COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

Not surprising, but here it is:

The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

Health care providers have been squawking about low medicare reimbursement rates for years, and it's getting harder and harder for medicare patients to find providers. What was fascinating to me, though, is the sheer arrogance and denial coming from the White House and from their fellow leftist morons, the Urban Institute:

Reid Cherlin, a White House spokesman for health care, declined comment on Mayo’s decision to drop Medicare primary care patients at its Glendale clinic.

Funny, the White House was full of praise for their low-cost, high-quality, highly-efficient health care before. Cat got your tongue? Can't figure out why this might be happening?

Robert Berenson, a fellow at the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center in Washington, D.C., said physicians’ claims of inadequate reimbursement are overstated.

No, libtard. They're not. If they were overstated, doctors would still be seeing these patients. It is patently obvious for anyone who's not dribble-down-his-chin, charter-member-of-the-smaller-bus-club stupid that reimbursement rates do not reflect what the market will bear.

Rather, the program faces a lack of medical providers because not enough new doctors are becoming family doctors, internists and pediatricians who oversee patients’ primary care.

And why might that be, genius? Could the fact that medicare and medicaid underpay our family care doctors, internists and pediatricians so that the fields are no longer attractive to our medical school students?

“Some primary care doctors don’t have to see Medicare patients because there is an unlimited demand for their services,” Berenson said. When patients with private insurance can be treated at 50 percent to 100 percent higher fees, “then Medicare does indeed look like a poor payer,” he said

.

Holy crap. The free market slaps this leftist twit right across the face to get his attention, and he still can't figure it out. He just said that Medicare underpayment was overstated - and then in the same article concedes that medicare pays only half the going rate.

This is the kind of USDA Prime-quality stupid we're up against, here. It's the think tankers at the Urban League who are coming up with these ideas and advising our dumbest members of Congress - liberals to a man - about how to structure health care reform.

It's already a disaster and they haven't even started yet.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: health care, stupid, The Left

Mao?!?!?!

Strange fruit, indeed.

Who in God's name are these people staffing the White House?

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Mao, Obama, stupid, The Left

Behold the depths of libtard stupidity:

"Look at Canada," says Charles Krauthammer. "Look at Britain. They got hooked; now they ration. So will we."

So do we. This is not an arguable proposition. It is not a difference of opinion, or a conversation about semantics. We ration. We ration without discussion, remorse or concern. We ration health care the way we ration other goods: We make it too expensive for everyone to afford.

In case you missed it, Ezra - or his editors determined to dig his hole for him, entitle his piece "We ration. We ration. We ration. We ration." Hey, libtard! You wen' foget one "We ration!"

Here we have the modern libtard - and in this case, the leading public polemicist for PelosiCare - a man who cannot discern between a rationing system under a command-control economy and a free-market system. Either he's bone stupid or the intellectual dishonesty of the left has descended to unheard-of depths.

If a free-market system is "rationing," then the term has zero meaning whatsoever. We ration fuel, we ration rubber, we ration access to golf courses, movie theaters, restaurants and fruit cocktails. We ration coffee and sugar and turnips and peas. We ration newspapers and Internet access. We even ration sex, and favor people who are attractive. RATIONISTS!

This is the kind of obtuseness the left is reduced to. Up is down, left is right, war is peace, free markets is rationing, and 2 + 2 = 5. But each one of these statements is equally false, and for the same reason.

Fortunately, Reason Magazine is on the case:

Like most left-leaning folks, Klein clearly doesn't know the definition of rationing. Take this one from Britannica:

Government allocation of scarce resources and consumer goods, usually adopted during wars, famines, or other national emergencies.

The entire Washington Post editorial is a disaster. The whole thing is predicated on a falsehood. I've never seen such a decisive editorial FAIL before it even gets started.

I've often said - and I never have time to build the case anymore - but I've often said that any screwed up shit-for-brains lefty with a knack for turning a phrase can secure some prime real estate in our high-gloss media. For a conservative to get the same shot, he has to be five times smarter than the liberal competing for the same space. Ezra Klein utterly beclowns himself here - and scores the WaPo. Megan McArdle, love her or hate her, can think circles around Ezra Klein and Andrew Sullivan combined. If she was as hopelessly lost as those two, AND a libertarian/sort-of-conservative, she would NEVER have gotten her gig at the Economist, OR The Atlantic.

Wow. We even ration Op-eds.

Klein. Clown.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: bloggers, Ezra Klein, health care, Politics, stupid, The Left

The VA tells 1,200 veterans they have Lou Gehrig's Disease - by mistake.

