Gail Collins writes:
I know some of you were very sad about the way the Mueller report let Donald Trump off the hook. Even if you secretly doubted that he was actually well-organized enough to run an international conspiracy, it made you depressed to see him looking so happy.And here we go again, presuming Trump does everything wrong... because you so much want him to be wrong. What if those thoughts he's causing you to have — thoughts about what an utter screw-up he is — are part of his genius way of winning?
But then he took off on the worst victory lap since — well, do you remember that baseball player who celebrated his grand slam home run by leaping in the air and fracturing a leg?
“We’re not talking about health care right now, but I will,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
He also vowed to make the Republicans “the party of health care.” Great strategy!
Posts
131 comments:
Leftwing delusional asshole theory: Trump is guilty of collusion with Russia to beat poor deserving Hillary. TRUMP really IS guilty. Mueller, after 2+ years of massive investigations, just didn't figure it out.
Introspection is HARD!
If you want to know what the Democrats want you to know, and to think what the Democrats want you to think, then go to Gail Collins and there it will be in battleship grey prose.
It gets old. Just like the Democratic party.
The general view that the left has of the right significantly underestimates it. Combine this with the "intersectionality fracture lines" that are inherent to the way the left has grown/organized. Those create weaknesses that been wide open for a long time, but no one on the right has been willing to really take advantage of them, until now.
Poor babies.
Remind me again who Gail Collins is, and why I would be interested in her opinions?
I still have no idea what Trump wants to do about healthcare. There are a couple data points that give me hope.
Rand Paul seeming to have Trump's ear. We know Paul worked with Trump on his 2017 Executive Order Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition. This resulted in the change to rules regarding association plans last year.
Great as far as it goes, although it's a tiny step and I've not heard of any clear real-world benefits from it yet.
The other data point is Trump not lifting a finger to save the AHCA from dying on the vine. A completely awful and wrong-headed approach to reform, the AHCA didn't address the actual problem with lack of price signals and perverse incentives in healthcare that existed prior to and was worsened by Obamacare.
I could dare to hope that Trump actually gets what the problem with healthcare is -- maybe with Sen. Paul's help -- unlike the dipshit Republicans who pushed AHCA. Optimistic? Definitely, but Trump has surprised me before.
Unbelievable! Collins is actually playing to the people who think it's a bad thing that the president of the United States isn't conspiring with a foreign power against his own country.
The New York Times is such a weird creature--it is simultaneously the biggest and most respected name in news and the most vile disgusting rag ever to achieve mainstream status.
Lefties making the victory lap sweeter. Now jump off a tall building...
Zero sum thinking.
What’s good for Trump is bad for them.
They can’t be happy until Trump is sad.
It’s a game they created and now can’t escspe.
The idea we’re all Americans doesn’t appear anywhere on the box.
But Althouse; that link is to a Gail Collins opinion column. Your headline suggests that it is an action of some kind by "The NYT."
You linked to the column, and you identified Gail Collins as the writer, of course. I am not suggesting that you are employing artifice here. But time and time and time again, I am seeing TrumpFan media critics saying that the media has gotten some things gravely wrong in the coverage of the Mueller investigation. Ans when they start to provide examples, they start talking about opinion columns, or the style of magazine covers, or the mood or feeling of certain high-profile commentators.
You seem to be falling into the same trap, although I expect that you will always be more careful, more nuanced and more circumspect than most.
Still, your headline here could have been, "Gail Collins struggles to cheer up the anti-Trumpsters with 'Bad Times in Trumpville'." But I think that you very much wanted to attack the big dog, which is the New York Times as an institution.
I feel funny writing this to you, Althouse, since it was several years ago that I asked you, "Why keep blogging about your complaints/frustrations with the New York Times? Why not blog the good news and commentary in the Wall Street Journal?" (Followed immediately by my confession to you that I am a Journal subscriber and can view anything I want, whereas I have never been a Times subscriber and thus am severely limited on how many current opinion columns I can read there.)
Let's see. The president is not a traitor and he wants to focus executive energy on one of the broken systems in this country. Sounds like good times for everyone.
Paul Ryan is gone.
The Republicans no longer control the House.
Trump knows he has to be involved.
Three things that move us closer to a GOP healthcare bill.
Democrats pretend Mueller never happened and always just wanted a government takeover of healthcare. Trump engages them in a debate! Proof that Trump has zero idea of what it is a president with a divided Congress does.
For the sake of argument, assume the GOP comes up with a credible healthcare plan.
What exactly are the Dems going to run on in 2020?
These people keep walking into a glass door and smashing their faces, only to turn around and point at the guy on the other side of the room, exclaiming as they point, 'Look at what a klutz he is.'
“Republicans are deplorable” made the Democrats lazy.
“Trump is corrupt” made them think 2020 was a slam dunk.
Pushing for impeachment replaced any legislative agenda.
The limb they’re perched on is being quickly sawed off.
'He also vowed to make the Republicans “the party of health care.” Great strategy!'
The GOPe is no doubt relieved to know that people like Gail Collins share their views on the inadvisability of Republicans taking healthcare seriously.
Well, yes, it is a great strategy (as I just nattered on about in the café). Or rather, an absolutely necessary strategy. Become the "party of healthcare" or die, GOPe. Health care needs serious, sane reform, and carrying on with "mum's the word on health care because we're helpless to do anything about it" is not going to be a winning tactic.
do you remember that baseball player who celebrated his grand slam home run by leaping in the air and fracturing a leg?
No, I do not.
Do you remember the NYT scribbler who scribbled words for a fake news company and when the words were known to be fake she celebrated by leaping into the fray and even if you openly doubted that she was actually smart enough to have an interesting idea, it made you depressed to see her looking so silly due to her inapt analogies even though you already don't remember her? Her first or last name starts with an "M"? That one?
Chuck said...
But Althouse; that link is to a Gail Collins opinion column
Another apologist pretending that "opinion" means it doesn't count.
