Why don't Democrats HAMMER the tired line about "Obama's program putting a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor."  There's not a person in America who hasn't had the experience of an INSURANCE COMPANY BUREAUCRAT between them and their doctor.   What is wrong with the Democrats?  Why not hammer the line:  "how do you like having a profit-oriented insurance company bureaucrat between you and your doctor?"

Okay Eric & MFSierra... don't let this b*tch get away with this!

If you need reinforcements... HOLLA! And we'll be there...

Every Democrat that 'pussy foots' around on this healthcare bill needs to GO!  

I for one will do eveything in my power to make sure that happens... are you listening there Senator Durbin??? As for dumbs**t Burris - I don't really consider him my Senator!  Blago's last ditch effort to screw the people of IL!

Chuck? What did Sen. Feinstein say?

I sometimes become cloudy to what her motives are.

She's interesting and calculated - need to watch her closely.

Thank you and GOD BLESS AMERICA

From NBC's Chuck Todd
Earlier in the "First Thoughts" update, we hinted about how politically treacherous it can be to cross the Democratic Party campaign apparatus that is supporting the president on health care reform. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is finding out the hard way.

And so goes the rest of them too! I love it. Perhaps their asses see that we don't any BS out of them or they can be replaced. She has government funded health care and their special interest groups just may as well take a hike. Way to go AFSCME!

Yes Senator...now what say you?

It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Health Care Reform is very important to President Obama. With the republicans shooting down any idea the democrats come up with, it is important to keep the Democratic party focused on implementing a program that meets the minimum requirements of universal coverage and reducing costs.

"to fix the economy we must fix health care."

Man, do they have it wrong.

"To ruin the economy we must fix health care."
There is no gauranteed "fix" for health care.
The trickle down factor in Obama's blatantly stupid strategy will kill the competing systems and cause turmoil at every level, including lost jobs and less doctors, technicians and nurses. In other words, less care. That's what socialized medicine is, less health care, whether free or whatever your premium.

Obama has screwed enough of us to the wall, both liberal and conservative, and to appease himself and his left-wing fanatics, he still pushes for a failed health plan.

This will drop his approval rating even further.

As was commnted in First Thoughts, this seems a shot across the bow at DiFi's position.

The notion that reform of heathcare is possible without a public option is absurb!

Meanwhile, one wonders how much money she got from the Insruance industry and the AMA?

Democrats eating their own.

It may be time for Senator Feinstein to retire - she seems to have forgotten who she is representing.

I still haven't forgotten that little stunt she pulled when she wasn't "consulted" when President Obama appointed Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

Me thinks that the good Senator has been living the "good life" a little to long . . . may be time to rejoin the real world.

Sadly, the same could be said of most of our Congressional representatives. Regardless of what happens on health care, I'm thinking it may be time to "clean house".

Let this be a warning to all Democratic Senators who like to "handcuff" Obama on real change. This doesn't make sense whatsoever, that a Senate democrat will in essence try to undermine one of our biggest causes! Lets MoveOn!

If she and other weak kneed senators don't want to help the president push health care through, then they will pay ! She is not that big that she can't be replaced. The public is watching you Feinstein !!

A major national protest by health care personnel, flat tax enthusiasts and those against socialism and redistribution will happen in the late afternoon and early evening hours acrossed the country AGAINST the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) for giving Barack Obama free reign is advertising his Health Care Plan to America. All affiliates will be protested.

Observation: Obama will make it sound like a great deal but Fox and other independent stations that don't succumb to Obama's every whim will tear it apart while NBC and ABC will endorse it. That's a given.

This is too funny. You start seeing the useless unions representing their useless workers, government employees in this case, being against a very liberal Senator. The numbers of government workers has grown in the country during the recession, and yet their unions still whine. Obama pumped billions into state governments with his stimulus plan, and yet the unions keeps whining. Government workers get raises and job security, and yet the unions still whine.

Feinstein should tell this union to go pound sand.

Apparently all is not well in Mudville, and the current occupant of the Soilded House team is about ready to strike out.  Mercy!

Like Feinstein is worried about getting re-elected. The idiots in California would vote Di back in if she was dead and buried.

