How government works

How government works: via Glenn Greenwald.

• Start as the Chief Counsel for the Senate Finance Committee in charge of health and entitlement issues.
• Leave job to move to health insurance giant WellPoint to serve as its Vice President for Public Policy and External Affairs, lording over their lobbying and other government-influencing activities.
• Once it looks like Democrats are actually going to get off their asses on health care, move back to Senate to become top aide to Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee Chairman who would oversee the drafting of the healthcare bill, after his top aide leaves to become lobbyist for health care industry.
• Effectively write the entire health care bill and fill it with all kinds of carve-outs and concessions to the insurance industry as well as killing the public option.
• Join the Obama administration to help implement the new law.

I'm not sure of the next step, as it hasn't happened yet, but I'm pretty sure it's "go back to Wellpoint to earn millions for the work you did for them."

Isn't it wonderful? Join us next time when we recount how this exact same scenario happens in the financial reform process with an executive who works for... probably Goldman Sachs. Yeah, Goldman Sachs.

Immediate failure

You may or may not have noticed two things yesterday. One: you still didn't have a job. Two: Congress still wasn't doing anything to make it more likely that you could potentially find the job.

Well, you're probably used to the first one by now. You come to terms with it daily down at the bar as you beg for spare change from college kids and more successful panhandlers to "Help a poor man out" and buy you a shot or two or twelve of Vladimir. You might be a little more surprised at the second one. Not that surprised, this is the US government we're talking about after all, but our elected betters have been talking a good game recently about getting something done and in a fit of despair and cheap Russian vodka you might have been inebriated enough to place hope in these vague promises.

Well after having their initial attempts at getting a bill passed derailed by snow, they finally hunkered down to hammer out and pass a jobs bill... for a good, hard 15 minutes or so.

This afternoon, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus announced he'd reached accord with ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). They unveiled what was supposed to be a final jobs package.

Oh goodie, they did such a bang up job with the health care bill I'm so glad they were able to get their hands on a jobs bill. I think you see where this is going.

But the agreement didn't sit well with many Democrats, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has pulled it out of their hands, and announced he'd move ahead with a smaller bill.
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Liberal Democrats were not pleased with the Baucus-Grassley compromise. Among other things, Baucus and Grassley said that jobs could only move forward if the Senate agreed to take up a bipartisan "reform" (a.k.a. slashing) of the estate tax.

Yep, certainly the critical pillar of getting Americans back to work and encouraging businesses to hire again is providing a massive tax break to multi-millionaires so that when they die they can leave those millions to their rich kids without Uncle Sam wetting his star-spangled beak. I'm glad someone in Congress valiantly stood up to fight for this trenchant economic theory that so many respected economists have claimed is the major reason unemployment is hovering around 10%. I mean why can't Paris Hilton collect as much as she's entitled to? Those extra millions could add a few more jobs in the economical ravaged small dog handler sector.

But good on the Democrats for showing that it is possible for them to learn. Sure they did the same old thing they always do: listen to Lucy say she's gonna let them kick the football, line up and then start running full bore at the football. But this time, perhaps due to the help of a beagle or chattering yellow bird, they realized on the run-up that pain and suffering was imminent and pulled up. Maybe there's hope for them yet.

Pollings

Next time a Senator tries to tell the public that there just isn't support for a public option, they can only pass a week kneed version, or that American's don't want one, I hope someone there has the good decency to spit in their eye. The only people who are opposed to the public option are in the Senate.

On the issue that has been a flash point in the national debate, 57 percent of all Americans now favor a public insurance option, while 40 percent are opposed. Support has risen since mid-August, when a bare majority, 52 percent, said they favored it. (In a June Post-ABC poll, support had been at 62 percent.)

If run by the states and available only to those who lack affordable private options, support for a public plan jumps to 76 percent. Under those circumstances, even a majority of Republicans, 56 percent, would be supportive, about double their level of support without such a limitation.

Furthermore 56% favor making it mandatory for all Americans to buy insurance with the number jumping to 71% if government provides subsidies for lower income folks. Of note is the fact that the poll also asked specifically if people would prefer a public option bill with no Republican support or a bipartisan bill with no public option. The public option beat bipartisanship 51% to 37%. Americans prefer a good bill to the Senate wanking itself off. I think I just heard Max Baucus die a little inside.

With news like this, Nancy Pelosi attempting to shame the Senate into a public option bill using CBO numbers as a bludgeon, 52 Democratic Senators thinking that maybe the five holdouts ought to get the fuck onboard, and rumors of competence from Harry Reid, is it too much to get my hopes up? Probably yes, as on the other hand Reid is Reid, Obama lost his balls somewhere during his acceptance speech, and Senate negotiations involve one actual human who is unequivocally for the public option and knows how to breathe through his nostrils. As is always the case with the Senate: lower your expectations. Lower them to the point where Max Baucus coming to burn down your house is a pleasant surprise. It's the only way to keep sane.

