Republicans want us to think Kennedy opposed health care reform

Sean Hannity whines that we're being implored to get behind health care reform because it's "what Ted Kennedy would have wanted."

Well, it is.   If we dare draw attention to the fact that Kennedy called reform "the cause of my life" while honoring him, the Republicans cry crocodile tears of how "dishonorable" that is.

Rush Limbaugh warns against "using" Ted Kennedy's name to advance health care reform as an "insult" and "supreme hypocrisy," because it would "deny Americans the choices Senator Kennedy had".

Oh really?  Ted Kennedy had a health care plan paid for by the federal government.  It is the Republicans, not the Democrats, trying to use Kennedy's name to deny us these choices.

Republicans already politicizing Kennedy's death

Seven years ago, Republican leaders charged that Democrats "insulted the memory" of Paul Wellstone and "hijacked" his memorial by "turning it into a political rally."  Hogwash!  That service was exactly what Wellstone had said he wanted.

Now the Republicans are shocked - shocked! - that Democrats would push for health reform in Ted Kennedy's name.

The Democrats aren't being disrespectful by daring to advocate for the issue that Kennedy called the "cause of his life."  The so-called "Wellstone effect" consists of false accusations and crocodile tears from Republicans in a crass attempt to exploit the death for their own political gain.

PUBLISHED: Rep. Frank right to question the insane

Link to published letter [8/24/09]

Showing up at a town hall to question an expanded government role in health care and the economy? That's patriotic.

Showing up carrying a poster of President Barack Obama sporting a Hitler moustache and calling healthcare reform a "Nazi policy?" That's just plain loony.

Kudos to Barney Frank, D-Mass., for calling this out and jeers to the other Representatives who have been treating lunatics as if they are reasonable.

I'm tired of the media amplifying the noise generated by the nutcases and drowning out the reasoned debate that America desperately needs to have.

Single payer the only sensible solution

The cost of our current health insurance system is staggering. Private insurers have an overhead rate of 30%, ten times that of federal plans like Medicare. Dealing with thousands of different plans costs the average doctor $85,000 per year. Insurers' failure to provide true full coverage is by far the leading cause of both bankruptcies and personal injury lawsuits. And placing responsibility for coverage on employers has clobbered our workers' competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Using taxpayer funds to expand this idiotic system would bankrupt us.

The only workable way to truly reform health care is to throw out the fat and start over with a lean single payer system. The rest of the developed world has already done so.

Mr. President, Senators Wyden and Merkley, Rep. Blumenauer: SIngle Payer is best, Public Option an absolute minimum

I believe our health system's biggest cost problem is the waste and inefficiency of the insurance industry, and the best way to reform it is to replace it with a single payer system.

I would be willing to live with a public option -- as long as it is set up to be truly competitive, and not merely a dumping ground for insurance companies to abandon their more expensive insureds.

Without at least the public option to compete with the private sector, I believe that any changes to provide universal coverage would simply enrich inefficient and wasteful private insurers with another trillion dollars in public money, ultimately bankrupting the country.

[Additional note to Senator Wyden:] I am trusting you to put the interest of the public above those of the insurers -- opponents of the reforms I support -- that have contributed to your campaign fund.

PUBLISHED: Dropping 'public option' exposes the scam

Link to published letter [8/21/09]

[actual published text in bold]

This liberal is glad President Barack Obama may drop the public option for health coverage "reform".

A public option would ultimately fail anyway, as it became a dumping ground for private insurers to ditch their higher-cost patients.

Obama's move exposes current attempts to provide universal coverage for the sham -- and scam -- that they are: a trillion dollar funnel of our tax dollars to expand the scope and profits of today's wasteful, inefficient, bureaucratic and capricious private insurers.

On health coverage, the federal government has a proven track record of being (literally) 10 times more efficient and easier for physicians to deal with than the private sector. Single payer is the only meaningful reform that won't bankrupt the country.

Health care "protests" appear coordinated

What is most curious to me about the latest turn in the health care debate is how town hall meetings seem to have been inundated by disruptive, unruly "protesters." Not just here and there, but all across this vast, diverse nation -- and almost simultaneously.

One might be led to think that someone with an interest in the outcome is coordinating all this.

230 mpg claim for GM Volt is not believable

GM's claim that their new Volt can get 230 mpg is incredible. By that, I mean not believable.

The EPA has always rated fuel economy for cars that plug into the grid based on the energy equivalent of the electricity they use. For example, the 2001 Toyota Toyota RAV4 EV was rated at 104 mpg.

GM says that in all-electric mode the Volt will go 100 miles on 25 kilowatt-hours. Under longstanding EPA rules, that amounts to only 140 mpg. And all-electric mode is the most efficient scenario possible for this car that can run on both grid power and gasoline. The only way GM could claim 230mpg is if they are only counting the gasoline used and not the electricity.

That makes the 230 mpg claim a lie, and GM should know better.