Working 'round the clock to screw this up
I see that the toupees of the United States Senate are making a big dramatic scene in their health care show. "We worked all night in the blizzard! We're staying until Christmas Eve!" I don't know who they think they're impressing -- their drug company bosses, apparently.
I suspect they're staying in Washington so that they don't have to listen to their constituents tell them what they think of them.
One interesting feature of the latest game of charades is that they're trying to disguise the pork that they're throwing in to buy votes. Here's one such item that caught my eye:
Another provision would give $100 million to an unnamed “health care facility” affiliated with an academic health center at a public research university in a state where there is only one public medical and dental school.That couldn't be OHSU, and they're paying off Gatsby Wyden, could it?
| Posted at 2:38 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (16)
Hmmmm... looks like that one's there for Dodd. Oh, the weasels.
Posted by Jack Bog | December 21, 2009 3:47 AM
Nice catch.
Posted by ThinkOregon | December 21, 2009 5:42 AM
They thought we would never notice.
Big balls!
Posted by Bob | December 21, 2009 6:24 AM
Can't be Oregon. If you saw most native Oregonian's teeth, you'd know we don't have a dental school.
[Oops. We do have a dental school. So, why the bad teeth?]
Posted by Garage Wine | December 21, 2009 6:51 AM
Garage Wine: Oregonians teeth look so bad because we have a few eco-nuts and granola crunchers who find putting flouride in our water supply a "crime against nature". If you haven't bothered to look, there are a huge number of dentists in Portland for a city of it's size.
Posted by Dave A. | December 21, 2009 7:15 AM
Sausage making at its finest!
I am continually amazed how Reid can jigger 60 votes on something no one bsides him knows anything about.
Payback for each vote will be a b.
Posted by Steve | December 21, 2009 7:22 AM
I am continually amazed how Reid can jigger 60 votes on something no one bsides him knows anything about.
Im not amazed any more...they have all admitted they dont read anything. They just blindly vote party lines. Its sickening. Nobody thinks for themselves any more.
Posted by Jon | December 21, 2009 8:22 AM
Hey, don't be giving Wyden too much credit on the $100M:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/20/AR2009122002956.html
At least Dodd upped is price from a interest-free loan from Countrywide for looking the other way.
I really think $100M is the bare min for a vote buyoff on this thing, I don't even want to think what Nelson's vote cost.
Posted by Steve | December 21, 2009 8:45 AM
Biggest pork prize? From Section A-1, p. 26 New York Times, Sunday, December 20th in regards to the new gelded health care bill. Just in time for Christmas:
CORPORATE GLEE
"The insurance companies were probably among the merriest of industries last week. Because the legislation mandates that everyone buy insurance, those companies stand to gain 30 million new customers - and there will be no government plan to compete with.
"But the drug companies were certainly joyful, too. So far, they have kept intact a deal with the White House to bar the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and elsewhere. In exchange, they agreed to give up $80 billion over 10 years through discounts and rebates."
Unlike Congress, I am speechless, simply speechless.
Posted by NW Portlander | December 21, 2009 9:36 AM
I'm wondering why they had to make concessions to Utah and Wyoming. Neither has a Dem senator. They certainly aren't going to get any "yes" votes out of Barrasso, Enzi, Bennett, or Hatch.
McConnell's right about this being a "mess," but the Republicans aren't doing themselves any long-term good by collectively crossing their arms and saying nothing but, "No." They're acting as if the goal is to win each media cycle, rather than to act as leaders and improve public policy.
This is being trumpeted by the Dems as hallmark social legislation. If it ends up looking like the Senate version, it's not. It's a tweak, and a weak one at that. Congress has labored and brought forth a mouse. (Or, maybe the embryo of a mouse.) It will take decades to undo some of the damage before we get to the largely single-payer system we will eventually wind up with. But, at least it's a start--as long as the Dems don't think they've actually solved the problem.
Posted by rural resident | December 21, 2009 10:00 AM
Dave, nice try blaming the condition of Oregon's teeth on anti-fluoridation on blaming that on "eco-nuts and granola crunchers" but the overwhelming mass of anti-fluoridation push has been from the folks who show up at Measure 37 rallies and hate liberals, Portland, Metro, 1000 Friends, etc.
There's an interesting book on this that I just finished is how I know that:
The Fluoride Wars: How a Modest Public Health Measure Became America's Longest Running Political Melodrama
R. Allan Freeze, Jay H. Lehr
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470448334.html
Oregonians have exactly the teeth you'd expect from a state with so many people with 24/7 access to sugary foods and drinks but so little access to health care & dental coverage.
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | December 21, 2009 10:28 AM
Since flouride has become a topic here today, let me just add this:
Lived in Salem with flouride in my water for 35 of 40 years
40 years old
0 cavities in my life
Posted by mp97303 | December 21, 2009 10:45 AM
For an informed take on this legislation, read Robert Samuelson's op ed from yesterday's news.
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/opinion/24272634-47/obama-health-percent-care-insurance.csp
Posted by rural resident | December 21, 2009 11:45 AM
Reading the Post story to which Steve provided the link, I wondered if OHSU is disqualified? Isn't OHSU now a corporation, and not a part of the state?
It would be fitting if Peter Kohler's machinations and maneuvers left OHSU on the outside looking in.
Posted by Nonny Mouse | December 21, 2009 1:47 PM
One more thing for all of those progressive types who are just waiting for the collapse of capitalism - Health care stocks had a huge rally after the vote.
We are so screwed.
Posted by Steve | December 21, 2009 3:31 PM
Steve, regarding capitalism's collapse, don't ignore the post-Copenhagen tumble in the carbon market:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a8TD.WeBNprk&pos=14
Posted by Gardiner Menefree | December 22, 2009 11:18 AM