The beginning of the end

Rest easy America, the Senate Finance Committee has finally gotten through the business every other Senate and House committee got through months ago with the Baucus bill passing by a margin of 14-9. Olympia Snowe was the only GOP'er to vote for it. And so we move on inexorably towards health care reform, but not before another hundred infuriating things happen, dozens of politicians are wished dead, and the whole miserable process drags on so feebly that when it is passed we're all angry, thoroughly disheartened, and completely disillusioned even though the biggest reform of health care since Medicare just passed.

Many commentators have gone out of their way that politicians have been promising to get comprehensive health coverage since Teddy Roosevelt without success, so I'll just point out that literally any of those proposals, from Roosevelt's to Nixon's to Bush I's to Clinton's would have been much more preferable to what we got. But there we are.

If you're interested in such things the Times live blogged the whole Finance Committee failfest. Go through it and see if you can pick out what angers you the most. Whether it's Orrin Hatch bitching that the bill wasn't bipartisan just because his party spent all its time pissing and moaning about grandma murdering, smart people like Wyden and Rockefeller not having their smart ideas listened to, John Ensign complaining about the lack of tax breaks for senators who have healthy, in shape mistresses, Bill Nelson supporting the bill becuase Olympia Snowe supporting the bill made it bipartisan, I'm sure you'll find something to hate about the Senate. Then there was Press Secretary Gibbs prattling on about how today's vote was bipartisan. Who gives a shit? As if one Republican vote makes things bipartisan. As if people care more that the bill is bipartisan than it being a good bill.

Bleh. So we move on tow.....what's that, Joe Liberman? You want to butt in and say something? You want people to hate you with the fire of ten thousand suns?

LIEBERMAN: I’ve been saying for a couple of months now that I’m concerned, that I’m concerned that there’s a danger that we’re trying to do too much here and the president is trying to do two good things. But doing them at once in the middle of a recession may be hard to pull off.
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IMUS: Do you support the Baucus bill?

LIEBERMAN: Not, not, no. I mean, not the way it is now.

Diediediediediediediediedie. Can't even celebrate this mediocre achievement for a day before you interject your sackless warbling, can we? I blame you, Connecticut, you're on fucking notice. I swear if Sean and I ever have robot armies that Minnesota District 6, the headquarters of every cable TV news outlet, Wall Street, and you are going to be taken out in the first wave.

Precious numbers

The new CBO projections are here! The new CBO projections are here! You try not to act like you're excited, but I can tell: you've had this marked on your calendar for some time. Yes, Max Baucus finally got his precious Finance Committee bill scored and we can all finally move on with seeing the Democratic caucus start really getting down to business on how exactly they'll screw all of this up. All the waiting, public plan denying, and negotiating with Republicans who still oppose the bill got Baucus a big fat savings of $8 billion to the budget per year over a 10 year period. Start the parade.

The good news, substantively and politically, is that CBO expects the measure would reduce budget deficits by $81 billion over the next decade and by even larger sums in the following decade.

The coverage news is not quite so good--although, to be honest, it's better than I expected, given the rumors running around today. CBO estimates that, as of 2019, 94 percent of legal non-elderly residents and 91 percent of all non-elderly residents would have insurance.
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And this is something we've known for a while: The Senate Finance bill isn't as generous or as protective as it ought to be.

So that's what all the fuss was about. The ability to say "Hey, this thing saves us $8 billion a year and costs less than the arbitrary number we picked out of a hat," not that it's the best bill, or most comprehensive, covers the most people, is the smartest, or does the most good. That it saves a relatively paltry sum of money that will invariably just get wasted on some weapons system no one wants. And in the end, all the people who are supposed to be convinced by the "reduces the budget" argument....won't vote for it. Oh and to get that number there has to be a random 15% subsidy cut two years into the plan that will make health care unaffordable again for a lot of people. But hey, the bill does do the three most important things that health care reform was supposed to do: provide political cover for "centrist" democrats, allow our elected betters to say that they did something, and keep the entire system pretty much unchanged. Mission accomplished.

Now the bill will soon go to the Senate whole where people are trying to convince those of us who are skeptical about...government in its entirety...will be made better by combining it with all the other better bills all the other committees passed 500 years ago. Then the bill will be made even extra betterer still when it goes to conference to be reconciled with a better House bill. To that I offer my hearty derisive laughter. Things improving with the full input of the Senate? Have you people learned nothing? Still, Baucus accomplished a politically helpful number and, in the end, isn't that more helpful than crafting the best bill possible? No? Well, you're going to have to convince yourself it is. I'm already attempting to do so myself.

Lick my bootheel, shiteyes

In and event that surprises no one, Sen. Rockefeller's strong public option amendment failed 15-8 and Sen. Schumer's weak public option amendment failed 13-10, thus the Senate Finance Committee health care bill goes out without a public option. Baucus, Carper, Conrad, Lincoln, and Nelson voted against Rockefeller's, and Baucus, Conrad, and Lincoln voted against Schumer's.

Conrad and Baucus were quick to point out that while they totally supported a public option, they were going to vote against it because it didn't have enough votes to pass...because they didn't vote for it. Circular logic....head..hurts. Which also means that they're essentially protecting Democrats who would support a Republican filibuster (against the biggest attempt public health care reform in US history) by making sure they won't ever have to raise their head up and stick by that "no public option" "no reducing the cost of health care" conviction they allegedly seem to so strongly believe in. Awesome, we wouldn't want to play hardball with public plan opposing Democrats or try to exert pressure based on the extreme unpopularity of supporting a GOP filibuster, now would we?