Hilarity ensues.

Labels: health care, soldiers' issues, stupid, VA, veterans

The latest episode of WeeWee's Big White House Adventure features our hero, St. Barry, Partner of God in Matters of Life and Death, lashing out at reform opponents (e.g., people who can read) for spreading "outrageous myths" concerning his health care plan.
Which myths? The Senior Partner(TM) specifically mentioned abortion, claiming that the bill will NOT allow for public funding of abortions. The problem: Not even the Associated Press believes him.

Associated Press, August 5, 2009 -- Gov't Insurance Would Allow Coverage for Abortion

Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue.

Federal funds for abortions are now restricted to cases involving rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. Abortion opponents say those restrictions should carry over to any health insurance sold through a new marketplace envisioned under the legislation, an exchange where people would choose private coverage or the public plan.

Abortion rights supporters say that would have the effect of denying coverage for abortion to millions of women who now have it through workplace insurance and are expected to join the exchange.

The predictable leftard argument is that Congress is insisting that abortions will not be paid for using tax dollars, but premium dollars. This is a distinction without a difference. Utterly dishonest. They pretend that money is not fungible. Government subsidizes the plan, the plan pays for abortions.

Obama also claimed that the plan would not fund benefits for illegal immigrants. If this is true, why did the Democrats in Congress vote, by party line, not to check patients for eligibility to prevent this very occurance? Obama also claimed that the "Death Panel" rumors are false. Not even the New York Times is signing on to that piece of tripe anymore.

New York Times: A Basis is Seen for Some Health Care Fears About the Elderly.

White House officials and Democrats in Congress say the fears of older Americans about possible rationing of health care are based on myths and falsehoods. But Medicare beneficiaries and insurance counselors say the concerns are not entirely irrational

Bills now in Congress would squeeze savings out of Medicare, a lifeline for the elderly, on the assumption that doctors and hospitals can be more efficient.

Obama. While he's spending precious political capital on anything but shoring up support for the War in Afghanistan, he is squandering it here at home, using his bully pulpit not to beat down Al Qaeda and the Taliban, but to beat down his fellow Americans.

Obama. Everything he says about health care reform is a lie, except for "if," "but," and "the." And I'm not so sure about "the."

Labels: Abortion, Afghanistan, Democrats, health care, immigration, Obama, stupid, The Left

I made the mistake of giving the libtards too much credit for honesty and judgement. I had thought they were being truthful about not covering illegal immigrants under ObamaCare.

Turns out that that's not true, either. The libtards are bound and determined to allow even illegal immigrants to suckle at the public teat.

Health reform legislation, particularly H.R. 3200, contains a number of provisions that open the door to taxpayer funding of immigrants’ health care. That’s for illegal aliens, legal aliens who are supposed to rely on their sponsor for financial assistance their first five years here, and certain immigrants who sponsor other immigrants.

In brief:

Despite nominally barring illegal immigrants from receiving a health-insurance subsidy, an amendment to require that applicants be screened for eligibility — as are all other welfare recipients — was rejected on a party-line vote.
Even legal immigrants whose sponsors are supposed to provide them financial support would be eligible for taxpayer-funded subsidies.


Certain legal immigrants who qualify for premium subsidies or expanded Medicaid would also be able to sponsor new immigrants, whom they would have to pledge to support.


Illegal immigrants would be exempt from the legal mandate to have health insurance, but they’d still receive taxpayer-funded medical services at health clinics and hospitals required to serve all those presenting with medical emergencies.

So they have carefully left the back door sitting wide open - and voted overwhelmingly to keep it open - for illegals to steal health care from the American taxpayer. (Indeed, in a way, they might have to. If the libtards get their way, they will make it illegal for illegal immigrants to buy their own private health insurance!)

They do all this - on a party line vote - while simultaneously trotting forth their leaders to claim that the ObamaCare will not cover illegals, KNOWING DAMN WELL THAT IT WILL.

There is simly no negotiating in good faith with the current crop of libtards. They will lie to your face. They'll sabatoge and undercut their own legislation. They'll search your court records and divorce proceedings if you get in their way.

Nothing is beyond the pale for these people.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Congress, Democrats, health care, insurance, Obama, stupid, The Left

Remember when the leftards got the vapors when Colin Powell's office outed Valerie Plame to the press when they thought it was someone other than someone in Colin Powell's office?

Yeah, I remember that, too.

Now the ACLU is spying on CIA operatives outside their houses, and showing their photos to Al Qaeda operatives in Gitmo to identify these covert operatives by name so they can be subpoenaed.

