Town Hall Comedy Continues. Howard Dean shouted down at health care forum

By Wednesday August 26, 2009

A number of questions come to mind when watching this. First off, what does Howard have to do with Virginia? Who made the signage? Since when did Republicans become so vociferous?



65 Comments
  1. bac says:
    8/26/2009 at 1:04 pm

    It seems to me a bunch of people rather pay higher premiums for less service than have a government run program.

    Obama should just drop the health care reform. Then he should campaign to have medicare dropped.

    The less money the government spends the more money I will have in my pocket.

    Reply
  2. Robart says:
    8/26/2009 at 1:27 pm

    I have an idea which makes me equally unpopular with my conservative and liberal friends. So it must be good.

    Let the government start a public option based entirely on premiums. No tax payer money. Without the insane insurance profits, without the million dollar exec bonuses, without the executive ski trips, etc the government should be able to provide health insurance at a reasonable premium. This would make it possible for most people to afford insurance. If the government program provided quality care with affordable premiums many Americans, including me, would drop their private insurance and go with the govt. program. This would also force the private companies to become more competitive and lower premiums.

    I’m even ok with the tax payers providing start up funds as long as the government pays it back just like all private businesses have to do.

    Why wouldn’t this work?

    Reply
  3. bobbo, good first effort says:
    8/26/2009 at 1:35 pm

    #42–Robart==fair question. Your hypo posits that the Gov works just like the For Profit Ins Co’s except for the Exec compensation. Well, the money involved is so large that $450 Million per year in compensation for an executive plus all the other high salary waste is still a rounding error. Add in whatever else you think you have and the premium would not be lower enough to move the market.

    The “real” cost savings can only be implemented by the market changing implementation of a single payer.

    Thats my view. Quibblers may nip at the edges, but that is the meat.

    Reply
  4. Number6 says:
    8/26/2009 at 1:53 pm

    Just keep repeating the following:

    1- Everyone who disagrees with Government run health care is a paid Republican operative
    2- Everyone unhappy with the current administration is a racist.

    There, now you don’t have to think. So much more comfortable.

    Reply
  5. Robart says:
    8/26/2009 at 2:01 pm

    But I’ve heard estimates of insurance profits as high as 500%. That would be a huge chunk of change to roll over into premium reduction. Also, I’ve heard complaints about the millions/billions the insurance companies pay lobbyist. The govt. shouldn’t have to lobby itself….cha ching!

    Everyone that is concerned about a govt program could just stay with Snake Farm Insurance or whoever their carrier is.

    Reply
  6. Number6 says:
    8/26/2009 at 2:05 pm

    #45 – “Everyone that is concerned about a govt program could just stay with Snake Farm Insurance or whoever their carrier is.”

    Sounds like a perfect solution … I’m assuming we also don’t have to have money stolen from our paychecks to pay for the Government program? I mean, if the idea is we can opt out completely both from costs and benefits then it sounds like we have a plan.

    Reply
  7. bobbo, keeping his feet on the ground says:
    8/26/2009 at 2:34 pm

    #45–Robart==I don’t believe you ever heard profits as high as 500%. What you heard is a drunk yelling for the Number 500 bus.

    The telling number that is tossed about is from 15-35% of the Ins Premium being spent on non-healthcare related “management items” that would be deleted under single payer. Those savings are NOT AVAILABLE if the government program was competing just like Big Ins.

    EG–money spent to advertise the company, money spent to attract healthier groups, money spent to investigate the insureds for pre-existing conditions and so forth. If the Gov Program didn’t do all those same things, they would suffer adverse group selection and rapidly lose more money at the given premium level.

    Reply
  8. Robart says:
    8/26/2009 at 2:49 pm

    #47 – “What you heard is a drunk yelling for the Number 500 bus.” LOL

    Seriously though, I had an attorney (I know quoting an attorney is not the best way to make a point) today telling me that we should take all the money away from the insurance companies because their 500% profit margins were criminal. I didn’t ask him for sources because I think he was ready to hit someone and I didn’t want to even seem like I didn’t believe him.

    Anyway, you’re harshing my mellow Bobbo.

    Reply
  9. pedro says:
    8/26/2009 at 2:51 pm

    #42 Now there’s an idea!

    #44 That about sums it up. Now, if only we can get the lefty loons here to just link to your post rather than write their innane rants, a lot of bandwidth could be saved.

    Reply
  10. bobbo, amazing how close I get says:
    8/26/2009 at 3:35 pm

    #48–Robart==so it wasn’t a drunk yelling for the bus, it was a drunk yelling for confiscatory penalties. When you “attempt” to correct me, please don’t quibble.