For their part Schumer and Rockefeller were quick to declare moral victories, what with their moral health care savings, claim that the public option is not dead, and claim that a future fight for the public option in the full Senate will be less daunting. Proving that both of them must have hit their heads on something very hard and forgot how the Senate works. Thanks again for all this nothing Democrats.

KA-BOOM

What's that sound? It's a ticking clock strapped to a a bundle of TNT. Why? Because this health care debate is READY TO EXPLODE!!! Like a roadside bomb in Afghanistan or like a pro wrestling grudge match. Why? Because the Huffington Post said so. Why would they say that? Sensationalism, but also because the Senate Finance Committee is going to consider public option amendments and SHIT is about to GO DOWN and simultaneously GET IT ON. Why? Because these rotten SOB's finally have to go on the record about a public option.

As reporter Jill Lawrence puts it in Politics Daily, ""The debate over whether to create a public insurance plan to compete with private plans is about to explode in the Senate Finance Committee. The stakes are high and so is the suspense."

Although the public plan isn't expected to get a majority of the panel, supporters say at least they'll know where everybody stands.
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Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., is already in the hot seat -- accused of being lukewarm, if not downright hostile, to the government option.
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Senators will have at least two Democratic alternatives to choose from – and maybe a compromise from a moderate Republican who is keeping all her options open.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is proposing a public plan modeled on Medicare, in which the government would set what it pays doctors, hospitals and other medical providers.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is proposing a government plan that looks more like a private insurance company and negotiates payment rates with providers.

As the story goes, 9 of 13 panel Democrats have publicly come out in favor of some public option. If the dark and mysterious Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) comes out a supports one, then Baucus will have the tiebreaking vote. And one can see why Baucus is hesitant about including a public option, I mean why would Max Baucus want to tie his vote to a crazy idea that fringe leftists like Max Baucus support in their health care white papers. Plus, as Max Baucus knows, the public plan doesn't have much support in the Senate because jerkoff Senators like Max Baucus say they won't support it. Can't you see what he sees? Riddles wrapped up in enigmas wrapped up in Senators from Montana.

If these various public plans fail in the finance committee, there is still the weak-ass public option trigger supported by Olympia Snowe (R-ME) back when she thought she was the big shit 60th vote. But now that Massachusetts altered its Constitution in time to get a Kennedy replacement seated, its unclear whether or not she still feels like she has to be a responsible adult. So...tick-tick-tick. The assured childishness is probably happening on C-SPAN as I type. Go watch and weep as you see Democrats try to hem, haw, and weasel their way out of supporting the one thing that will be guaranteed to put the reform in health care reform

Orrin Hatch is an adult

Since no one yelled out something during a speech or accused anyone of wanting to put the nation's grandmothers into an apple press for "ciderizing" you might be under the impression that our elected betters are returning, if not to the emotional level of adults, at least to the level of less angsty teenagers. Well, you didn't read the list of 534 amendments proposed to Max Baucus' Senate Finance Committee health bill. To be fair, neither did I. But I read someone else's summary, and while there are some worthwhile amendments in there, it mostly goes to show how juvenile and childish the Senate is.

Roberts 144: To ensure that if people like the hometown hospital they have, they can keep it.

Did I miss this meme? Was there an "Obama's gon stealz ur hospitalz" movement that came right on the heels of the grandma murder one?

Ensign 409: Transparency in Czars.
Hatch 511: Prohibits authorized or appropriated federal funds under the Mark from being distributed to or used by ACORN.
Ensign 543: Strike the word “fee” everywhere it appears in the bill and replace with the word “tax”.

When I think of things that are absolutely vital to the fight to reform health care, czars and getting pissy about ACORN are the first two things I think about, not to mention making it easier for my colleagues to demonize something as a tax.

But perhaps the childish coup de grâce, after you get though all the amendments prohibiting the government takeover of health care, amendments getting the vapors over rationing, or stripping out anything useful from the bill, was delivered by Orrin Hatch of Utah...Utah....U.....tah:

Hatch 497: add transition relief for the excise tax on high cost insurance plans for any State with a name that begins with the letter ‘U’.

Whew, thank God he's trying to get that one in there. That's got to help, what, 20-30 extra states dodge that tax fee on gold plated policies, right? Glad to see you're taking this seriously Orrin. Now I'm kind of hoping that Rockefeller 612, the amendment that states "any doctor is allowed to beat any person named Orrin with a sack of surgical grade oranges on any day ending with the word 'day'" passes.

Cheap Blogging Crutch 09.21

Blue Dog Democrats eye new financial reform
Let me assure you, you're reading that headline wrong. Sure you may think it says "Blue Dog Democrats eye new financial reform", but what it really says is "Blue Dogs seek to fuck over decent financial reform". Mostly by scuttling a planned Consumer Protection Agency and weakening planned regulation. Because if this global financial apocalypse taught us one thing, it's that we don't really need to keep an eye on that whole financial and banking sector. They're good people.