Chuck, Gail Collins is a Times staffer and regular columnist. She was paid by the Times to write that.
"those thoughts he's causing you to have"
Sure, he is the troll master extraordinaire.
But I'm not sure we can give him credit for "causing" prog thoughts. They always have the same thoughts, regardless.
"Starts with an 'M'"
How soon we forget.
TDS is real and those afflicted have no idea that they are sick, probably because their delusions are reinforced daily by their cohorts. It's mass hysteria that feeds off itself. Is there a cure? Does it eventually resolve itself?
Most people are employed by established businesses, and as long as medical insurance premiums are deducted from their paychecks, they will not be conscious of the actual cost - especially when they are told the fiction that their employers bear half of more of the expense.
So I expect a FUBAR government organized system unavoidably is here to stay.
The NYT just renamed New York City as Trumpville . What more can our beloved President win?
The journals news coverage has been abysmal as to their editorial strassel deserves a Pulitzer as does Holman jenkins.
Media reports bad times in Trumpville.
Bombshell. Walls closing in. This is the beginning of the end.
Kevin said...
For the sake of argument, assume the GOP comes up with a credible healthcare plan.
What exactly are the Dems going to run on in 2020?
Kevin if the GOP came up with a good, credible healthcare reform plan, they would have earned the right to govern the nation for at least four more years.
I am not suggesting that it can't happen. But if it does, it will necessarily involve the Democratic majority in the House. Right? That one point is not arguable, is it? Or are you suggesting that the GOP only needs to come up with a "plan" and not actual legislation. Honestly, Kevin, I'd be fascinated to see even an unsuccessful GOP healthcare reform plan that earned (a) a majority of the GOP minority caucus in the House, and also (b) a majority of the GOP conference in the Senate.
And do you expect that President Trump would have any meaningful role at all in the drafting? Was that part of your emphasis on "2020"?
There is absolutely nothing that can be done with US "health care" until actual medical services delivery is made cheaper. The US is massively inefficient at this, compared to anywhere else on earth. If the US can bring these costs down to even those of the most expensive European countries, then any system is feasible, even "single payer".
Without that it is just shuffling funding sources around. Nearly all the cost of the system is effectively paid out of taxation - direct taxation, through FICA withholding, State taxes, or employer mandates, which are effectively taxes. The US is quite good at hiding taxation. All the reforms are about moving the taxes around. This is futile.
Until the systemic problems that inflate service delivery costs are addressed, this entire controversy is pointless sound and fury.
ADSB: "Well, yes, it is a great strategy (as I just nattered on about in the café). Or rather, an absolutely necessary strategy. Become the "party of healthcare" or die, GOPe."
Trump is light-years ahead of where the GOP-e Surrender Brigade is (big surprise) and though its not likely that he can get enough republicans to actually fulfill their campaign promises (5 decades of LLR collusion with the far left/dems to create Republican Failure Theatre is almost certainly impossible to overcome), at least Trump is showing the population as a whole that he hears them and that its not the entire GOP that has its feet stuck in concrete and happy to wait quietly for the next democrat/lefty to come by and bludgeon him to death.
I am seeing TrumpFan media critics saying that the media has gotten some things gravely wrong in the coverage of the Mueller investigation. Ans when they start to provide examples, they start talking about opinion columns, or the style of magazine covers, or the mood or feeling of certain high-profile commentators.
Gail Collins is on the editorial board.
While it is true that opinion pieces don’t have the same rigorous (HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAHA HA HA HA HA... sorry let me compose myself ha ha . ha sigh...) fact checking as the news organizations. They wear the imprimatur of The New York Times and affect her reputation and become part of the national conversation.
I think that your problem, Chuck, is that you imagine that politics is like some court of law.
But here is an example from a “straight news/analysis” story from the NYT (I have a subscription precisely for times like these.)
Shortly after his former campaign chairman marched into an F.B.I. office to face criminal charges on Monday, President Trump took to Twitter to dismiss their relevance: “There is NO COLLUSION!” [Emphasis in the original]
Yet even as his message went out to more than 41 million followers, news emerged that the authorities were unsealing another case that described how a young foreign policy adviser spent months seeking to connect Mr. Trump’s campaign with Russians offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.. -New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/trump-manafort-indictment-analysis.html
Was this born out Chuck by the Mueller report? It took me only seconds to find the above example, I am certain that I could find many many more.
Kevin: "The limb they’re perched on is being quickly sawed off."
Not to worry lefties.
ALL the LLR's are below that branch and patiently waiting to catch you so that Team Dem/Left/LLR can regroup and redouble their efforts towards achieving permanent dem/left control of govt.
So, chin up, wut wut!
Collins, goldberg Krugman et al are over the cliff and laugh at the roadrunner.
I'm pretty sure that the NYT won't let Just Anyone post Opinion pieces under their Masthead and on their website. Kinda think that IF they publish something, that means they published it
Osnt there a scale program the largest wuropean country is 1/5 of ours?
There is absolutely nothing that can be done with US "health care" until actual medical services delivery is made cheaper.
McCain actually had a pretty good health care reform plan in 2008 but, of course, he didn't know what it was or could explain it.
I have written blog posts for years about a reform based on the French system, which is the best in Europe, but it uses a market-based method to control costs and that would never be acceptable to Democrats.
We were told we needed the ACA (aka: Obamacare) in order to reduce the cost of healthcare and make it available more broadly. This was urgent because there were very large numbers of people without 'healthcare', by which they actually meant health insurance. This number ranged from 30 - 40 million Americans. The other big bugaboo was to prohibit insurers from denying coverage due to preexisting medical conditions.
So, here we are several years later and part of Obamacare has been deemed illegal/unconstitutional, healthcare costs and insurance coverage costs have risen quite a bit, many people remain without health insurance (I've seen estimates in the 30 million range), and lots of people do not have easy and convenient access to healthcare (doctors have retired, hospitals and clinics have closed or consolidated). The only thing that is working as designed is the prohibition on insurance exclusions for preexisting conditions.
