Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

You may recall from last week that the Cons got caught with their pants around their ankles on the whole issue of paying for abortions.  Michael Steele swore he'd ensure RNC health insurance policies no longer included coverage for elective abortions.  That, however, won't let them off the hook:

But does that actually "settle" the matter? The new RNC policy, apparently, is to have insurance through Cigna, opting out of abortion coverage. But let's not lose sight of the original fungibility problem -- the RNC is taking Republican money and giving it to an insurance company through premiums. That company will then use its pool of money to pay for abortion services, not for RNC employees, but for other customers.

In other words, the Republican National Committee will still indirectly subsidize abortions, every time it writes a check to Cigna.

And if the RNC disagrees with this reasoning, and believes the issue is "settled," then the party has rejected the reasoning of the Stupak amendment at a fundamental level.

And as if the RNC's abortion funding hypocrisy isn't enough, it seems Cantor and Gingrich have been subsidizing abortions, as well.  Deary, deary me.

As for the Stupak Stupidity itself, it doesn't look long for this world.  Not only are there plenty of liberal Dems sworn to fight it, but it's not looking Constitutional at this point, either.  Even pro-life Dem Bob Casey's against Stupak's Stupidity.  Credo's got a petition up and shall be sending coathangers to the Conservadems who voted for the Stupidity.  And the White House is making its opposition known.  The Stupidity, it seems, has very few friends.

Stupak's doing what any other con artist now getting excoriated for his con job does: blames the victims.  Rep. Diana DeGette takes him to the woodshed over it.

By the way, if you think the Catholic bishops who helped drive Stupak's Stupidity through were standing on principle, you haven't noticed the financial stake they have in this.  It seems to me it's about time to revisit some tax laws.

In other news, health care reform is definitely good for business.  Goldman Sachs assures us that if a watered-down version passes, however, it'll only be good for the insurance business.

That's not, however, why right-wing Texans are overwhelmingly against reform.  I think we can put that down to too much Teabagging.

The AARP's for reform, though, which is too much for John McCain, who in an Arizona town hall urged his admirers to cut up their AARP cards.  Sad, pathetic people.

And, finally, you'll likely not be surprised to learn that after the disaster in the House, Senate Cons don't plan to present a bill of their own:

The Senate GOP caucus will, however, apparently at least throw a few ideas into the mix, even if it's not in the form of an coherent, comprehensive policy.

Senate Republicans cannot say what exactly the budgetary impact of their health alternatives would be, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said this weekend. [...]

The New Hampshire Republican said that GOP alternatives, which they'll offer as amendments to Democrats' health legislation, "don't cost money."

It stands to reason, then, that either Republicans have come up with magical proposals, or they intend to ignore the tens of millions of Americans who currently lack coverage.

Gregg went on to say that his party won't get analyses from the Congressional Budget Office because "we don't know how to score them under CBO rules." He added that Republicans "know from experience" that their ideas would "produce more effectively delivered cost service."

Right. Because if there's one thing Republicans have "experience" with, it's improving health care delivery efficiently and cost effectively.

Remind me, has that ever happened?

Nope.