Good Billions After Bad
Vanity Fair comes at us with a piece that alleges that the trillions from the TARP bailout package seemed to have large chunks of the money spent poorly, being put in the wrong hands, and doing the opposite of what was needed. And all just because the system was designed without restrictions, accountability, or common sense by the Paulson Treasury Department. Are you shocked? Neither am I. Rest assured though, nothing will be done and the next time a problem like this rolls around, nothing will be learned.

Ahmadinejad: Holocaust Denial A Source Of Pride
Some people take pride in a job well done, others by helping someone else out. Then there are others, "assholes" we call them, who take pride in denying one of the most widely documented events in human history. Couldn't he take pride in rigging an election and suppressing a revolution? At least that's an achievement. Still, this is probably the smartest way to kick off your big "message of peace and friendship" UN trip.

Steve Keen Out-Thinks Larry Summers
One of the great things about this economic meltdown, besides the hobo-grade tins of beans, hopping boxcars, and all this free time, has been watching some of the most respected economists in the world armor up, grab a truncheon and a shield, and wade into the Thunderdome to do battle on the bloody fields of economic theory. Up next is Australian economist Steve Keen, who hopes to garrote Larry Summers over the Obama Administration's economic approach and neoclassical economic theory. Winner faces the viking helmeted Joseph Stiglitz and his steel murder talons in the next round.

I'm Such A Shitty Senator
The Onion was able to look at Max Baucus and see the future, why couldn't anyone within the Democratic caucus or White House see? I mean just look at that S.915 Semiconductor Investment Act. What in the hell was that shit?

Cheap Blogging Crutch 09.18

CBO dismisses co-ops' relevance
Lost in the shuffle yesterday was a little revelation from the Congressional Budget Office. The co-op's, the supposed non-socialist answer to a public plan that would provide all of the benefits of price reduction, competition, and coverage without the fascism, are ineffective, don't reduce costs or increase coverage. I'm betting little things like that won't stand in the way of co-ops being in the bill. Why? Because we're governed by adults.

Okay, you lazy bitch
Hunter S. Thompson, from the grave. Letters of note brings us a 2001 letter HST dashed off to the soon to be defunct studio the Shooting Gallery, complaining that they were dragging their feet on an adaptation of the Rum Diary, which is something that only was able to start filming this year. It's classic Thompson, with liberal use of the underline function and phrases like "waterhead fuckaround", threats of dismemberment, as well as constant assaults on their professionalism and dilettante behavior.

Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz predicts recession's end: not now, but 2012
Now, now, This counts as staggering optimism from Stiglitz. Sure he's pessimistic about everything that's going on now to deal with the financial apocalypse, but he's confident that in the future the recession will eventually end. Oh, not because of any actions taken or laws passed or bailouts handed out, just because he's a big Mayan calendar buff and he feels the world will end in 2012. That headline is a little misleading, it should read: "Stiglitz predicts recessions end, along with all life as we know it in 2012."

Baucus and the Threshold
It's pessimistic economists showing optimism day, as Paul Krugman looks at the Baucus bill and deems it to exceed his low, low, low, low, low expectations. Hell, he even has convinced himself that it will be improved when it gets to the full Senate. But he mainly centers the article around the question that while the Baucus bill has large flaws it is an improvement over what we have, so at what point do people have to accept that fact, accept that the bill won't have everything they like, and move forward and support it?

Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance
That's right, more people die from lack of insurance than drunk driving, homicide, and drunk homicide combined and have a 40% higher risk of death than peopl ewith coverage. That's a very controversial opinion Harvard researchers have put forth: that people without coverage are more likely to die from things that coverage can help prevent. It could be worse; they could be insured and just be deemed too sick to use it.

Baucus reaction

So Baucus dropped his bill yesterday....to what we'll call a less than enthusiastic response. But hey, I'm sure Max Baucus liked Max Baucus' bill, even if Senators were diving out of their offices to tell anyone with a camera they weren't happy with it. We've had our reaction from the political hacks and loudmouthed, bitchy bloggers, but what of a substantive analysis of the bill? Is it actually any good? Sure Baucus locked out Democrats in order to waste time, make concessions that were unpopular, and end up with no Republican support, but did the bill at least use a nice font?

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities decided to take a look at the bill and in it's overall analysis it called the bill "fiscally responsible" that contained "sound policies that would use resources in the health care system more efficiently." But, they also noted, reflected a common complaint of the day, the subsidies he provides for people to buy insurance are too small and would "leave many people who are eligible for subsidies facing fairly steep insurance premiums and cost-sharing charges that they could have difficulty affording."

When discussing the bill's "free rider" portion, where employers who do not offer health coverage are required to pay for low and moderate income employees receiving government subsidies, the CBPP note that this is going to not only discriminate against and discourage the hiring of the poor and especially the poor with children, but place barriers to employment, and raise the child poverty level. The Washington Post's Ezra Klein, who if not an outright cheerleader of the bill is at least more positive and upbeat about it than most, called the "free rider" provision "The Worst Policy in the Bill, and Possibly in the World" and, were he artistically able, would have drawn a picture of Max Baucus raping a peasant. Furthermore, Klein notes that the co-ops, the supposed solution to nasty socialist public plans, have been completely neutered from even their original construction as a completely neutered version of a public option and are thus practically useless.