This last item is widely understood to be the most (only?) popular feature of Obamacare. So if Trump focuses on a plan to replace Obamacare with something more affordable and that provides greater coverage and access, while retaining the prohibition on denying coverage due to preexisting conditions, he can take ownership of and win this issue.
Trump is light-years ahead of where the GOP-e Surrender Brigade is (big surprise) and though its not likely that he can get enough republicans to actually fulfill their campaign promises
In 1995, I had just completed a Masters in health policy at Dartmouth after I retired from practice. The GOP had just taken Congress. Judd Gregg, then New Hampshire Senator had gotten me interviews in DC. I was really excited that here was a chance to have a rational reform after Hillary had botched it. I offered to work as staff for free if the Congress had anyone interested in such reform. No one was. The only health care issue that would be of interest was tax policy. No "providers" wanted.
That was 24 years ago.
Yes Mueller unlike Tim Geithner didnt pay taxes he got to be treasury secretary after failing to stop the Lehman collapse.
What if the kind things that he says about other dictators, i.e., Putin & Kim, are just to throw off the media and the liberal jerk-nozzles that believe all that they read? Most boxers don't outline their strategy and telegraph their punches, why should the President.
"Unbelievable! Collins is actually playing to the people who think it's a bad thing that the president of the United States isn't conspiring with a foreign power against his own country."
Quite believable. Progs only care about domestic power. Everything else is just a tool, including outrage at Russia or traitorous conduct by a president. It's the Primat der Innenpolitik distorted and ramped up to insanity for prog purposes.
The US is variously @25-30% over the next highest, or double or nearly double the next largest highly developed countries, Japan and Germany. The US spends over twice what Canada spends, all adjusted for PPP. You see the same in %GDP. Note that all of the comparable countries, moreover, have much older populations with consequently higher geriatric care demand, which is the bulk of medical costs.
If the US could bring its costs down to even German levels you could have "single payer" without any extra taxation at all.
The US arguments over "health care", given that the fundamental problem is so obvious, are absurd, artificial, useless, stupid - what else can be said?
The Dems think that putting the emphasis back on healthcare will be a boon to them.
But they haven't thought through how they can now defend Obamacare against Republican attacks while simultaneously advocating single-payer.
There is no obvious roadmap that can smoothly transition from Obamacare to single-payer by stages. There are no mandates on private insurers or on individuals to purchase private insurance, since there is no private insurance in single-payer. The Obamacare exchanges no longer exist, since there are no consumer choices in single-payer.
Hence single-payer amounts to a "repeal and replace" of Obamacare (while simultaneously trying to defend Obamacare from the GOP). Let's see if the Dems can figure this one out once the GOP tries to pin them down on it.
In the American system virtually no one pays their own costs for anything. This is most acute for drugs, where you have people paying copays to the retailer and premiums to the insurance company, who pays premiums to and receives rebates from the pharmacy benefits managers, who pays and receives rebates from wholesalers, retailers and manufacturers.
With so many complicated flows of money that happen outside the actual purchase of anything, prices are a meaningless signal for economics decision making. And so decisions get made on a non-economic basis.
The other system that works this way is education, both K-12 and higher education. At least in health care new and more effective treatments are developed, but that's not really the case with education.
What exactly are the Dems going to run on in 2020?
That's easy. They're going to tax the shit out of us.
That's all the plan ever really is.
"Climate Change" = Taxation.
"Affordable Health Care" = Taxation.
"Gun Control" = Taxation.
"Racial Equality" = Taxation.
"Women's Rights" = Taxation.
Understand that time is money and dealing with excessive regulation amounts to a tax.
Kevin said:
"For the sake of argument, assume the GOP comes up with a credible healthcare plan. "
Sure. No problem.
And for the sake of argument, assume the GOP invents Star Trek-style matter-antimatter fusion as a counterargument to the Green New Deal.
"I know some of you were very sad about the way the Mueller report let Donald Trump off the hook.",
How disgusting that Gail Collins is saddened by the realization that a duly elected President of the United States is NOT a traitor.
buwaya writes:
"There is absolutely nothing that can be done with US "health care" until actual medical services delivery is made cheaper."
There have been actual studies on what the actual cost drivers are. The two biggest cost-drivers are:
1. Gold-plated (often unnecessary) care. Neurotic moms insisting on state-of-the-art antibiotics to fight their children's common colds. MRIs for simple arthritis. Etc.
2. End of life care. That's when the doctors and hospitals will spend a fortune on you trying to stave off your death--but we know that they must fail eventually.
The first problem can be fixed by ensuring that patients have "skin in the game." Instead of a token co-payment for the state-of-the-art antibiotic, do it on a sliding scale: A co-payment of 20% of the cost. You'll be less likely to insist on antibiotics for your cold.
The second problem is going to be painful as hell to solve. We're going to have to face the fact that we can't spend whatever it takes to keep you alive as long as possible, even as a mental vegetable like Terri Schaivo.
For now, at least, brain-dead should mean actual dead.
There is absolutely nothing that can be done with US "health care" until actual medical services delivery is made cheaper. The US is massively inefficient at this, compared to anywhere else on earth. If the US can bring these costs down to even those of the most expensive European countries, then any system is feasible, even "single payer".
I wonder how much the cost of healthcare has risen is due to the 5 star service one gets these days. When I travel and book a hotel, I am very price conscious and look for a good value that does not sacrifice cleanliness and comfort. However, when my child went in for a pre-surgery visit at a local hospital, I had not options as to level of service or amenities. Instead I got royal treatment. There were no less than 6 service providers, including a family counselor. It was not just a nurse doing the vitals followed by a doctor to discuss the procedure. All these personnel cost money to keep on staff. If I were shopping for service and had to pay for it, I might agree to some of the services (It was my daughter, after all, and it was surgery) but maybe forgo some others. But since it was fully covered under insurance, there as not price sensitivity. I got GREAT care and it was ostensibly free, though I paid for it through the rates of my private insurance that my government required me to have.
