Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

Ah, smell that stupidity!  So burning and fresh!

Virginia Foxx wants us all to know that health care reform is the most dangerous thing evah - more dangerous than "any terrorist right now in any country."  I guess that means we can stop diving under our beds when Cons scream "letting the terrorists win!" now.   Because, you know, the possibility of reforming our horrible health care system is, like, really scary.

Meanwhile, the GOP's loving Michele Bachmann's teaparty plans.  Apparently, fear of reform has driven them into the arms of the truly batshit insane.  Or perhaps they're just eager for the opportunity to gaze deeply into the eyes of unhinged right-wing frothers.  No, really, right into the eyes - because Bachmann's cunning plans include "find[ing] members of Congress, look[ing] at the whites of their eyes and say[ing], 'Don't take away my healthcare.'"  How touching.

How unhinged are Cons getting over health care reform?  So unhinged that Sen. Orrin Hatch, who started the summer as a relatively sane Con, is finishing it sounding like a candidate for the asylum.  I think he's had a wee bit o' a psychotic break - or he's trying to shake some Teabaggers down for money.

If you missed John Boehner's weekly address on Saturday, do go indulge.  It's the height of Con comedy.  They does too has their own plan!

For example, just a few days after conceding there is no GOP alternative reform proposal, the House Minority Leader now believes there is a rival health care plan after all.

"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."

I see. Take a brief printout with some talking points, combine it with eight unrelated pieces of weak legislation -- not one of which has been endorsed by the party's leadership -- throw it in a blender without a coherent policy structure, and viola! House Republicans have both a "plan" and a "blueprint."

And to think I questioned the seriousness with which the House GOP took policy matters. Don't I feel embarrassed.

Is my face red?  It is?  Does that have anything to do with the laughing fit I just had?  Oh, it does.  Imagine that.

Harry Reid either didn't see Boehner's babble or he wasn't impressed, because he's being downright sarcastic about the Cons' plan:

A source forwards me the letter that Reid sent to dozens of GOP colleagues, to be released this afternoon. It says current Dem Senate versions of the bill are publicly available, and adds:

While the two health care reform plans that are serving as the main building blocks for the merged bill have been publicly available for quite some time, I would note that the Republican leadership’s health care plan remains a secret, unless perhaps it does not exist.

Nice one.

John Conyers got in his own zing, saying Obama's been listening to all the wrong people.  Also a nice one.

Meanwhile, Joe Lieberman's standing alone against the world, and wonders why the world won't get out of his way.  We wonder why he's such a fucktard.  Possibly it's because it makes him "feel relevant."

His chutzpah's nothing compared to the insurance company that raised its premiums, then begged its gouged customers for help in defeating health care reform.  Awesome.

Single payer may seem all but dead, but Kucinich et all are making one final Hail Mary pass.  Lots of numbers at the link if you want to help them out.

Here's a set of charts explaining just how outrageous our health care costs are compared to other countries.

And, finally, sweet poetic justice:

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior policy adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign, “remains unemployed — and his COBRA health coverage is running out,” the Washington Post reports. “Irony of ironies, it gets worse. Holtz-Eakin, who is about to start shopping for insurance on the individual market, is 51. And he has one of those pesky ‘preexisting conditions’ that insurance companies often cite in denying coverage”:

Holtz-Eakin said he’s been paying about $1,000 a month to extend the private health insurance he received on McCain’s campaign through the government’s COBRA program, but that will expire in a few months. This is the first time in his life he has not had employer-provided health coverage. “I worry about where I go next in the way many Americans do,” he said.

'Scuse me a tick, won't you?

HA HA HA HA SNICKER SNORT HA HA HA MWAH HA HA HEE HEE HO HO HA HA HA THAT'S FUCKING PRICELESS! HEE HEE HEE

I loves me some poetic justice.