"Neither using Bill Clinton as an excuse nor being a self-righteous right-wing republican makes what John Ensign did remotely excusable."

Nor does name-calling, which is the last resort of the bankrupt ideology of the Right. As we see here over and over again, that's all they have left.

The main tactic of the Right seems now to be blame everyone but your own.

Well, Mr. Weitman, I hope you have put on your asbestos underwear because you are about to be flamed by the True Believers who can never admit they are wrong about anything--See: GW Bush.

I wrote about the patience of Obama and believe you are absolutely right. It is going to take a long time to undo the damage, esp when they are still trying to inflict more. The ones who are going to get it right are the voters of the next generation.

http://politicalpragmatist.com/?p=330

I just blogged a story today about a young lady who had an accident. Medical bills over $50,000. Her insurance paid $600. She HAD insurance.

Average cost of a health insurance for a family is $4000 per year.

A good friend is over 50, female, and has high blood pressure. The ONLY health insurance she can get is $18,000 a year.

This is reality. The only way the Medical Industrial Complex can make money is by screwing us. That's why they pay bribes, er, make huge campaign contributions to politicians in both parties.

Get a clue. You have no health plan at all, just unrealistic dreams that no one is paying any attention to at all.

And if you don't like being called a conservative, then you shouldn't have sided with them forty years ago, Mr. Goldwater.

One more time, Mr. Gibbons...

Where is your plan for health care reform that will cover the 46 million of us who do not have health care and how much will it cost?

<crickets>

With your name, your credibility is 10% with the people of Nevada. But you're calling names is 100% consistent with conservative arguments.

Quote:

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_...

"In 1994, Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer began serving as the VA's undersecretary for health and was credited with "the greatest transformation of VA health care since the system was created in 1946." Kizer fired many incompetent doctors, decentralized decision-making, offered executive contracts with performance compensation, expanded services for chronic conditions and introduced a modern computer system. Following these reforms, veterans' hospitals were said to offer "the best care anywhere." After five years, Kizer left the VA."

He left and then the Bush administration took over, the guys who didn't believe in government, right? And since then, the VA has fallen, but not as much as the rest of the health care system.

Thanks for pushing me to research the Cato Institute's position. It will make a nice blog post next week.

Incredible how consistently conservatives are willfully obstinate about reality. Nothing can change their minds, not even facts.

"Cactus Jack, what planet are you living on? Do you even have access to the news? The VA is abysmal!!! They are getting in trouble all the time. Military health care is terrible."

Again, another who puts rhetoric before facts.

<blockquote>For six consecutive years, the system has had the highest consumer satisfaction ratings of any health care system. 83% of its patients expressed satisfaction with the care they received, compared to 73% for Medicare and Medicaid patients. "A full 69% reported being seen within 20 minutes of their scheduled appointment, while 93% reported being able to see a specialist within 30 days of the desired appointment."</blockquote>

<blockquote> Between 1995 and 2006, the Medical Consumer Price Index rose 39.4%, Medicare costs increased 40.9%, and the "Toyota of Health Care Systems" cost per patient rose 0.8%.
</blockquote>

http://politicalpragmatist.com/?p=313

The Cato Institute--being totally in the bag for the Conservative Movement which is funded by corporations including and esp the Medical Industrial Complex--hates the VA because if the American people ever get the message, they will demand reforms to such an extent that we at least get Medicare coverage for all.

I assume you and all the other name-callers have health care coverage, maybe even FEDERAL health care coverage like Congressmen and Senators do. 46 MILLION AMERICANS do NOT. Where is your plan to cover them???

8 out of 10 Americans do not believe the lies. So, are you lying, or clueless?

The three comments here so far are from people who have no clue about the health care debate. This is typical of the right wing who have a knee-jerk reaction to anything Democrats propose. I have blogged heavily over the past three months about the health reform issue and through a lot of reading and study, have found a lot of surprises. No surprise is the present system is broken, but amazing is how badly broken.

One of the best health care systems in the world now is the Veterans Administration system, which is completely "socialized medicine." It has kept cost stable and achieved remarkable PATIENT approval rates. My father hates "socialized medicine" but can't praise the VA enough.

3 out of 4 Americans want an option to choose and are willing to pay higher taxes to get it. The people who are commenting here are a very small and uninformed minority. Sadly, I hope they never face a serious health crisis. Medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy.

www.politicalpragmatist.com

And Bill Clinton should have resigned. The hypocrisy is endless.

Give Reid credit. He could have stuck a fork deep in Ensign, but was gracious.

This story is not going to end soon. There is still something going on that we aren't hearing, and I think this might have been swinging gone out of control.

Ensign is not a very smart guy. He's put himself in an untenable position.

Jonathon, the biggest story of the next election cycle is going to be the Reagan Democrats, the most disaffected voters in the country. They no longer believe in the Republican Party, but haven't figured out how they got so screwed.

I blog about this at:

www.politicalpragmatist.com

Best wishes. We agree, for the most part. Democrats are dysfunctional, but in a good way. It is now the big tent that Jack Kemp dreamed of.