I suppose if I were required to have travel "insurance" in the same manner, I would be staying at the swankiest hotels, maybe flying first class, etc since it was "covered". Forget the fact that I pay $2000 a month for the free services.
The NYT lets insider democratic hacks write their "journalism"
Amazing how petty our moral and intellectual superiors can be, isn't it?
For the record, I disagree with the court ruling declaring the ACA unconstitutional.
When originally passed, the ACA rested on three pillars: Must Issue, Individual Mandate, and Community Rating. If any of those was found to be unconstitutional, the whole law should be thrown out. Roberts' decisions that the mandate was a tax saved it from that fate.
The Republicans then changed the mandate to remove the fine, thus making it not a tax, and therefore unconstitutional. However, by removing the fine, they removed any expectation that the mandate would be enforced, thus removing one of the original pillars of the law. That was a legislative choice. If the unenforceable mandate is now struck down, ( as it has been ) that does not make the rest of the ACA unconstitutional, because the mandate was no longer an integral part of the scheme.
I say this as someone who thinks the ACA should be repealed, and who also thinks that if it was unconstitutional then it should be struck down even if that was bad politics for my party.
So I am writing to correct this untruth posted by "Nobody" (it sure feels funny to write that):
Nobody said... [quoting me, to begin]
"I am seeing TrumpFan media critics saying that the media has gotten some things gravely wrong in the coverage of the Mueller investigation. Ans when they start to provide examples, they start talking about opinion columns, or the style of magazine covers, or the mood or feeling of certain high-profile commentators."
Gail Collins is on the editorial board.
...
Wrong; she is NOT on the Editorial Board. HERE is the current Editorial Board of the New York Times.
As for other comments on this page, observing that Gail Collins is employed by the New York Times to do regular opinion columns; that is true. Just as it is true that the Fox News Channel employs both Dan Bongino and Donna Brazile to do commentary. But they don't speak for "Fox News." And there's no way that anyone could make a cogent case for any one thing by listening to both of them.
Collins still writes a column? Last time I checked she was writing about Seamus the Irish Setter.
Chuck: And when they start to provide examples, they start talking about opinion columns, or the style of magazine covers, or the mood or feeling of certain high-profile
commentators.
And last night on my way home Scarlett Johansson walked up to me wearing a long fur coat. She just smiled at me seductively and let the coat drop off her shoulders. Revealing these black thigh high boots and a lace thong, that was it. Oh, and a slave collar locked around her neck with a chain leash dangling. And she purred "hey habdsome wanna piece of this?" and she slapped her ass really hard "CRACK!" and then she handed me the end of her leash and -
I know some of you were very sad about the way the Mueller report let Donald Trump off the hook.
There was no hook for him to be on in the first place, you stupid bint.
There was a momentary breach in their reality distortion field but the breach has been patched and all is now well again so the Chucks can go about their lives again worry free.
I believe the most inefficient, wasteful and costly health care providers are the many, Yugem non-profit hospitals and networks. We deal with them and they are generally clueless as to how to run a business and the concept of profit escapes them.
We have presented profitable healthcare businesses to non-profits over the years and their bigshots are dazed and confused that a healthcare business could make a profit. The Yuge systems have VP's coming out their butts just like the colleges do.
I really would like to know what the GOP alternative to Obamacare is. Since Obamacare passed, there has not been one viable plan put forward by the GOP.
Trump in the campaign promised better care with lower deductibles and prices. Suggest anything that would come close to fulfilling his promise.
Since moving away from Washington I have had several opportunities to talk to small businessmen. Most are paying a multiple of what they paid pre-Obamacare for comparable coverage. A tow truck operator (don’t ask) said he was paying seven times what he used to pay, mostly because Obamacare forces him pay for coverages he doesn’t need and doesn’t want to pay for. Most other small business owners pay about three times what they used to pay. Your country club Republican doesn’t mind. Maybe he postponed buying his new Mercedes by a year. But I feel for the people who are trying to make ends meet in the face of the raw contempt of the Democrats.
One relatively well off guy went on a rant. His firm employed 49 people and he wanted to hire more, but it would cost him money until he could hire enough to get up to 55. Which he couldn’t justify. Tough luck for the 2 or 3 he’d have liked to hire but couldn’t.
BTW, has anybody seen any recent figures for how many people in the US lack healthcare coverage? I have not, and I infer it’s because the deceptively-named Affordable Care Act is a failure.
And for the sake of argument, assume the GOP invents Star Trek-style matter-antimatter fusion as a counterargument to the Green New Deal.
Well that would be a terrible outcome for the Democrat Party.
We can surely believe they'd do everything possible to stop it.
Who knew today would be popcorn day??
Via Insty:
Sen. Rand Paul escalated his demand for an investigation into former Obama officials who “concocted” the anti-Trump Russia scandal, revealing that former CIA Director John Brennan was the key figure who legitimized the charges and discredited “dossier” against the president.
And
Trump Announces FBI and DOJ Will Investigate Jussie Smollett Hate Hoax
And
Charges near for Dem lawyer Greg Craig in case linked to Mueller probe
Possible charges tied to alleged false statements
Agent of Ukraine, Manafort ties
And
All 9 Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee demand Democrat Chairman Adam Schiff resign: "we have no faith in your ability to discharge your duties in a manner consistent with your constitutional responsibility and urge your immediate resignation"
Weird Chuck, that you didn't respond to the "analysis" article I posted that clearly strongly implied that Trump was lying about "NO COLLUSION" as they put it. Do you think that that was factual?
I don't think that you can even see stuff that you disagree with when it comes to Trump.
What if he wants you to think he’s a genius and he really just IS a bumbling fool?
It was theoretically possible to think Trump was a nine-dimensional chess player until Ryan, Pelosi, McConnel,
and Schumer proved Trump was actually the freshman girl at the frat party who had no idea what Everclear was. By the time he woke up he had been screwed by both parties on healthcare reform, the budget process, and building a wall.
