markg8's Blog

markg8 Commented on The Real Debate About Health Care by Howard Dean

2009-08-25T14:13:50Z

Congressman Weiner has been doing an excellent job of eviscerating the wingnuts on these very points, even on FOX News. The amount insurance companies take out of the system for shareholder profit, bloated executive salaries, a vast bureaucracy built to deny claims, lobbying congress, bribing and browbeating doctors and hospitals to provide as little care as they can, and advertising to us is unconscionable. 30% for "administration" while Medicare uses 4% (I think it's 3%) to do the same job. None of that 30% goes to examining one patient, conducting one test, buying one drug, or performing one procedure. On MSNBC Weiner left Joe Scarborough literally speechless last week.

HR 3200 in fact makes a lot of the worst practices of insurance companies illegal. That will benefit them if they get rid of or switch their army of actuaries and lawyers into sales jobs for the 50 million new customers they'll have access to in the exchange. The exchange will be a well regulated free market where they'll be forced to compete with each other and the public option instead of the government protected monopoly racket they enjoy now.

The CBO predicts that by 2019 under HR 3200 97% of Americans will be covered. Of that number 96% will be covered by private insurance and 4% in the public option. That's about 11 to 13 million people in the public option. I'd like to see more, about 20 to 30 million but it does away with the "government takeover" scare tactic. HR 3200 isn't going to put private health insurance companies out of business but it will force them to operate like every other business in America instead of a cartel.

markg8 Commented on Baucus: I Want A Public Option! I Swear! by Brian Beutler

2009-08-25T01:39:03Z

They get that money to run tv ads telling their constituents how wonderful they are at election time. That will matter very little if they stymie a bill that is wildly popular with their base. Don't tell me there aren't up and coming Democrats in MT who aren't rubbing their hands together right now making plans to take on the old man if he screws this up.

markg8 recommended Reich Left Out the Unspoken in the Reconciliation Process by OldenGoldenDecoy

2009-08-23T21:55:12Z

markg8 Commented on One More Try at This One... by LisB

2009-08-24T16:30:12Z

In board rooms all across America the cognoscenti are looking to see if they can have you deported like John Lennon. They know they can't so they writhe in their silk sheets at night fruitlessly trying to sleep. Lack of sleep makes them irritable and stupid. That leads to mistakes, gaffes and such, that get published in the media. Pretty soon their whole edifice of lies come crashing down.

markg8 recommended Where's the Beef GOP? How do Patients Save Money? by coonsey

2009-08-23T16:37:20Z

markg8 Commented on Where's the Beef GOP? How do Patients Save Money? by coonsey

2009-08-24T15:41:47Z

4 pages is a press release not a health care plan. Now House rep Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) actually did release an actual health care plan called The Patients’ Choice Act. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) says:

The Patients’ Choice Act, introduced by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), would likely fail to make major progress in reducing the number of uninsured Americans. It also would make affordable, comprehensive coverage less available for many who currently have coverage.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2879

Republicans suck at policy because they hate government, don't study government and thus don't know how to write policy.

markg8 Commented on One More Try at This One... by LisB

2009-08-24T02:04:42Z

You are a dangerous woman LisB.

markg8 recommended One More Try at This One... by LisB

2009-08-23T06:27:23Z

markg8 Commented on Recess Rally Ends in a Cacophony of Horns by markg8

2009-08-24T01:34:31Z

We're thinking of sending a lawyer over there to ask why we need a permit and the Republicans don't and why several of their people told us it was ok to stake the poles in the ground but the day watch commander thinks it's an arrestable offense.

markg8 Commented on Recess Rally Ends in a Cacophony of Horns by markg8

2009-08-23T18:50:37Z

I have a pic of me out there on Thursday morning but I don't know how to post it here amike.

markg8 Commented on Recess Rally Ends in a Cacophony of Horns by markg8

2009-08-23T03:01:47Z

It was Officer Chavez-Jimenez (badge number 516) and then the Day Shift Commander who doesn't give his name Dick. The first guy was ok, the second not so much. He actually told me the wingnuts don't need a permit.

And remember whether your sunglasses are off or on you only see the world you make.

markg8 Commented on Recess Rally Ends in a Cacophony of Horns by markg8

2009-08-23T01:05:29Z

I think it's perfect because it leverages people passing by in their cars who can do something very easy that doesn't cost anything and takes no time out of their day. And it's guaranteed to get the message to your house rep.

markg8 Commented on Recess Rally Ends in a Cacophony of Horns by markg8

2009-08-23T01:01:16Z

Thank you ladies. We all remember as kids giving the universal signal to truckers, that pulling on the air horn cord pantomime to get them to sound that big honkin air horn. I do that and mimic pressing the car horn while mouthing the words "honk your horn" while I point at the sign. It's a weird feeling of power to point at someone and say honk your horn and have them do it. We both laugh, I give them a big thumbs up which always earns me a big grin.

Sometimes if wingnuts shake their head or give me a thumbs down I stick my tongue out at them. Then I laugh and move on to the next driver.

markg8 recommended Recess Rally Ends in a Cacophony of Horns by markg8

2009-08-22T20:12:28Z

markg8 Commented on Poll: Baucus Popular in Montana on Health Care...with Republicans by Brian Beutler

2009-08-22T14:06:21Z

Called Baucus's office and left a msg. Told him the health insurance business is a monopoly racket in most states and we need reform to make a true regulated free market in the exchange so t5he insurance companies compete against each other and the public option for our business.

markg8 Commented on Poll: Baucus Popular in Montana on Health Care...with Republicans by Brian Beutler

2009-08-22T13:29:09Z

Happily for reformers? What's happy about that?

markg8 Commented on Cook Report: Dems Have Lost Control Of The Debate by Eric Kleefeld

2009-08-22T01:14:11Z

Steve I have about 17 people I follow in comments yet every day you seem to dominate them on my dashboard. Lately I don't have time to read much around here, I'm lucky I have time to scan the headlines before I go to bed let alone read all the threads or even the comments but I can tell by the tone of what I see in the first few sentences of your responses how the debate here is going.

Please keep it up. What's that saying.. When all around you are losing their heads? You keep up the good work, we have a lot of cats to herd.

markg8 Commented on Could They Be That Smart? by The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve

2009-08-18T13:38:41Z

Think Blazing Saddles when they build a fake town overnight and then lure Hedly Lamar's goons into attacking the potemkin village.

This is a pretty stupid argument this country is having right now. Republicans attack our plans as "socialism" and "government takeover" when in fact it'll open up the rigged monopoly health insurance system and make it a real free market (like say car insurance?) and rein provider costs by paying for what works instead of what is just most expensive.

In response what do we do? Defend Canadian government run health insurance and UK socialist government run hospital systems which are nothing like the plans that are proposed.

markg8 Commented on Selling HR 3200 to the Public by markg8

2009-08-18T13:10:35Z

Granted a lot of their problems were of their own making Gregor but they weren't making double digit profits and a lot of those loyal customers of American cars weren't on our side of the political spectrum. Most were old folks who wanted a Crown Vic or big Buick for the comfort, rednecks who wanted their F-150s, and Republican soccer moms with a Explorer who aspired to have a Navigator someday.

On our side we flocked to by non union made Civics and Prius because the Chevettes and Escorts we owned in our youth were unsexy poorly built crap.

That's totally changed now that they build all those foreign cars in Dixieland and Republican senators were all for destroying the American car industry last winter just to smite the UAW.

You'd think they'd be grateful that the UAW and the Big Three kept millions of their retirees out of our single payer socialist, government run taxpayer funded health care plan for seniors since 1965 but I guess not.