    Reply
  11. eaglescout1998 says:
    8/26/2009 at 4:00 pm

    #27. No, they’re not. Just because the public uses them does not make them socialist enterprises. Most of the things the public uses are not funded at the federal level. Roads, police and fire departments, water and sewer systems, et al. are provided at the local level with city, county and state taxes.

    Universal health care, while I might not agree with it, is just fine on a state level, providing the state’s constitution provides for it. On a Federal level however, you’re talking about giving the Federal government power outside its Constitutional boundaries.

    Reply
  12. RSweeney says:
    8/26/2009 at 4:05 pm

    Moran expects everyone to agree with big government and to ignore the big corruption and big incompetence it brings. Certainly Moran knows both incompetence and corruption up close and personal.

    It’s a new world for him to hear otherwise, in hopefully his last term in office.

    Reply
  13. Bob says:
    8/26/2009 at 4:11 pm

    #37, I am not going to call you names or anything, but the reason why Americans are against socialized medicine is that to be frank, its not the federal governments job to do this. Over the last 50 years, the constitution has been pretty much ignored, and over the last 10 years this has accelerated dramatically. Over the last 6 months, its started to go at a unimagined pace.

    If the states want to do a type of socialized medicine, thats fine. Let them sell it to their constituents, if its a great idea, like you believe, it will spread to the rest of the states in short order.

    Of course that would not increase the power of the federal government. Remember, health care is the holy grail of democrats since if you control a persons healthcare you control that person.

    Reply
  14. Paul Camp says:
    8/26/2009 at 5:16 pm

    Are you kidding? Republicans have always been like this. You don’t remember Whitewater, hummers in the White House and the “murder” of Vince Foster? How about the claim that Social Security will force us all to wear dog tags? That’s from the Roosevelt administration. The bully act is their go to tactic and frankly it is getting really old.

    This is how you stay in the wilderness.

    Reply
  15. Rick Cain says:
    8/26/2009 at 7:09 pm

    Republicans are still coming to grips with having a negro president. Thats why they are so cranky.

    Reply
  16. deowll says:
    8/26/2009 at 8:17 pm

    You guys can scream it’s the Republicans/racists until you fall on your faces. If it was the Republicans you guys wouldn’t have a problem.

    What has the Dems running scared are the independents who aren’t socialists, seniors who know they are getting the shaft, and a fair number of Democrats who don’t like the wild spending spree or the fact that socialists/Marxists are taking over.

    If you do stand up and show your colors.

    Reply
  17. Buzz says:
    8/26/2009 at 9:20 pm

    “First off, what does Howard have to do with Virginia?”

    THAT’s your lead question? WTF?

    Howard is a prominent Democrat, a former state governor, former Chairman of the DNC and a medical doctor since 1978. AND his wife is a doctor, too.

    Who better to address issues and answer reasonable questions?

    Reply
  18. Uncle Patso says:
    8/27/2009 at 2:58 am

    #42 Robart: What you suggest sounds a lot like the “public option” everyone seems to hate so much…

    – - – - -

    John asks, “Since when did Republicans become so vociferous?”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Brothers_Riot

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji_k0iORUZg

    From
    http://www.consortiumnews.com/2002/080502a.html

    More than three decades apart, two political riots influenced the outcome of U.S. presidential elections. In 1968, protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago hurt Democrat Hubert Humphrey and helped Republican Richard Nixon eke out a victory. On Nov. 22, 2000, the so-called “Brooks Brothers Riot” of Republican activists helped stop a vote recount in Miami — and showed how far George W. Bush’s supporters were ready to go to put their man in the White House.

    But the government reaction to the two events was dramatically different. The clashes between police and Vietnam War protesters in 1968 led the Nixon administration to charge seven anti-war radicals with “conspiring to cross state lines with the intent to incite a riot.” The defendants, who became known as the Chicago Seven, were later acquitted of conspiracy charges, in part, because the protests were loosely organized and because solid documentary evidence was lacking.

    After the Miami “Brooks Brothers Riot” – named after the protesters’ preppie clothing – no government action was taken beyond the police rescuing several Democrats who were surrounded and roughed up by the rioters. While no legal charges were filed against the Republicans, newly released documents show that at least a half dozen of the publicly identified rioters were paid by Bush’s recount committee.

    I love the sound of “reasoned discourse” in the morning. Smells like VICTORY!!!

    Reply
  19. Named says:
    8/27/2009 at 3:33 am

    40 pedro,

    Its obvious you’re a victim of the elite private school system, since your comprehension is just above that of a piece of wood… and not even quality wood. You continue to shame yourself. Keep at it.

    AlfredENewman is going to be your intellectual master the way you’re going…

    Reply
  20. Toxic Asshead says:
    8/27/2009 at 3:44 am

    #54 – There were hummers in the White House during the Roosevelt administration? Cool!

    Reply

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