This last item is widely understood to be the most (only?) popular feature of Obamacare. So if Trump focuses on a plan to replace Obamacare with something more affordable and that provides greater coverage and access, while retaining the prohibition on denying coverage due to preexisting conditions, he can take ownership of and win this issue.
And remove those stupid employee caps. They took a page from France.
It doesn’t work.
"Gail Collins (born November 25, 1945[1]) is an American journalist, op-ed columnist and author, most recognized for her work with the New York Times.[2][3] Joining the Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board, from 2001 to 2007 she served as the paper's Editorial Page Editor – the first woman to attain that position.[2]" - Cuck busted me.
Of course his assertion that it was only the editorial page that pushed proven nonsense remains in tatters. If he wants to keep going, I will take it to smithereens, after that, rubble bouncing.
Improvements on health care by this administration:
https://www.breitbart.com/health/2019/03/28/president-trump-achievements-on-health-care-more-choice-lower-prices-life-saving-drugs/
@Big Mike -- I found this:
Lack of health insurance coverage and type of coverage
It shows a pretty significant drop between 2010 and 2017. This is hardly surprising considering how the ACA is written.
The Left seVEREly misunderestimates the genius that is TRUMP. Can't get their heads around it. Can't even get CLOSE enough to even be in range of being able to get their heads around it.
Yes, Chuck, the editorial board of the NYTimes has much, much less stringent standards than does the rigorously managed front page that only publishes the facts, right?
The op-eds for over two fucking years had been assuring the paper's readers that the "facts" being disclosed by the paper's brilliant, intrepid, and professional investigative journalists were going to be conclusively confirmed by Mueller's investigation, and that Trump and/or his family and staff were going to be indicted and/or impeached. They were, day after day, assuring the readers that it was only a matter of time, not a matter of if.
Honestly, I don't know how it is you actually have any respect for yourself when you write the above comment that you did. The op-eds and the stories the NYTimes printed the entire time were in full agreement with each other, and now both look the ravings of fucking lunatics like yourself.
AJ Lynch reports: I believe the most inefficient, wasteful and costly health care providers are the many, Yugem non-profit hospitals and networks. We deal with them and they are generally clueless as to how to run a business and the concept of profit escapes them.
Senator Chuck Grassley has investigated 'nonprofit' [tax exempt] hospitals executive salaries and compensation. I used to be able to find the data he uncovered but it appears to be lost. Many CEOs were making in excess of $1M/year and there was always a long list of other executives [e.g., Michelle Obama] making six-figure incomes and this was at least two decades ago. And not just hospitals but the mega-medical monopolies that eat up private practices like flesh eating bacteria.
The best ideas at present seem to be based on transparency [costs] and competition, which will take the whole health care 'industry' in a different direction.
Chuck,
Collins might not be on editorial board now, but she actually ran the show from 2001 to 2007. She was the first women at the Times to be named editor of the OP/ED section.
Here’s another one. The New York Times dismisses Trump’s accurate denials, and pushes the World According the Schiff, the man who, we all now know, is a proven liar.
“It’s time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions,” the president said in a statement.
In a tweet, Mr. Trump played up Mr. Mueller’s assertion that the Russian operation had begun in 2014, well before he declared his candidacy. “The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!” he wrote.
Yet [emphasis mine] Mr. Trump sidestepped the fact that he has stubbornly denied Russia’s interference, even after two assessments by the nation’s intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had meddled...
Oh yeah, the assessment by Clapper and Brennen, who have been carrying the Democrats’ water on cable news for two years and have now been shown to be liars, one of whom lied to Congress.
But as Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, put it, “The indictment leaves open the vital question of whether Americans, including any associated with the Trump campaign, knowingly played a role in Russia’s active-measures campaign.”
That seemed a likely avenue of inquiry for an investigation that is casting a lengthening shadow on Mr. Trump’s presidency.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/politics/a-hoax-indictments-make-trumps-claim-even-harder-to-maintain.html
they are generally clueless as to how to run a business and the concept of profit escapes them.
Oh no not doesn't;t. The hospital where I practiced for 30 years was "for profit" and run like a tight ship. There was one administrator who had an assistant and a secretary, We even organized a trauma center that was the highest rated in the County. Then it was sold to a nonprofit run by nuns.
Quality has deteriorated so much that it failed accreditation a few years ago.
I was on the city's planning commission and the hospital applied for permits for a new expansion, They moved the hearing to a larger room so that the 30 assistant administrators could do their dog and pony show. It took hours.
The "profit" is eaten up by bureaucracy and empire building.
News “analysis” from Slate:
https://www.salon.com/2017/10/28/heres-who-could-receive-muellers-indictment/
Newsweek:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-jr-expects-be-indicted-and-more-immediate-jeopardy-jared-kushner-1325227
MSNBC: https://www.msnbc.com/11th-hour/watch/cohen-i-possibly-overheard-trump-don-jr-discussing-trump-tower-meeting-1449616451952
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/white-house-bureau-chief-tells-msnbc-trump-showing-anxiety-future-indictments-mueller/
That’s some responsible reporting right there!
I could go on, but it’s pretty pointless because you are blind to any evidence that doesn’t support your pre-concieved collusion conclusions, Chuck. I didn’t even get to CNN.
Freder: "Since Obamacare passed, there has not been one viable plan put forward by the GOP."
Obamacare is no more viable than your Bundy trial analysis.
However, if you lefties and LLR's intended for your plan to triple and quadruple premiums and deductables, crush small businesses, and use funds to buy off illegals, well, then all is well.
Althouse said: "What if those thoughts he's causing you to have — thoughts about what an utter screw-up he is — are part of his genius way of winning?"
Shhhhhh...that's the secret!
I wish Trump would promote health care by financing more health care workers at all levels: doctors, nurses, etc.
What we need is more providers of health care.
We also need the people who consume the service to be more price sensitive.
