Gaffetastic:
Vice President Joe Biden had his “oops” moment Wednesday speaking in a 49er-crazed SF when he told a crowd at a city political fundraiser that “the Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl.” - SF Chronicle, 1-18-12
Finally, at long last, some straight talk from a diehard lefty politico on tort reform:
(CNSNews.com) – Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, a medical doctor who served as governor of Vermont, said at a town hall meeting on Tuesday night that Democrats in Congress did not include tort reform in the health care bill because they were fearful of “taking on” the trial lawyers.
“This is the answer from a doctor and a politician,” said Dean. “Here is why tort reform is not in the bill. When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that the more stuff you put in, the more enemies you make, right? And the reason why tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on, and that is the plain and simple truth. Now, that’s the truth.”
Here’s the video (Dean’s remarks come at roughly 45 seconds in … after Rep. Moran verifies the person asking the question is one of his constituents via demanding ID):
Wanna hear more straight talk on ObamaCare? Read on:
Some people, including Medicare recipients, will have to give up some current benefits to truly reform the nation’s health-care system, Rep. Betsy Markey [D] told a gathering of constituents in Fort Collins on Wednesday.
Markey has repeatedly said during the August congressional recess that Medicare spending needs to be reined in to help pay for reforming the broader health-care system.
“There’s going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work,” Markey said at a Congress on Your Corner event at CSU. “But we have to do this because we’re Americans.”
About 275 people att-ended Wednesday’s meetings, split into two groups. About 1,300 people have attended Markey’s health-care meetings over the past eight days, and another 10,300
10,300 participated in a telephone town hall earlier this week, Markey spokesman Ben Marter said.
The audience at Wednesday’s gathering appeared largely supportive of Democratic reform plans, with a number of people arriving with signs prepared by Organizing for America, a spinoff of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Gee – now there’s a shocker.
Ok, so who is it who will have to “give up” something in order to make ObamaCare work for “all Americans”? Wouldn’t be our seniors and the chronically ill, now would it?
In another ironic Medicare twist, Obama’s quest to cut Medicare waste may undercut another selling point of the left’s beloved “public” government-run insurance option. Obama has argued repeatedly that Medicare’s low administrative costs are proof of government’s efficiency, but the level of the administrative costs is due to a combination of fuzzy government accounting and the very lack of oversight Obama claims to want to eliminate to save money. By employing more people to oversee Medicare to cut waste and fraud, Obama will eliminate the administrative savings he’s been touting to sell yet another government health program.
Can Barack Obama take a government program in desperate need of overhaul and make it worse? Yes, he can!
Its remains a mystery to me why trial lawyers would support Obamacare—when the government drives private insurance companies from the field who will the lawyers sue–not the government.
The trial lawyers don’t make big money from the health insurers. they get it from malpractice insurance. Obstetricians are the main target which is why the cost of delivering a baby has increased 5 fold in the past 20 years. Doctors have been begging for malpractice insurance reform, caps on prices and payouts but Obama refused.
I applaud Dean’s honesty I wish he could have joined with some republicans to fix this problem though.
It’s refreshing to see some truth come out of Dean’s mouth for once. I’ll bet he had to go home and throw up and he’ll have diarrhea for a week because of it.
And Markey? She just added to the “death panel” debate in triplicate. She says exactly what Palin did but with different words, now she’s a hero for telling the truth and Sarah is a lying fear-monger?
“There’s going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work,” she says, so tell me how, exactly, is this different from what Sarah says? Except that Sarah pointed out it was the elderly who would be targeted.
So if we took on “crime”, for example, the writers of a bill might not to take on “violent criminals” for fear of offending that one group of people, so by not taking on the lawyers and tort, responsible for the skyrocketing costs from everything from the cost of a single pill you buy at Walmart to the droves of doctors refusing patients and actually leaving several states because they can’t affor the government imposed insurances shouldn’t be addressed in the INITIAL BILL? I can only ask the question; do they actually think the American people are that stupid?
So I don’t know what to take away from Dean’s explanation. That he’s a coward? That he’s being honest? Or that there’s no way in Hell he’d go against one of the DNC’s biggest blocs of supporters?
Oh wait – it’s possible that he’s a cowardly opportunist who is actually being truthful in this one instance, isn’t it?
But still, if the driving goal of health care ref- oops, I mean health insurance reform – is to cut costs, then why isn’t doing something about sky high malpractice premiums on the table?