So DiFi shouldn't do what she thinks is right because the union might disapprove?   I'm no Feinstein fan, but speaking out honestly on this issue and asking tough questions is what I expect from ALL of our senators.  

Imagine that, a union representing government workers wanting more tax dollars for themselves from the hard working citizens of the country. Unemployment is reaching 10% across the country, 11% in California, and 15% in Oregon and Washington. But government employees have not been laid off anywhere. Lots of threats of layoffs for the government workers, but it never happens. And now they want another raise.

From a earlier post
I have never seen a group of people (The Republicans) show such disrespect for a president.
Cheryl Campbell (Sent Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:45 AM)


Wow are you sure I mean we just went through about 8 years of a group of people (democrats) calling the president of the United States everything but a child of god.
What a short memory.
Oh and keep your race baiting to yourself please

Warned?

What the hell kind of administration do we have here?

Obama-nomics = disaster.

Don't you feel privileged America? You get to pay in more money to pay off the unions.

DiFi got knocked off her throne...finally

It's funny, DiFi was OK with a tax cut for the rich
The deficit wasn't an issue when she voted for that
DiFi voted for the USELESS Iraq War
The deficit wasn't an issue thn
She voted for Lieberman-Kyl (AKA Bomb, Bomb Iran)
Whatever the cost

Suddenly, she's worried about costs...

Get a grip Dianne  !!

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy

A politician being held accountable to the people...a novel idea.

I smell a rat and her name is Sen. Feinstein, someone needs to find out if the insurance companies are giving her some treats, since I believe we all know the answer to that question by her deeds, someone needs to bring it to the publics attention so she will shut-up.

Ha! The process has started for the Democrats to destroy themselves. Feinstein is one of the most liberal Senators out there and even she in uncomfortable ramming a bill through without actually creating legislation, reading the details, and having full debate.

My healthcare isn't in crisis. There is no crisis that would force the American people to support a bill that they know nothing about. Obama played that game with the stimulus and had to come back later and admit that he guessed wrong. Do we want them to guess wrong on healthcare because they're in such a hurry?

What's WRONG with Sanford's Story ??


'...is trying to sell us on the idea of him cruising down an empty freeway, Buenos Aires on one side and the majestic (read: brown and gross) Rio de la Plata on the other. I'm imagining him stuck in a traffic jam...'


'...Second, like Mexico, kidnapping is a huge problem in BA. People who look like they might be rich and important are targeted and held for ransom. A US governor would be CRAZY to run around BA without notifying the embassy...'



Better try a new set of fairy tales, governor


From TPM:

'...Peeling Back the Layers
Surprising number of TPM readers with experience in Buenos Aires. Here's MT:

I'm an American citizen originally from Argentina and I go back to Buenos Aires all the time. I have two things to say about Sanford's excuse that make me think it's total BS.
First, I want to point out an even simpler reason why Sanford probably didn't "drive up the coastline": driving in Buenos Aires is a nightmare. It's about 2 steps better than driving in Cairo. People don't follow traffic signs, they drive recklessly, they cram up tiny streets with multiple cars. When I visit I'm TERRIFIED to drive down there, and I live in Los Angeles, the driving capital of the US! I can only imagine what a driver from South Carolina (who probably doesn't do most of his own driving) would experience. Sanford is trying to sell us on the idea of him cruising down an empty freeway, Buenos Aires on one side and the majestic (read: brown and gross) Rio de la Plata on the other. I'm imagining him stuck in a traffic jam on Av. Libertador, cramped in a tiny Peugeot and afraid for his life while taxi drivers yell at him to get out of the way.

Second, like Mexico, kidnapping is a huge problem in BA. People who look like they might be rich and important are targeted and held for ransom. A US governor would be CRAZY to run around BA without notifying the embassy or looking into at least a basic security option. With his American clothes and accent he would stick out like a sore thumb. If he did go down there by himself without notifying the embassy he's a completely reckless idiot...'


Family Values, My foot !!