That is the missing feedback mechanism that distorts the market.
Health insurance is about who pays.
The person who pays is the person with control.
(PS That lying liar Jonathan Gruber was on PBS the other night.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/policy/healthcare/223578-obamacare-architect-lack-of-transparency-helped-law-pass%3famp
Freder Frederson said...
I really would like to know what the GOP alternative to Obamacare is. Since Obamacare passed, there has not been one viable plan put forward by the GOP.
Letting Obamacare die is an alternative plan. Not a bad one, either.
Here is a good essay on what is happening with the Collusion Believers. It is by Zman. Here is the best part:
"What we’re seeing with the Left is a child learning that they have not only been adopted, but they have been in a coma their whole life and everything they believe about themselves is a dream. Rachel Maddow right now is someone sure she was a Jewish TV lesbian, but has learned she is really white guy with two kids and an ex-wife, working at the Home Depot. Everything about who she was in the moral sense is not just false, it never existed. As a result, she never really existed. She was part of the fraud."
What if he wants you to think he’s a genius and he really just IS a bumbling fool?
The genius of America is not the "leaders" who come to Washington with multiple PhD's.
It's the American people working together to build their communities and live their lives in peace and prosperity.
The Democrats used to understand this basic idea.
Trump found it in the trash when leaving one of their fundraisers, picked it up, and carried it all the way back to the White House.
In the meantime, the first question anyone running for the Democratic nomination is asked is "what degrees do they hold?"
Elizabeth Warren has a bunch of them and doesn't even know what it means to be native American.
In this the left and NeverTrump right are unified.
"What's Trump doing? That idiot cant win elections talking about healthcare! That's a republican loser! Hahahaha! Moron!"
I'm starting to think Trump doesn't really care or even think about politics.
Instead, he thinks, "What's best for America and Americans?" And when he focuses on that, and because most of America agrees with him, he wins in politics.
But this isn't how politicians think. And this isn't how our talking head media thinks. In their mind, Republicans need to do certain things to win. And winning is what is important,not what you do with the win.
@Henry, well your link did not show what I had thought the reality was, but thank you. Good to begin discussion on the basis of reality.
Trump Announces FBI and DOJ Will Investigate Jussie Smollett Hate Hoax
Is this true?! Talk about wasting the time and resources of the FBI and DOJ. As stupid as his stunt was, it does not rise to a level requiring federal investigation.
I have written blog posts for years about a reform based on the French system, which is the best in Europe, but it uses a market-based method to control costs and that would never be acceptable to Democrats.
You keep saying that without a shred of evidence that it is true. And btw, Obamacare is market based so I don't know what the hell you are talking about.
2. End of life care. That's when the doctors and hospitals will spend a fortune on you trying to stave off your death--but we know that they must fail eventually.
@sinz52, the problem for your analysis is that no one knows when the procedures will fail and the elderly patient dies, and when they will succeed. The notion that treatment "must fail eventually" could be used to deny me treatment for a treatable condition because I am in my seventies (or to Althouse because she's in her sixties), but it could theoretically be extended to deny treatment to a child because "eventually" comes to us all.
Let me know when you find a country with single payer that does not ration access to healthcare on the basis of age.
How are they going to protect people from being denied insurance because of pre existing conditions? Do they have ANY plans for doing that? Why not tell the American people that they will not go back to the bad old days of being denied insurance due to something in their health record? Nothing more than lip service, and we’ve gotten more than enough of that from people purporting to have a great new system of doing things only to see it’s a farce.
This. I want this. More lamentations of their women.
Yeah, you guys all talking about this and that and the other thing, all the while forgetting Omarosa and Tom Arnold are going to provide the nasty tapes and videos any day now that will def cause Trump to resign in disgrace and leave the country.
(Right Chuck, Fredor, Inga)
Keep hope alive, and do not forget to
MAGA
It's not a true victory lap until he declares, "I won."
Since Obamacare passed, there has not been one viable plan put forward by the GOP.
Why should there be? If was a big, effin' deal that promised to solve everything.
Don't blame us because it turned out to be a bunch of crap. Own it.
"Freder Frederson said...
I really would like to know what the GOP alternative to Obamacare is. Since Obamacare passed, there has not been one viable plan put forward by the GOP."
You may be too young to remember this but there actually was a health insurance and healthcare system in place before Obamacare. Hard to believe, I know, as history only really began with his election. As others have stated, letting Obamacare die is an alternative.
I'm agog that democrats actually think the rest of the country is clambering for them to fuck things up again after the obamacare trainwreck. Like a doctor who lost their license for botched surgerys, I don't think we can afford their "help"any more on something this complicated or that requires political compromise. Their top down, party line vote on Obamacare just proves they aren't up to the job so yeah, it will most like be up to the Republicans to figure things out.
Freder Frederson wrote: I really would like to know what the GOP alternative to Obamacare is. Since Obamacare passed, there has not been one viable plan put forward by the GOP.
What I really want to know is why are you suddenly obsessed by viability, because it obviously did not concern you before. Obamacare is dying the death its own legal and economic contradictions preordained. Given that fact, pray explain how the Democrats' plan met your "viabilty" concerns?
So what if the GOP plan isn't "viable"? (Note that viable is the exact word that was propagated by Pelosi's staff through various Democrat talking points blogs yesterday afternoon.) If it lasts ten years it will have been twice as "viable" as Obamacare, and will likely cost half as much in opportunity costs as the staggering monster the Obama/Reid/Pelosi cabal foisted on this nation.
As stupid as his stunt was, it does not rise to a level requiring federal investigation.
It's not about the stunt, Freder. It's about the actions of the people who simply dismissed the charges.
Freder said "...it does not rise to a level requiring federal investigation."
It does if you care about keeping a lid on Chicago this summer.
It would be nice if HSAs were the standard so that many more people were self-insured.
Get really rich and buy catastrophic insurance.
That's a better option than depending on Uncle Sugar.
Doctors need less paperwork.
Then they can see more patients and provide more care.