How refreshing..almost a moment of transparency from the former head of the DNC. Now we know what we already knew!
Excuses, Excuses…oh it would be too hard to include tort reform. Another admission…the bill is too big to add this…wow, do ya think so Howie? Pinning down all the little details in the bill are way more important. The 20 ton elephant is the room sitting on the bill will just be ignored. But, it’s not too hard to defend something you haven’t read completely and really don’t know how you are going to manage…leave that to their panel of experts who wrote the bill. Any clue what they may be????
Well remember we have to spend more money so that we don’t go bankrupt. With that kind of mentality, we should not be suprised with anything that is said.
Democrats in Congress did not include tort reform in the health care bill because they were fearful of “taking on” the trial lawyers.
AND it isn’t because most politicians are actually lawyers? At this juncture, I wouldn’t believe anything they say. First, there was no “death panel.” Then, the Senate removed the non-existent “death panel” from their form of the bill. Who comes up with this stuff? Politicians have really got nerve to try to sell a bill that none of them plan to use.
And eventually, when the law is changed to what Canada has, that if the guvmint doesn’t pay you can’t have it, there will be exceptions for the unions and congresscritters, and then, truly, only the wealthy can get real care because they will be able to afford to go wherever it is whatever care they need is available.
Its remains a mystery to me why trial lawyers would support Obamacare—when the government drives private insurance companies from the field who will the lawyers sue–not the government.
The trial lawyers don’t make big money from the health insurers. they get it from malpractice insurance. Obstetricians are the main target which is why the cost of delivering a baby has increased 5 fold in the past 20 years. Doctors have been begging for malpractice insurance reform, caps on prices and payouts but Obama refused.
I applaud Dean’s honesty I wish he could have joined with some republicans to fix this problem though.
“But we have to do this because we’re Americans.”
– No, we need to lead scum like this out of the Congress IN HANDCUFFS (because we’re Americans.)
It’s refreshing to see some truth come out of Dean’s mouth for once. I’ll bet he had to go home and throw up and he’ll have diarrhea for a week because of it.
And Markey? She just added to the “death panel” debate in triplicate. She says exactly what Palin did but with different words, now she’s a hero for telling the truth and Sarah is a lying fear-monger?
“There’s going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work,” she says, so tell me how, exactly, is this different from what Sarah says? Except that Sarah pointed out it was the elderly who would be targeted.
So if we took on “crime”, for example, the writers of a bill might not to take on “violent criminals” for fear of offending that one group of people, so by not taking on the lawyers and tort, responsible for the skyrocketing costs from everything from the cost of a single pill you buy at Walmart to the droves of doctors refusing patients and actually leaving several states because they can’t affor the government imposed insurances shouldn’t be addressed in the INITIAL BILL? I can only ask the question; do they actually think the American people are that stupid?
So I don’t know what to take away from Dean’s explanation. That he’s a coward? That he’s being honest? Or that there’s no way in Hell he’d go against one of the DNC’s biggest blocs of supporters?
Oh wait – it’s possible that he’s a cowardly opportunist who is actually being truthful in this one instance, isn’t it?
But still, if the driving goal of health care ref- oops, I mean health insurance reform – is to cut costs, then why isn’t doing something about sky high malpractice premiums on the table?
How refreshing..almost a moment of transparency from the former head of the DNC. Now we know what we already knew!
Excuses, Excuses…oh it would be too hard to include tort reform. Another admission…the bill is too big to add this…wow, do ya think so Howie? Pinning down all the little details in the bill are way more important. The 20 ton elephant is the room sitting on the bill will just be ignored. But, it’s not too hard to defend something you haven’t read completely and really don’t know how you are going to manage…leave that to their panel of experts who wrote the bill. Any clue what they may be????
Well remember we have to spend more money so that we don’t go bankrupt. With that kind of mentality, we should not be suprised with anything that is said.
AND it isn’t because most politicians are actually lawyers? At this juncture, I wouldn’t believe anything they say. First, there was no “death panel.” Then, the Senate removed the non-existent “death panel” from their form of the bill. Who comes up with this stuff? Politicians have really got nerve to try to sell a bill that none of them plan to use.
And eventually, when the law is changed to what Canada has, that if the guvmint doesn’t pay you can’t have it, there will be exceptions for the unions and congresscritters, and then, truly, only the wealthy can get real care because they will be able to afford to go wherever it is whatever care they need is available.