After a life threatening "allergy incident" in an E.R. last year, two weeks later, a friend of mine had their insurance company call to ask WHY she went to the E.R.  They actually hire outside entities to do cost analysis, and investigate your illness, and if they don't like your answer, they may not pay the E.R. bill.  Now, that is what I call putting a Bureaucrat between you and healthcare.

ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY MORE TAXES TO PROVIDE FREE HEALTHCARE TO "ILLRGAL IMMIGRANTS?"

IF SO, BE PREPARED FOR MILLIONS MORE SNEAKING INTO THIS COUNTRY FOR FREE HEALTHCARE AT YOUR EXPENSE!

It never ceases to amaze me that politicians suffer from amnesia more than any other sub-set of human beings. Nobody gave a rats a$$ about the cost of anything during the Bush 43 years (Medicare Rx Drug program...trillions; Iraq mis-adventure...trillions even off the books). With the neo-cons wanting to pick a fight with every lunatic dictator in the world they have a nerve suggesting that reforming healthcare would be spending money we don't have.

Hello! We have been doing that for years for all kinds of BS so why stop now when it might actually do some good for 40 million people who are uninsured and costing the taxpayers anyway every time they show  up in the emergency room for routine care.

Come on people! If the Dems who are in don't get it then we have to run new candidates who DO! That includes old faithfuls like DiFi.

Obama has screwed enough of us to the wall, both liberal and conservative, and to appease himself and his left-wing fanatics, he still pushes for a failed health plan.

Monkberry Moon (Sent Wednesday, June 24, 2009 11:53 AM)

Monkberry, after 8 years of Bush-Cheney, You should used to being screwed. Musta really felt good to ya !

Here's a job for ya, official pooper-Scooper chasing the Chiwhawha around the blogusphere.

She should be nervous.  Even Mary Bono is nervous, she actually defied the republican party by voting in favor of us creating a new, green industry that cannot be shipped overseas or leave us at the mercy of Iran.

Now she is being trashed in the local paper by the "bomb bomb iran" republicans out here.

Dems are not used to having strong party leadership.  It is foreign to them.  Now that they have it, some Senators are laboring under the illusion that they still run their own fiefdoms and are untouchable.  But, there is a new Sheriff in town, and they best get used to following a playbook not entirely of their own writing.

Re-structuring the health care system is very obviously an important goal of this President.  Prima donna Senators would best be advised to stay out of his way on this, if they have nothing to add to the discussion.  The POTUS has the public on his side.

The Republicans are getting a taste of what it's like to be a leaderless party.  For the past eight years, they have prostrated themselves to rulership, not leadership, and now they don't even have the rulership to fall back on.  Sadly for them, not one Republican has stepped forward to offer any credible direction out of their self-imposed exile.  It does not help the, of course, that their usual constituents are now under water due to a 'free-market' economy most of them helped to create.

All members of Congress need to grasp the fact that there is a VERY good politician in the White House, perhaps the best one we've seen since TV became widely available.  His read on the voting public is likely to be better than theirs, more often than not.  The Dems need to welcome this, and enjoy the leadership for a change.  They are likely to profit from it.  The Republicans had better stay out of the way, and try to figure out a way to stop the bleeding.

the federal government couldn't run a dairy queen.stay out of health care.  

"To ruin the economy we must fix health care."
There is no gauranteed "fix" for health care.
The trickle down factor in Obama's blatantly stupid strategy will kill the competing systems and cause turmoil at every level, including lost jobs and less doctors, technicians and nurses. In other words, less care. That's what socialized medicine is, less health care, whether free or whatever your premium.

Obama has screwed enough of us to the wall, both liberal and conservative, and to appease himself and his left-wing fanatics, he still pushes for a failed health plan.

This will drop his approval rating even further. Monkberry Moon (Sent Wednesday, June 24, 2009 11:53 AM)
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Boy those canadians and british and their totally "ruined" economies, and "worthless" currency, and higher life expectancy rates sure have it bad.  

Lets all collectively she a tear that those countries will have to spend a miserable 2 extra years of their life watching americans bicker with their insurance companies about why they were dropped or weren't covered on a normal procedure.

They must be jumping from their hospital windows as we speak.