Government bureaucrats love paperwork because that means job security.
The paperwork is killing colleges and medical services too.
All that paperwork is a great part of buwaya's noted inefficiencies.
And it would increase doctor retention.
But the government would have to surrender control.
The Dems pivot to healthcare is the functional equivalent of "Look, there's a squirrel".
A distraction from their Mueller debacle is devoutly desired by the Dims.
How are they going to protect people from being denied insurance because of pre existing conditions? Do they have ANY plans for doing that?
You mean like the risk pools that existed before Obamacare destroyed the healthcare system that satisfied 85% of the population?
Obamacare destroyed what had existed and was fine for everyone but the poor. They had Medicaid but it was rife with fraud, as is usually the case with welfare.
You cannot have "preexisting conditions" in any insurance plan. Pre-existing conditions aren no more insurable that house fires are insurable after the fire has started.
HSAs would have worked but insurance companies jacked up "retail" prices so subscribers would think they were getting a deal.
Don't spike the football on the 5-yard line
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/27/politics/mueller-grand-jury-investigation/index.html
The NYT is trying to keep its readers happy. CNN lost viewers because they don’t have a replacement for collusion yet.
They are discussing “healthcare” . This is devastating and funny
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V0zf7oEI9uM
FF believes there is nothing to the Smollett hoax.
Well, there was a willingness to gin up race riots. And Smollett was willing to testify against what he thought were two white guys who got arrested. But there was also the letter with the powder. That's probably faking a terrorist threat. It's like fake bomb threats. Most of us see even fake bomb threats as serious. And it’s mail fraud. That's a lot more than Don Jr ever did and some here wanted him jailed.
Smollett committed a nasty racial hate crime. I think that serious enough to investigate.
“But Althouse; that link is to a Gail Collins opinion column”
As if the NYT isn’t entirely opinion from cover to cover.
For Buwaya: I lived in New Zealand from 2010 to 2015. WHO ranks it higher than the US in healthcare. We returned to the US because healthcare there sucks. It’s “cheaper” than the US because they ration EVERYTHING. Equipment is scarcely adequate in numbers and mostly obsolete. People wait for moths or even years for surgeries you can get next week in the US—think rotator cuff repair, knee and hip replacements etc. The Kiwis think it’s great, because it’s “free” (i.e. they don’t connect the dots that 30% income tax and 15% sales tax on EVERYTHING, e.g. when you pay your property tax, that is further taxed by 15%!) and because it’s all they’ve ever known. I don’t know about France, but I can tell you that Canada and the UK are similar.
For Fredor: “Obamacare is market based” Sorry, you’re on crack or a moron.
For Big Mike: you nailed it. All public healthcare systems ration care. Individual freedom goes away.
“Mitch McConnell has no intention of leading President Donald Trump’s campaign to transform the GOP into the “party of health care.”
“I look forward to seeing what the president is proposing and what he can work out with the speaker,” McConnell said in a brief interview Thursday, adding, “I am focusing on stopping the ‘Democrats’ Medicare for none’ scheme.””
Politico
I’m laughing at Rahm “ never let a crisis go to waste” Emmanuel and his statement it’s not a Federal issue.
Doctors need less paperwork.
Then they can see more patients and provide more care.
Government bureaucrats love paperwork because that means job security.
The paperwork is killing colleges and medical services too.
And maybe worse: It's all done on computers now and a lot of physicians hate it. Some hire 'scribes' to take the office visit notes while he/she examines the patient. It should be more efficient but somehow we see just as many lost files and errors as we did before. And physicians are required to sign off on minor items like insulin needles that used to be approved by a nurse or medical assistant. Most doctors I know want to retire as soon as possible [or as soon as they pay off their student loans]. And I don't know any young people headed for medical school. Nearly all our physicians in this area are foreign born. Sad.
“Don't spike the football on the 5-yard line
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/27/politics/mueller-grand-jury-investigation/index.html”
I saw that yesterday, very interesting that this Mueller Grand Jury is going forth, “robustly”. I guess it’s not over after all.
Anonymous Deodand said...
"This. I want this. More lamentations of their women."
Freder obliged.
Spent last week in the hospital with a leg infection, cellulitis. I was dressed, signed papers and ready to leave when the case manager came in and told me my insurance company (Ambetter) would not immediately approve the oral antibiotic prescribed for me for use after discharge. They told him they had 24 hours to approve or disapprove it and since this was 2 PM on a Friday, it might be Monday before it was decided. He explained to them that they would not let me go home without it, thus the insurance company would incur the expense of three more days of hospital care. They gave him a "back door number" and told him to call Saturday after 9 AM. They did approve it (my cost: $7 co-pay) but they paid for another full night in the hospital.
Madness.
THEOLDMAN
The left ruin everything they control. Everything they touch.
The left control education - and it's mostly ruined.
Look at how much college presidents make in a year - 4 million+ - administrators pull in millions., Now the tax payer will be made to pay for it all.
Smollett committed a nasty racial hate crime.
Not just race. His incitement targeted race and party, presumably triggered by a bright red hat. He and the supporting cast of journolists, politicians, and activists, should be charged for the crimes he committed with a diversity (i.e. color judgment including racism etc) enhancement.
It is really curious how the media and the D's/Nancy share the exact same talking points and buzzwords and phrases.
Must be a coincidence.
Keep Hope alive, Inga.
CLARIFICATION: This story was updated to more precisely reflect Attorney General Bill Barr's letter to Congress. Specifically, Barr quoted from special counsel Robert Mueller's report to say the "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
I wonder what the original date of that crap from CNN Clinton News Network - is really? Such jackasses and harassment pimpers.
Freder Frederson wrote: I really would like to know what the GOP alternative to Obamacare is. Since Obamacare passed, there has not been one viable plan put forward by the GOP.
Exactly correct. LLR;s and swamp creatures pretended they had a plan while Obama was president.
They lied.
That is why President Donald Trump, best president since Reagan, is taking it upon himself to come up with a plan.