On the cost of the bill and the supposed "budget neutrality" aspect of the bill and it's cheapness when compared to other bills, James Kwak notes that it does this by essentially forcing down $140 billion more in taxes on the middle class in what must be Baucus' bid to become deeply unpopular and make terrible political and policy moves. The New York Times Prescriptions blog is more blunt in it's assesment, noting that the bill is likely to please drug companies and insurers....and no one else. The Times also published an "experts blog" where experts from various fields all looked at the bill and decided it ranged from a "bad bill" to "a sinking ship". Positivity!

So give it all a read and decide just how angry to get and to what level you think you're getting screwed. You know what's sad? That even after Baucus decided that it was his duty to move American health care forward in the worst way possible, that despite all the complaints, bad ideas, industry toadying, time wasting, corporate handouts, and sodomizing of the American populace; his bill would actually move American health care forward. Isn't that depressing? When even terrible ideas are an improvement? Oh, and in case you were wondering: Baucus used the Verdana font.

Good sign

via ThinkProgress comes this helpful little chart looking at what the stock for several Health Insurance companies did right after Max Baucus announced his health care plan. They rose. I wonder why?

Following Baucus’ announcement, HealthNet shares increased by 3%, United Health Group Inc shares rose by 2.7%, Humana Inc. grew by 2.6%, Wellpoint stock gained 1.7% and Aetna Inc rose 1.6%:

Good to see everything working out for them. I was worried for a while that health care reform wasn't going to go far enough in benefiting the poor, put upon insurance companies. But Wall Street is certain that is does benefit the insurance companies, to the tune of 38% stock growth over the past couple months. Whew! Bullet dodged. Kick up your feet, Max. Mission accomplished, the check is in the mail.

Baucus Day

Well Max Baucus finally released his health care bill today, with it's official Chairman's Mark and everything. You remember the bill, don't you? It's the one that was crafted to specifically get Republican support and is notable for the fact that it got no Republican support and seems to have alienated several Democrats on Baucus' Financial Committee. It's the one that took several months to hammer out a bill that was remarkably similar to the compromise legislation Baucus originally introduced. The one with insufficient provisions. The one without a public option.

And how have people responded to this bill? Wendall Porter, a former health industry employee at Cigna and insurance whistleblower, decided in his Congressional testimony to dub the bill “an absolute gift to the industry”, that the co-ops the bill uses will be unable to effectively compete to reduce costs, and took time to rename the bill "The Insurance Industry Profit Protection And Enhancement Act”. That got Nancy Pelsoi to disagree, she wants to dub the bill the "Private Insurance Profit Perpetuation Act" and they both had a slapfight about who's renaming gave the biggest BURN~!/FACE~! to the insurance industry. Matt Taibbi might actually shit a ball of pure hate over what's going on. Everyone's in love with Max Baucus.

So there we are, our long national nightmare is over and our new long national nightmare begins: watching this thing get passed. And perhaps we shouldn't worry too much as Bacus' bill will have to be reconciled with other committee's bills, and then go through an amendment process, then actually be voted on, and then go through a House/Senate conference committees. So what we're seeing here won't likely be the final bill. I mean after all, everything that goes to the full Senate to be worked over always comes out better and smarter and more effective, right? *shudder* Yeah....this is the best bill we're going to see. Get ready to bite into the shit sandwich and tell everyone how great it is.

Cheap Blogging Crutch 09.14

It’s Showdown Week for the Baucus Six, With a Medicaid Fight Looming
Max Baucus is finally ready to put his chairman's seal of approval on some health care legislation this week. The only question is if he'll be able to forge some sort of compromise with the bill they've written and get Republican lawmakers to sign on (HA!), or if he'll just rubber stamp the bill without their support. Because after all, after the bill that you've crafted with the expressed purpose of gaining Republican votes fails to get the Republican votes of the people who directly negotiated with, the only solution is to move forward with that bill and all the provisions in it that failed to capture Republican votes.

Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America'
I don't know whether to sing a verse from the "Star Spangled Banner" or "America, Fuck Yeah!" here. A dramatic film about Darwin that is only marginally about evolution has gotten distribution in every other country, but can't get distribution here...for some reason. Now sure, some might say that it's just because the movie is "Flat, dull, and painful to sit through", but that didn't stop Transformers 2, or half-to-three quarters of all movies that get released. Oh well, maybe we can get a documentary about the facts behind the Creation Museum instead.

Closing The Book On The Bush Legacy
Who would have ever thought that a census could ever provide a furious smackdown of the Bush legacy? But when you look at the trend lines from previous Presidents comparing median income, adults living in poverty, children living in poverty, access to health care, Americans uninsured, Americans receiving employer health insurance, Amer.....look it's rather a lot of things, we'll just say "everything either declined in a bad way or rose in a bad way" and be done with it.

Stiglitz Says Banking Problems Are Now Bigger Than Pre-Lehman
What is it with these Nobel Prize winning economists and their need to let everyone know that not only were they right about the economic collapse, but that they have some new soul crushing revelations? Things are worse and problems are larger? Who would have ever thought that would be the result after a Congress completely in the pocket of the banking and financial industries committed themselves to doing nothing other than handing out large sums of cash? For those of you that are interested, this is Part 124,868 in the series America: Not Learning From It's Mistakes.

