Rush Limbaugh Is Still An Idiot

The doctors say that Rush Limbaugh’s heart is fine, which leaves us with a paradox. How can a man with a heart have no heart?

From Rush Limbaugh Talks About His Health Scare by Mark Niesse:

 "I don't think there's one thing wrong with the American health care system," Limbaugh said. "I got no special treatment other than what anybody else that would have called 911 and had been brought in with the same kinds of symptoms."

Only an idiot would ignore this:

From Health Care Costs Will Increase at Double-Digit Rates in 2010 by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn:

Director of the Office of Management and Budget, believes that health costs are the #1 driver of America's long-term deficit. The inexorable increase of health costs are plaguing the Federal budget, Governors' state budgets, employers' bottom-lines and ability to compete globally, and household budgets.

The cost of health care is perhaps the main reason why most Americans want a change in our health care system. Perhaps Mr. Limbaugh might agree with most Americans if he were not rich and famous. The complaint is not that the doctors suck, it is that many Americans do not have access to the doctors because of the cost. How dense is Limbaugh? How callous is Limbaugh? How out of touch with reality is Limbaugh?

Sarah Palin Wins An Award

I’m sure that the image of Sarah Palin in hot pants is exciting to some. Not to me. I find it to be repulsive.

From PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: 'Death panels' by Angie Drobnic Holan:

Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest.

"Death panels."

The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August, raising issues from the role of government in health care to the bounds of acceptable political discussion. In a nod to the way technology has transformed politics, the statement wasn't made in an interview or a television ad. Sarah Palin posted it on her Facebook page.

Her assertion — that the government would set up boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care — spread through newscasts, talk shows, blogs and town hall meetings. Opponents of health care legislation said it revealed the real goals of the Democratic proposals. Advocates for health reform said it showed the depths to which their opponents would sink. Still others scratched their heads and said, "Death panels? Really?"

The editors of PolitiFact.com, the fact-checking Web site of the St. Petersburg Times, have chosen it as our inaugural "Lie of the Year."

PolitiFact readers overwhelmingly supported the decision. Nearly 5,000 voted in a national poll to name the biggest lie, and 61 percent chose "death panels" from a field of eight finalists. (See the complete results.)

Gotta love this:

From And the runners-up ... by Angie Drobnic Holan:

Rounding out the rest of the finalists:

• 5.8 percent: The shout of "You lie!" by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., in response to President Obama saying health reform would not insure illegal immigrants.

I’m sure that the image of Joe Wilson in hot pants is exciting to some. Not to me. I find it to be repulsive.

What Used To Seem Simple Now Seems Very Complicated

Too much information. I am fatigued and overloaded with all of the information concerning the health care debate. I no longer understand what the hell is going on.

If you include the comments, there may be more words in this single post on the health care debate than there are in the entire bill.

Healthcare Model?

From Inside a U.S. healthcare "island of excellence" by Jon Hurdle:

In his healthcare speech to Congress on September 9, President Barack Obama cited Geisinger as a possible model for national reform. Based in central Pennsylvania, a rural region once dominated by coal mining, the system has recently earned a reputation for high-quality care at a lower-than-average cost. The White House refers to it as an "island of excellence" in the nation's murky healthcare waters.

Medical authorities inside and outside Geisinger credit the system's performance to three factors: its salary-based compensation for physicians; an electronic medical records system that reduces the likelihood of treatment duplication by integrating the services of doctors, nurses and administrators; and best-practice protocols that require doctors to follow accepted standards for certain kinds of treatment.

Larry McNeely, a healthcare advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which campaigns for citizens' rights, said national health reform should and could follow the Geisinger example.

"I think it's a model that makes a lot of sense all over the country," he said.

Like others, McNeely argues that the key to reforming the U.S. health system is to change the way doctors are paid. The point would be to reward the quality of care, as Geisinger does, rather than the quantity of procedures, drugs or consultations.

"The real barrier is the current payment system," McNeely said. "If you do what Geisinger does -- provide better quality -- you are not rewarded, you are punished. The reward goes to the doctors who order the most care."

Read more here.

More Republican Lies To Make Your Head Spin

From SPIN METER: 'War and Peace' in 209 pages? by Calvin Woodward and Douglass K. Daniel:

Republicans are using everything short of forklifts to show Americans that Democratic health care legislation is an unwieldy mountain of paper. They pile it high on desks, hoist it on a shoulder trussed in sturdy rope and tell people it's longer than "War and Peace," which it isn't.

Although they complain they don't have time to read all of it, they found the time to tape it together, page by page, so they could roll it up the steps of the Capitol like super-sized toilet paper and show how very long it is.

Read the rest here.

I’ll bet that the Republicans have only read the War part of "War and Peace," if they’ve read any of it at all. And I think that maybe Barack Obama skipped most of the Peace part as well.