retirees enroll in private health care plans. Critics argue that subsidies would lag behind inflation, leaving the poor and ill without coverage."  What a valiant effort to provide health care for all that was, eh?

And here's a precious moment in Con hypocrisy: Grassley screaming against the individual mandates he was all for less than two months ago, before he found out Dems planned to include them in health care reform.

Speaking of hypocrisy, you really must read Digby's article on Cons trying to defend poor, helpless insurance companies against teh evil gubmint.  It's devastating.

For anyone who gives a shit, the Baucus Bullshit has been scored by the CBO.

On the Dem side of the stupid equation, Nancy Pelosi tried to float a watered-down version of the public option.  Why she decided to do this just after discovering that the vast majority of House Dems support a robust public option is beyond me.  Perhaps there's something in the water in Washington, D.C. that causes bouts of brain malfunction.

Failing watering down the public option, some Dems are venturing a compromise idea that would give us a strong public option, but give states the right to opt out of same.  I have no idea why.  Cons still won't vote for the bill, and all that does is fucks people living in states run by dumbshits like Jindal and Perry.

Were I one of you living in a red state, and should this look set to pass, I'd be moving to a blue state asap.  My living room is always available to cantina patrons for temporary housing.