Santorum Admits to Pondering Run for Republican Presidential Nomination - Asks for Prayers
Can he tell if the prayers are coming from heathen sources only wishing for him to engage in electoral failure that matches this moment of greatness? Surely he's going to be able to tell that my prayers, Sean's prayers, and Dan Savage's prayers aren't filled with anything other than malicious intent, right?

Speech night

The President's big health care speech is tonight and everyone is ready to erroneously label the reform effort dead or vibrant based on the quality of the oratory. But, as we know, it'll have little to do with whether health care gets passed. Bill Clinton gave some great health care speeches. I forget, was his health care victory complete and total or just merely overwhelming? Hell everyone who has wanted to pass health care reform has given some good speeches, but reform rarely ever happens. Why? Because of the people the President is going to give the speech to: Congress.

But what the speech will do is signal, finally, what the President actually wants in a bill, what actual policies he wants to enact, actual ideas he wants implemented, instead of a bunch of vague statements about cost curve bending and platitudes about better health care. And what will our son of Kenya fight for this evening? According to media wags, he will fight for the thing his administration has spent the last few months talking down and sandbagging: the public option.

President Barack Obama, in a high-stakes speech Wednesday to Congress and the nation, will press for a government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health-care system that has divided lawmakers and voters for months.

White House officials say the president will detail what he wants in the health-care overhaul, as well as say he is open to better ideas on a government plan if lawmakers have them.
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The president is likely to say that a government-run insurance plan, known as the "public option," will not provide a level of subsidies that give it an unfair advantage over private insurers, according to aides familiar with the speech preparations.

About....fucking...time? Better late than never, I guess. This comes after Max Baucus unveiled his plan, to special interests before policy makers, which not only didn't include a public option, but damn near exhausted Baucus' repertoire of folksy bullshit. This with perennial P.O.S. Joe Lieberman going around telling everyone that 70+% public support for a public option means that it is unpopular.

But hey, pushing for a public option. Good, Mr. President. Better late than never, I guess. This would have been better months ago when you seemingly decided to hand off total control of health care legislation to the world's dumbest legislative body. So in the end I hope your speechy thingy goes well, but really, I hope you've learned that putting all your eggs in the "surely this legislative body will respond to logic and the whims of the American people" basket is a fool's errand. You need to put your eggs in the "I have pictures of you diddling young boys, vote for what's right before I use them to hound you to a suicide" arm twisting basket. Kill one senator as an example to the others, that's the only way.

Broken News: Minutes from top secret Congressional/White House health care negotiations

Unbeknownst to many, in advance of his health care speech, President Obama gathered together various leaders from the House and Senate in a last ditch effort to hammer out some sort of consensus on health care. What follows are minutes from the top secret meeting, presented here unedited.

While no Bothans died to bring us this information, one Senate staffer was beaten with a sack of frozen oranges and, in a related event, three lobbyists had their mouths filled with quick-dry cement.

3:59PM—Members of the various leadership groups and key health care players from the Republican and Democratic parties file in.

4:02PM—Grumbling immediately begins as the Republican group, led by House Minority Leader John Boehner, professes unhappiness with what they see as a comfort disparity between the chairs provided to each political party. Despite assurances that all chairs are the same make and model, Boehner threatens a walkout. A premature and calamitous end to the meeting is averted when Democrats agree to a compromise: Montana Senator Jon Tester will be forced to stand for the duration of the negotiations and NY Representative Charlie Rangel will sit on the lap of Vice-President Joe Biden.

4:27PM—Amid cries from several members of both parties that they had not eaten in “1-2 hours, tops” and that they were “fuckin’ starvin’ over here”, the group starts begins what is expected to be the most taught and fractious negotiations of the night: what to order for dinner. Working under guidelines from the President mandating, “There is no way I am ordering from four different goddamn places,” negotiations begin.

4:31PM—After a heated declaration from Arizona Senator John McCain that under no circumstances will he ever eat Asian food again, honoring a vow he made while imprisoned in Vietnam, the Chinese menu is quietly removed from the table.

4:55PM—A surprisingly quick accord is reached as Virginia Representative Eric Cantor and Virginia Senator Jim Webb both note that nearby Shakey’s Pizza not only features a wide array of Italian foods, but also includes Mexican items, as well as varied sandwiches, burgers, appetizers, and hot wings with 12 varieties of sauce. Orders are placed and, in a landmark sign of bipartisanship, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell agree to split an order of Shakey’s famous Gravy Cheese Jalapeño Explosion Fries.

5:30PM—The food arrives and is paid for in a private ceremony involving White House photographers, an elaborate Roman-columned stage, and several different ceremonial pens for the official “Signing of the White House Petty Cash Reimbursement Slip.” During the ceremony McCain thanks his colleagues for not making him eat the food “of the people that kind of look like the people I despise so much.”