When you get their fundraising envelope in the mail, send it back with no donation... just a copy of this article.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: ACLU, Gitmo, law, stupid, War on Terror

Libtards say that a public option would not eliminate private insurance companies from the field, but would compete with them, keeping them honest.

This is bullshit. First of all, a public plan would pay no income tax. This alone would be a decisive blow to the private sector. But on top of that, they would face zero cost of raising capital, zero reserve requirements, and an implicit government guarantee. We all know how that shit worked out over at Freddie and Fannie.

The libtards say that the public option gives consumers more choice. No, once private insurers throw in the towel, consumers will have LESS choice, and fewer options, not more. What options are left will be MORE expensive, not less, because of adverse selection.

The libtards, including the WeeWee in Chief, point to the Post Office as an analogy. But I still stand in line at the Post Office, and adverse selection does not apply to the parcel industry.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: health care, Obama, Politics, stupid, The Left

The most maddening aspect of the whole health care debate for me is the utter willingness of the libtards to lie wholesale about EVERY ASPECT of the debate. The intellectual dishonesty... the flagrant intellectual dishonesty - goes all the way up to the top. To the President, to Speaker Pelosi, and to Harry Reid.

This alone, regardless of the merits of the policy objectives themselves, is a powerful reason to fiercely oppose this legislation. The lies have been so frequent, and so egregious, that there is simply no way to reason with the current crop of libtards in control of Congress and the White House and their noise machines. You cannot take them at their word. You cannot assume that your words will be honestly taken. Instead, the libtards in charge, unfortunately, have made it so that the default position for opponents of PelosiCare must be that every thing they currently offer in compromise is a lie, and a trick. They are utterly devoid of reason and utterly without honor.

The fish rots from the head down:

President Obama himself claimed that he never said he was in favor of a single payor system. That was a flat-out lie: He is on tape saying precisely the opposite a couple of years ago.

The entire libtard-industrial complex is saying that Palin was referring to end-of-life-care consultations, and threw them out of the legislation as a sacrificial lamb. Unfortunately, too many hopeful idiots believed them. But it was clearly a big lie. Palin wasn't referring to the end-of-life consultations, but to the various boards and commissions that MUST be convened in order to rationally allocate scarce health care resources. THESE are the "death panels," and Palin had it precisely right. The entire bill will turn the Health and Human Services department into one big 'death panel.'

Nancy Pelosi is calling soccer moms and grandmoms speaking out against the measure "nazis," and "unamerican."

This was too far even for the Obama Administration (though they may well have privately encouraged her bomb-throwing.)

Following the attack on a black conservative, caught on tape at a St. Louis Town Hall, the leadership of the SEIU issued a press release claiming their own members were attacked - and edited out a section of the video showing a witness screaming at a Union thug "you attacked him!" They kept the audio, but since the video proved them to be liars, they edited it out.

Now that Palin has come out swinging on tort reform, the "operative statement" on the left is that malpractice costs do not contribute to high health care costs - an assertion that would be laughable in any other context, but with so much at stake, it's not laughable - it's sinister, maddening, and Orwellian.

Obama continues to insist that the bill will be revenue neutral, despite the findings of the Congressional Budget Office. Obama's White House made no attempt to rebut the

Obama claimed that for those making less than $250,000 per year, our taxes would not go up one dime. But many of those makeing less than 250k per year are small-business owners, and Obama is now advocating an 8%-of-payroll tax on any businesses that do not offer group health care benefits.

This 8% is either going to come directly out of health care benefits for workers, as small-businesses punt their private insurers, or it will come directly out of small-business-owner income, be it 10k or W-2 income.

Obama is claiming "you won't have to wait in any lines!" But this isn't even true of the Post Office, and it's CERTAINLY not true of the VA health care system.

Obama claimed no one will be forced to buy coverage. But he also claimed he wanted a system with "everybody in, nobody out."

Obama claimed you'll be able to keep your insurance company. This is a flat-out lie. First of all, workers who get their health care from their employers will get booted from their plans by the millions as smaller companies drop coverage to save costs and move workers to the public option. Some states require group insurers to issue an individual policy, but not all.

Further, if Obama gets his way, adverse selection will cause millions of healthy workers to move to the public option, leaving private insurers with a pool of sick people. Premiums must rise to compensate for the deteriorating risk pool, which further accelerates the adverse selection problem. Private insurance risk pools will quickly collapse. This isn't just theoretical bullshit: It will happen as surely as night follows day.