Stay tuned, it will be a beautiful plan. You will be able to keep your doctor AND save an average of $2500.00 per year.
Naturally, media and fanatics and liars will lie and complain. That is their job.
BleachBit-and-Hammers: "It is really curious how the media and the D's/Nancy share the exact same talking points and buzzwords and phrases."
Media, dems, Nancy and the LLR's.
Never forget the far left LLR wing of the democrat party.
“Shortly after Trump stopped speaking, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement declaring that congressional Democrats seek to “force a complete and total government takeover of the healthcare system.””
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-28/trump-says-he-asked-senators-to-create-spectacular-health-plan
LOL! I can’t wait to hear about how they plan to do that. Or do they just expect everyone to believe them? Lip service is cheap.
That was an interesting article by Zman. I wonder if half a nation has ever believed a hoax before and then seen it collapse in a day? There have been disagreements on religion, slavery, communism; but even if a nation changed its mind or came to think that what it once believed was wrong, e.g., communism was not the wave of the future, it never happened in one day to 63 million people. This might be a unique event so far but is it one that could happen in the future? Such an event depends on people voluntarily not understanding what the other side says. If we want to show people how great the culture of West is we can point out that in that culture people are taught to learn the arguments of the opposing side and to respect the people on the other side. Right now in the race/women's studies culture the culture of the West is called dead white male privilege. And maybe it is a privilege to be one of those taught to learn the other side instead of being taught to be a gullible fool listening to Rachel Maddow; but it's a privilege available to anyone, any race, gender, creed. And reading the literature of the West, novels and plays showing how different people think, helps you learn how to listen to the other side. Or you can do transgender studies and learn to be a gullible fool.
Wildswan: "I wonder if half a nation has ever believed a hoax before and then seen it collapse in a day?"
Yes.
Hillary's inevitable victory.
All the leftists like Inga and LLR Chuck basked in that "certainty" which itself was the product of a suppression ploy, repeated every 4 years, by the leftist/LLR hoax media.
What if those thoughts he's causing you to have — thoughts about what an utter screw-up he is — are part of his genius way of winning?
I hate to have to continue to point out when you are in error, however, you continue to be in error.
Where you continue to make these errors, Althouse, is you keep assuming that well credentialed people are actually smart!
You have credentials. You think you are smart. And perhaps you are. But there is a difference between 'well read', pedantic, obsessed with weird cultural icons, and 'open minded™'; and actual intelligence.
All of these make them similar to you...and if they are similar, than the idea that Trump is causing them to make this constant string of errors must a) make him a genius, and b) make YOU smarter than Gail for seeing this so clearly. (Nothing like a twofer)
Let me suggest that the same people who hire Sarah Jeong and spent 2 years chasing what was clearly a transparent lie are might not be smart people.
Let me suggest that the same people who hire Sarah Jeong and spent 2 years chasing what was clearly a transparent lie are might not be smart people.
FIDO, allow me to offer a distinction. These people, or these acts that you describe rather, may be, from a certain point of view, smart, but they are not wise.
BleachBit-and-Hammers: "It is really curious how the media and the D's/Nancy share the exact same talking points and buzzwords and phrases."
Media, dems, Nancy and the LLR's.
Never forget the far left LLR wing of the democrat party.
3/28/19, 7:39 PM
About a year ago, Rush spent the better part of one hour probing his hypothesis that the media is in control and Democrat politicians are happy as clams being operated by the media. Politicians get cushy jobs in DC. They have sold their soul, they don't care. They have the illusion of being in power.
Rush cataloged specific events, happening live where congress critters responding to questions live, were all over the board, did not know what the event meant, or what the Federal govt position might be. In about 6 hours, they are all on the same page. The page the 24 media wrote for them.
Like I said. Rush was working on a hypothesis, in real time on live radio. Since then I have paid attention to big events and it is true the politician take the positions of the talking heads, not the other way around.
Unfortunately one of the reasons that costs for health insurance have risen dramatically during the ACA years is due to the pre-existing conditions coverage.
For consumers it’s a great benefit of course; but for insurance companies — who must consider this question from a risk-analysis and cost-control perspective — it is a substantial added risk and therefore an added cost.
I also agree with buwaya that the primary driver here is cost of service, mostly created by the consumer having zero knowledge of the true costs involved and therefore zero incentive to change behavior. When a good or service appears to be free, people will consume it without any real limit.
What FIDO said at 11:29 and Nichevo modified right after.
Media types are good at writing and/or talking. Most of them are not domain experts on anything real, like energy or the markets or finance or law or ... you get the picture.
In fact, this is a major reason why blogs like this one and Instapundit and several others I read regularly are so much more vibrant and interesting — domain knowledge. And there is no doubt in my mind that the writers at these blogs are both smarter and wiser than 99.5% of the writers and talkers that the media gives us. And so is their readership.
When I read any column I look for a writer who can bring some elevated thought to the discussion - gail's writing always seems very basic with no wit or deep thought.
We're going to have to face the fact that we can't spend whatever it takes to keep you alive as long as possible
Who is this "we"? I can spend whatever it takes (that I have) to keep me alive - or my family alive - as long as possible. What say do you have in it?
Its almost impossible to get people to think clearly about Healthcare. The same people who want open borders and are OK with 50 million poor "migrants" coming here, are the same ones who want "free" healthcare for all.
We can't give "free", quality, healthcare to everyone. Especially if we're going to import 1 million poor immigrants/illegals every year. You either have to do something about costs: slowing the growth of insurance and drug company profits, equipment cost, doctors and nurses salaries, etc. OR you need to ration health care. OTOH, you can give the whole USA (and everyone in the world who "Migrates" Here) great healthcare AND have sky-rocketing costs if you're willing to double the income tax.
But as usual, everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too. We'll wave a magic wand and have the freedom to choose our doctor, "free" healthcare for everyone, add millions of poor immigrants AND it will cost us nothing.
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