5:44PM—Pelosi and McConnell share their fries to the applause of onlookers. Tester complains that his feet hurt and that he didn’t get the extra capicola he ordered on his Italian sub. During a break in the conversation Oregon Senator Ron Wyden openly asks if they could “stop dicking around and get to work on health care." After a round of jeers, the room breaks out in laughter as Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston simultaneously call Wyden a “homo.”

6:11PM—The Rangel-muffled voice of Joe Biden echoes out as he states that everyone seems to be finished eating and that they better let Wyden speak before he, "Gets all weepy and shit again, like a little bitch.”

6:28PM—Wyden completes his run-through of his Healthy Americans Act, a health care bill that, if passed, would actually reform the health care system while drastically expanding coverage. He notes that the Congressional Budget Office has run projections showing the bill would be revenue-neutral two years after implementation and begin reducing health care costs thereafter.

6:33PM—Laughter subsides as a weeping Wyden runs from the room. Someone sarcastically yells out “single payer” and a small riot ensues. Mississippi Rep. Roy Blunt calls a staffer and asks him to bring over new pants after he wets himself when Harry Reid sarcastically suggests, “Medicare for all.”

7:39PM—After different members take to reading out other serious health care reform plans in lilting, girly voices, an angry Max Baucus taps his watch impatiently and notes that, “It’s almost time for So You Think You Can Dance” and "It'll be a cold day in hell before I miss my show."

7:40PM—An exhausted Jon Tester passes out onto the floor. No one seems to notice.

7:44PM—The assembled agree to follow Senate Plan 3B on negotiations. According to Robert’s Rules of Order, this requires them to, “verily fuck around for a fortnight before ultimately passing legislation that helps few, annoys all, and tosses large burlap sacks of gold Hessian bullion at the reigning industrial elite.”

7:45PM—The meeting ends as a frantic Max Baucus runs from the room screeching about how he should have bought a Tivo.

8:12PM—Sen. McCain wakes up in a cold sweat, screaming "Sarah who?"

Labor Day CBC

Labor Day by the numbers
The Economic Policy Institute gives us the lowdown on the state of the economy as of this Labor Day. Maybe you don't want to look at it. Sure there are negative things, like the fact that we've lost jobs over the past decade and out future is shaping up to be bleaker than the Road, but hey, it might be a nice day out where you are.

Stiglitz: Odds of Robust US Rebound 'Very, Very Weak'
Yeah...always gotta love it when a Nobel laureate who saw the housing crisis coming, warned about the size of the bailout not being enough, fights crime in tandem with Paul Krugman, and has generally been right every step of the way warns that there's a greater chance for a double-dip recession than a robust recovery. But what does he know, he's only a genius economist? I saw everyone on CNBC and they seemed optimistic.

New Fee on Health Insurance Companies Is Proposed to Help Expand Coverage
Max Baucus has released his last ditch plan to get Republicans who will never vote for it...to vote for it. It's an immense shit sandwich that provides no public option, taxes insurance companies, involves weaker subsidies to get health insurance which might just burden the poor even more, and costs a lot of money to not do what its supposed to do. In other words: it pisses everyone while providing the added benefit of not fixing problems. But it does cost a lot. So at least it has that going for it.

Points of Comparison
TPM looks at what Baucus proposed as a comparison to other health care systems in the world. It sort of looks like Baucus is trying to create some sort of bastardized version of the Swiss system, which is the second most expensive health care system in the world behind the good ole United States of Freedom. This totally doesn't sound like a complete catastrophe for Democrats.

The Spreading Scandal In Jai Alai
In honor of the Mad Men episode from last night, I give you Sport's Illustrated's 1979 story on a Jai Alai gambling scandal. Mobsters, Connecticut, and Jai ALai, you try to stay away. This is the biggest reason Jai Alai isn't the most popular sport in America right now, I'm sure of it.

Cheap Blogging Crutch 09.01

Baucus: Health Care Reform Will Happen This Year With Or Without GOP
Max Baucus wants you to know that we're all still on track for a "bipartisan" "compromise" on health care in his Finance Committee's "Gang of Six" negotiations. Sure, two of the three Republicans he's negotiating with, Grassley and Enzi, have overtly stated that they aren't interested in actually passing anything of use, are out there touting how destructive they've been to the process and how much they've helped delay reform, but Max is still convinced. They better watch out though, you cross Max Baucus sixty or seventy times and he'll start giving serious consideration to possibly not letting you have your way with him.

The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate
Newsweek is back with an addendum to their previous Seven Falsehoods About Health Care article. Isn't it nice to be blessed with so many falsehoods? We're moving beyond mere death panels (though death panels still are a feature) and into specific false claims like dirty Mexicanos gettin' free health care, you will be randomly assigned health care benefits irrespective to what you want or need, and no chemo for old people. That's all well and good, but what about the plan for the death panels to authorize Mexicans to kill grandma with radiation in return for free health care? How come no one's talking about that?