The '47 million uninsured Americans' claim is itself a lie: The figure includes millions eligible for Medicaid and millions of illegal immigrants. The damnable thing is we've known this figure to be false for years, and yet the libtards STILL embrace it.

The libtards, including Obama himself, have claimed that federally-funded abortions would be excluded by the plan. This is also a lie, and the President continues to lie about it. He is totally two-faced: He will tell libtard audiences that "reproductive care" will be covered, but tells centrist audiences that there is no language in the bill specifically including abortions in the list of covered services. If the President is appointing people who populate the 'best practices' boards, then they are going to cover abortions. This is obvious to most intelligent people, but Obama continues to try to play both sides - and continues to lie to all but Leftard America.

The leftards continue to claim that the UK spends less with better outcomes than the United States. But the UK lags significantly behind the US in the metrics that actually count: The 5 and 10 year survivability rates of people diagnosed with various dread diseases. Why? The UK sharply restricts access to newer drugs and treatments - to save money. Why? Because the UK, like all socialist systems, has appointed a Death Panel, called NICE, whose job it is to rationally direct scarce resources to where they will provide the most value.

The leftards continue to claim you can be 'dropped for a preexisting condition.' This is also a lie. Under just about any state law I'm aware of, an insurance company cannot target an individual, in-force policy for a rate increase because he or she has developed a preexisting condition. They can adjust rates on a class, or a group, but typically not an individual.

Yes, you can drop someone for letting his or her policy lapse. That's life among grownups and it's true for Medicare, as well. (That's what disability income insurance is for: Everyone who can qualify should have enough disability income insurance to cover health premiums, in my book. The LAST time you want to be lapsing your medical insurance is right when you lost your job because you are sick or hurt.)

The libtards are still arguing that preventative care reduces costs, overall. Idiots who don't take time to think about the mechanics of the plan take them at face value. But preventative care does NOT save money, in the aggregate. Some screens are expensive, and where positive results are rare, they can very easily lose money, in the aggregate. This is well-documented, but obvious to anyone who gives the issue more than a moment's thought.

The ONE thing the libtards aren't lying about now, is that illegal immigrants are not going to be covered under the bill (except, of course, for point-blank emergencies that no doctor in good conscience could turn away.)

This is a disappointment to the cheese-eaters at NPR, who wrote a story, in all seriousness, headlined "Health Care Overhaul Ignores Illegal Immigrants."

No doubt the bastards will try to Rahm that through in the reconciliation commitee.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Congress, health care, NPR, Obama, Pelosi, Politics, Reid, stupid, The Left

Obama's administration can't handle the logistics and pay the dealers what they were promised - even after the dealers in good faith fronted their customers the cash.

The Feds have only made good on about 2 percent of the deals so far.

But don't worry. We'll have oodles of doctors and clinics lining up to do business with a government insurer. None of them will quit in disgust just when demand surges because of the perception that medical care is free.

Idiots.

Labels: business, cars, Economics, Obama, stupid, The Left

So he says on Professor Bainbridge's blog.

Heh.

I swear, you can be the dumbest, most ill-informed twit on your block, and you can get on as a columnist in a major U.S. daily. Conservatives - those few left in journalism, have to be three times smarter than libtards to write a column.

Labels: stupid, The Left

A threat to all of us.

Labels: stupid

Phony doctors

Labels: stupid, The Left

Obama: "I have not said that I am a supporter of a single-payer health plan."

Obama to an SEIU gathering: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan."



"Hello," he lied.

Labels: Obama, stupid, The Left

The Obama administration, parting with years of practice under Bush, folds like a cheap tent.

Labels: Al Qaeda, law, Obama, stupid, War on Terror

She's not.

Labels: environment, stupid, The Left

This one with a South Florida connection: A Navy commander has filed a complaint with the Miami Herald over reporter Carol Rosenberg's offensive and degrading behavior and questioning.



Full complaint here.

I don't know if he would have much standing, since they don't have the same employers. And I don't like the precedent of government officials suing newspapers for allowing their reporters to create a hostile work environment. Still, if she is interfering with the AP photographer's work, and publicly inferring that the Navy officer is gay - knowing that if the reputation stuck, he would lose his career, Rosenberg comes extremely close to committing a couple of torts.

If these reports are true - and there are apparently lots of witnesses, Rosenberg is sullying the Miami Herald brand. Her reporting is not to be trusted. She seems to have come unglued. She should be fired. It's not like there aren't good, underemployed journalists out there to replace her with.

Way to cultivate your sources, moron!

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: culture, journalism, law, Miami Herald, Navy, Sex, stupid, The media

The Washington Post reports:

The president recalled that as a boy living in Hawaii, he would perch on his grandfather's shoulders and watch the space capsules land in the Pacific Ocean.