GOP's answer for everything, "nothing to see here, no problems...go about your business"

Maybe we'll get universal health care when Halliburton starts providing it.  Then Rush will tell his dittoheads that its ok to cross the street.

i thought boxer would be thew problem because her husband hgas ties to the insurance industry

OK, Democrats.  Enough with the campaign rhetoric.  Please, please, show some substantial proof that any sort of health care program will help the economy?  How will spending trillions of dollars to help a third (or less) of the citizens without health insurance cure the economic problems we are now experiencing?  While you are trying to pass this legislation, your buddy Barney Frank is writing letters to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae asking them to relax lending practices to fill up condos.  Isn't that what caused the economic problems and not health care?  Better get Barney under control first.

WHEN WARREN BUFFET SPEAKS, AMERICA SHOULD LISTEN.

Warren Buffett to CNBC: U.S. Economy In "Shambles" .. No Signs of Recovery Yet.

In a live interview on CNBC today, Warren Buffett said there has been little progress over the past few months in the "economic war" being fought by the country. Buffett says the nation should concentrate on creating jobs.

Buffett says he's not concerned about deflation, but thinks inflation will be a problem in coming years.

Buffett repeated his criticism of "cap and trade" as a method to control pollution, saying it would be a huge, regressive tax.

The only way things are going to change is if CITIZENS take action and donate their time and money to countering the lies propogated by the drug companies, insurance companies, hospital corporations,etc.  

Right now, these COMPANIES are making the final decisions about YOUR medical care!  Enough is enough!  They are bankrupting our citizens, our businesses, and our country!

Response to What_you_Selling.  In no way was I race bating, I was stating what I belive to be a fact.  So you can cut that out.  As for disrepect to GWB after 9/11/2001 nearly EVERYBODY was afraid to since they could be branded as trying to aid the terrorists.  If you cannot remember, I can during the last race people at some of John McCain's rallys were shouting "Kill the terrorist" speaking of Barack Obama.  Until you walk in MY shoes buddy, maybe you will realise that there are people in this country who do hate the President BECAUSE he is black.  We might as well admit that and hope none of these idiots do anything rash!

I've seen this question posed before, but don't recall seeing an answer.  How is it that Republicans say on one hand that the gov't can't run anything so a public health care option would be disastrous, yet on the other hand, a public option would be so attractive and well run that it would put private insurers out of business?  Which is it?  Or does it just depend on which right wing nut is speaking?

Right now, these COMPANIES are making the final decisions about YOUR medical care!  Enough is enough!  They are bankrupting our citizens, our businesses, and our country! Chandler, Los Angeles (Sent Wednesday, June 24, 2009 1:57 PM)
----------------------------------------------------
Enlightened, selfless public servants will do a much better job deciding to whom and how much treatment will be administered.

Don't worry, since there is no talk whatsoever of tort reform or liability caps, there will always be a Trial Lawyer right there to sue Uncle Sam and get you the treatment and the money (the lawyer) deserves! It is Win-Win.

You can sue the government for much more than you can sue Blue Cross, J&J, Aetna or Merck (or GE Healthcare)!

Cassie, NYC

Repubs don't try to have it both ways.  The gov option would be dirt cheap which would draw all the idiots who just sign things instead of reading them.  Ex. the interest only loans that were signed.  So with it being cheap everyone will gravitate to it and by the time everyone realizes how useless it is it will have already put most legitimate insurance companies out of business and people will be even more dependent on government.  That is how it is an Earth shatteringly terrible idea and how it will put insurance companies out of business at the same time as being one of the most disasterous programs ever.

So now what you really want is instead of an insurance bureaucrat between you and your doc you will now have a government bureaucrat between you and your doc.  Wow what an excellent trade off.  Now instead of getting screwed in a week the gov can now take months to screw you!!!!
For all of you who say the gov said that they won't be in the middle of doctor decisions I also have some Atlantic beach front property in Oklahoma for sale real cheap.

Feinstein has never been a very good Senator. California deserves better. Zoe Lofgren would make an excellent replacement.

Why do the people who claim the government can't run anything also praise the Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, CIA and NSA every chance they get? The US military and intelligence establishment is by far the largest organization ("company") of any kind on the planet.

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