White House drug deal won't save money
What. A. Shocker. Who could have foreseen that cutting a deal with pharmaceutical companies wouldn't be great for them and shitty for us. Namely in that it weakens incentives for people to buy generic drugs and makes sure that the government subsidizes the more expensive brand names. But hey, at least we did get all those great ads

Right-Wing Extremists Protest Health Care Reform: “We Hate the United States!”
Oh Texas secessionists, you are so precious. What was supposed to be just a simple protest about the icy hand of socialism strangling grandma at her bridge game, morphed into cries of governmental tyranny, demands for secession, and proclamations of flag/America hate. It must suck for guys like Glenn Beck and Hannity. Here you are trying to do all this hard work coming up with crazy conspiracy theories to poison the health care debate and then that hard work gets tainted by even crazier people with even crazier ideas. Is there no justice?

Han Solo Was No Vo Nguyen Giap
Wished there were more serious conversations about counterinsurgency policy in Iraq and Afghanistan as compared to the strategy of the Rebel Alliance and Empire in Star Wars? The Center For A New American Security is there for you with discussions about the destruction of Alderaan vis-a-vis an effective counterinsurgency policy. Hopefully they'll eventually get into the co-opting of the Ewoks as a homegrown insurgency, but for now this is a good start.

Talk Like Warren Ellis
ATTENTION SCUM: I WILL FUCKING CUT YOU. Ever wished you could Tweet like Warren Ellis, but lacked the disdain for humanity, expressive vocabulary, consumptive cough, or proper vulgar descriptives? No worries, the internet is here for you, providing an nigh on inexhaustible Warren Ellis styled Twitter greeting generator. Finally the intarwubs has produced something useful...something important. With that said, good day, internet porn intestines. I hate you with the fire of ten suns.

Quote of the day

Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi on why he finds it so personally rewarding to be a part of the Finance Committee's so called Gang of Six:

"If I hadn't been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care," he said.

"Someone has to be at the table asking questions," Enzi said, showing a flash of passion.

He later quoted a favorite saying: "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."

"It's not where I get them to compromise, it's what I get them to leave out," Enzi said.

Wonderful. Let's all thank Max Baucus for finding yet another valuable and worthwhile negotiating partner for health care. I mean not only does he gleefully take credit for the fact that this country would already have health care if it weren't for him, but then he proudly swears it as his duty to get Democrats to weaken and compromise a bill that he in fact has no plans of ever supporting.

If this is what good faith negotiations look like, I'd hate to see what bad faith health care negotiations look like. I guess this does raise one interesting question: what exactly does someone have to say before Baucus eventually gets hip to the fact that they have no interest in getting health care reform passed? Is Enzi going to have to scream "Fuck health care!" while firing off a Tommy-gun in the senate parking lot? Because apparently stating your fervent opposition to getting anything done in simple terms isn't registering with Max.

Cheap Blogging Crutch 08.25

The Baucus White Paper: The Plan
To be mad at Max Baucus for the way he has been handling the Finance Committee's health care negotiations is one thing. But if you really want to get mad at him, and I mean blindingly, white hot seeing red mad, just go back and read his white paper from November of last year for his own plans for health care reform. Employer mandates, a strong Heath Insurance Exchange, and a strong public insurance option. In short, a plan that is not only more liberal than any of the bills under consideration, but one that is considerably more liberal (and more helpful) than anything he's even allowing his own committee to consider. Boo this man.

CIA Bio Says 9/11 Mastermind’s Days in N.C. ‘Helped Propel Him to Terrorism
According to CIA reports, it seems that time that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed spent in school in North Carolina sent him on the path towards terrorism by proving to him that "the United States was a debauched and racist country". All I can say is thank God he didn't go to school in South Carolina otherwise those planes might have had nukes on them. Not that he would have had much of a chance at survival in SC. The treacherous mountain of Afghanistan are one thing, but the Appalachians are another.

GOP Tees Up Medicare Manifesto
The GOP is starting up it's campaign to vigorously defend Medicare and Medicaid from any tampering from nefarious Democrats. It's nice that heir contribution to health care is going to be to gin up another fake issue that isn't happening and vow valiantly to defend it from invisible menace. Though it is nice to see Republicans swear their allegiance to a government run single payer health care system like Medicare. If only that massive bit of hypocrisy could be used in some way.

Obama nominates Ben Bernanke for a second Fed term
Ahh, Ben Bernanke is awarded his rightful place and our Eternal Money Overlord. Why? Because I guess he cuts checks to the financial sector better than anyone else. It's certainly not for his predictive power or a magic ability to lower interest rates below zero. It's good to know that everyone thinks he's the right man for the job. Why? Because he has the job. And really, that's all we need to know about him or his many varied secretive actions that incur little oversight.

Hospitals May Face Severe Disruption in Swine Flu’s U.S. Return
Oh sure you thought Porcine AIDS was dead. That's just what the nasty little pig virus wanted you to think. Now it's just lying in wait and according to the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (fresh from their eight year exile at bible camp) infect half the US population within the next year. That's right: THE APOCALYPSE IS BACK ON!!!!! The only question is if it will take the form of the much discussed the Stand scenario, or have new movies like the Book of Eli and the Road presaged our impending post-apocalyptic wandering doom?

What every American should be made to learn about the IG Torture Report
Glenn Greenwald compiles an interesting list of torture tidbits from the IG Torture Report that you should be exited to learn was done in your name. This ought to give you a nice base of outrage for the impending sham investigations of lower level grunts that Eric Holder and the Justice Department are about to undertake.