Oh. My. God.

He'll probably get a pass on this one, though. The paper's reporter, by using the verb 'recalled' instead of the more skeptical (and appropriate) verb "claimed," demonstrates she'll believe anything.

Splash, out

Jason

UPDATE: The White House website transcribes the President's remarks thus:

I should note, just personally, I grew up in Hawaii, as many of you know, and I still recall sitting on my grandfather's shoulders when those capsules would land in the middle of the Pacific and they'd get brought back and we'd go out and we'd pretend like they could see us as we were waving at folks coming home. And I remember waving American flags and my grandfather telling me that the Apollo mission was an example of how Americans can do anything they put their minds to.

So it was the Post's screw-up, not a lie by the President. Consider this post retracted, with my apologies.

Labels: Obama, space, stupid

This time from David Brooks:

But it’s not right to end on a note of cultural pessimism because there is the fact of President Obama. Whatever policy differences people may have with him, we can all agree that he exemplifies reticence, dispassion and the other traits associated with dignity.

Wow. Let's see that vaunted Obama dignity in action!








Obama.

Can you smell the dignity?

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: New York Times, Obama, stupid

And so it goes ...

WASHINGTON — Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking.
Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon's office of clinical and program policy, says he will recommend that Gates adopt proposals by a federal study that cites rising tobacco use and higher costs for the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs as reasons for the ban.

The study by the Institute of Medicine, requested by the VA and Pentagon, calls for a phased-in ban over a period of years, perhaps up to 20. "We'll certainly be taking that recommendation forward," Smith says.

A tobacco ban would confront a military culture, the report says, in which "the image of the battle-weary soldier in fatigues and helmet, fighting for his country, has frequently included his lit cigarette."

Also, the report said, troops worn out by repeated deployments often rely on cigarettes as a "stress reliever." The study found that tobacco use in the military increased after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.

The story goes on to note that combat troops smoke more than noncombat troops. I don't think they get the correlations right, though. Combat MOS's have higher proportions of southern and rural white guys... who are also vastly more likely to use snuff and chewing tobacco, as well as smoke. I'm not sure how strictly the reporter is able to draw the distinction, nor am I sure if the suggested ban also targets chewing tobacco.

Now, why might a combat soldier chew tobacco? One reason is because it's REALLY hard to fall asleep with a wad of tobacco in your mouth. So guys on sentry duty use it in lieu of uppers. Or in lieu of just falling asleep. I don't think anyone who hasn't been there can really understand how HARD it is to maintain absolute silence, in the prone position, behind your weapon, at 3am after a full day of marching and fighting. Soldiers and marines grab every edge they can.

Further, I wouldn't disregard the role of cigarrettes on the battlefield - especially the countergeurrilla battlefield. From a humint or interrogater's point of view, or simply from the perspective of a local leader trying to build a relationship with an Iraqi or Afghan, the simple act of offering a nicotine-starved Iraqi a quality American cigarette, and lighting one up one's self, is a time-honored way of establishing a rapport with a local or detainee - and is frequently the first and necessary step in breaking the ice and gaining the trust and cooperation of a local or detainee.

Honestly, we wouldn't get NEAR the HUMINT we do without it. Verily I say unto you... if tobacco were to vanish from U.S. soldiers' kits tomorrow, there would be an almost immediate and bloody, but nearly untraceable consequence on the ground. It would significantly degrade our relationship with locals and our ability to gain intelligence from detainees and HUMINT sources. Tread VERY SLOWLY here.

Finally, tobacco sales also count towards the morale, welfare and recreation budget of the post. If we eliminate tobacco sales from post, that's that much less money available to support MWR for our military service members and their families. Will it be made up somewhere?

Honestly, I have a real problem with any rear echelon pogue declaring, by edict, that one of my guys -- Grown men, all of them, even the kids -- coming back in wired and jumpy from a tough patrol or convoy can't take a few minutes to light one up and unwind. An infantryman in a combat zone? He might well be dead by nightfall. You took him away from his wife and/or girlfriend. He can't drink alcohol. I think we should allow him the luxury of a smoke if he needs it.

I think we should discourage smoking, sure. But an outright ban? Must be liberals invading the Pentagon.

At any rate, this is one of those things that if it's to be done, Obama should lead by example. He can't quit smoking. Yeah, he's got a stressful job. He's not the only one.

Splash, out

Jason

UPDATE: I suspect Jolly Rancher is behind this.

Labels: Army, Marines, soldier's issues, stupid