Liberals Target Grassley on Public Option

What are the poll numbers for the public option in Iowa? If most are not in favor of the public option, Grassley's position will be enhanced. (Hopefully so!)

As an Iowan, I would like to ask Senator Grassley the following: I now have great insurance though my employer, but I would like to retire before I am elgible for Medicare. As a 58-year old diabetic, the question is, Who will insure me? Until the country has a solution for who will insure those that the insurance companies will not, I think a public option must be something to consider.

How about targeting Baucus and the Blue Dog democrats?? They are the ones that will scuttle health reform. They could by giving back the millions in campaign contributions....or shouldn't we say "day to play" from the health industry.....they make Blogovich look like a pansy! I am a life long democrat and I am disgustsed!

Grassley is looking out for the insurance companies and protecting his $2.6 million he has received so far from health care entities.(That figure is several months old)
Without Public Option health care reform will be a farce. It is the only plan that will help bring big business into line and
stop the outlandish behavior and greed.
Without it the insurance companies, etc will be able to continue on with the raping of the American people.

How many Americans will have to file bankruptcy and/or lose their homes before we all wake up and STOP the greed of the insurance companies. This is nuts. We need a strong public option to get them in line once and for all. If they can't compete with it, it'll be because of their huge salaries and bonuses to their execs, all their perks etc. Or perhaps because of how they treats their customers? Or all of the above? Politicians regardless of party who don't vote for a plan with a strong public option won't have their jobs when they come up for reelection. We'll all make sure of it. We'll donate to good, decent opponents in primaries or if they get thru that, we'll simply vote against them.

Chuck Grassley and I were both born in Bremer County, Iowa, attended Iowa schools, graduated from University of Northern Iowa, but Grassley has never cared about Iowans, received over $2.9 million from Insurance Companies, and is known to support the death panels of the insurance industry who make life-and-death decisions. I am 63, possess an earned doctorate from Carnegie-Mellon U, and numerous post-graduate degrees from various schools, but have been unemployed/unemployable for the past 6 years (being told I am "too old" and "overqualified") have no health or dental insurance, have not seen a doctor/dentist for 7 years (I have a "precondition"--quadruple bypass) had my home foreclosed by Wells Fargo while making payments (they claimed they did not have my address, but I received bills I paid monthly) and Grassley says its not his fault "that is how the system works." It is time to change the system and vote Grassley out of office, for he is as great a liar as his grandson Patrick who is running for "his old seat" in the Iowa legislature--claiming he does not want "[federal] government interferene in medical mattrs" yet voted in 2003 for the government to interfere with Teri Shaivo of Florida although legally and clinically brain dead for years. Grassley is a member of "The Family" of C Street in Washington, DC and argues that Jesus wants his "troops" to go for the gold--yet Jesus in my bible was poor and accepted everyone--something the Grassley family has never done. Grassley's posturing on health care and the public option will win him more insurance contributions and Iowa and the nation will be the more poor for it.

Grassley should be removed from office and then deported. I'm sure he has enough money from the insurance industry to take up residence elsewhere.

Senator Grassley is a Republican who is actually trying to get healthcare reform that will pass the Senate, as opposed to most Republicans who are simply trying to obstruct any change to the passage of the status quo.

The comments on this blog seem to be made by people who are less interested in achieving heath coverage for all and more concerned about implementing their socialist fantasies about punishing corporations. We could have had universal coverage 30 years ago if Democrats didn’t insist on a single-payer system.

Get your priorities straight people! Lets get this done.

It would be nice if when you mention republicans and blue cross democrats oppose the public option you also mentioned because they are paid by the medical industrial complex to oppose it. They're opposition is all about how they have been and continue to be legally bribed to do so. It's not a philosophical debate, they are h*ores, plain and simple, marching around on their knees giving political head to anybody with the money.

Grassley is the Bebdict Arnold here. Now that he's been exposed as the HUGE hypocrite that he is, he'll have to go for the public option or find himself out of a job next election. Right Benedict?

Cash for Codgers

Democrats, realizing the success of the President's "Cash For Clunkers" rebate program, have revamped a major portion of their National Health Care Plan.

President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Sen. Reed are expected to make this major announcement at a joint news conference later this week. I have obtained an advanced copy of the proposal which is named....

"CASH FOR CODGERS" and it works like this... Couples wishing to access health care funds in order to pay for the delivery of a child will be required to turn in one old person. The amount the government grants them will be fixed according to a sliding scale. Older and more prescription dependent codgers will garner the highest amounts.

Special "Bonuses" will be paid for those submitting codgers in targeted groups, such as smokers, alcohol drinkers, persons 10 pounds over their government prescribed weight, and any member of the Republican Party.

Smaller bonuses will be given for codgers who consume beef, soda, fried foods, potato chips, lattes, whole milk, dairy products, bacon, Brussel sprouts, or Girl Scout Cookies.

All codgers will be rendered totally useless via toxic injection. This will insure that they are not secretly resold or their body parts harvested to keep other codgers in repair.

Do you think it's a coincidence that Baucaus of MT and Conrad of ND and Bingaman of NM, who all sit on the Senate Finance Commitee, all got so much $$$ from the insurance industry?

These 3 supposed Dems all need to held accountable for there lack of support for a public option.

What is it with these Rethugs and poll numbers...Look how many times Bush poll numbers were low and he still won 2 terms...

Republicans likes to live poor just give them their guns bibles and whiskey...

Nope the rest of us are going to live the American Dream which includes quality healthcare, education and a clean environment....

Wow! that's the platform Obama ran on!!

A politician sticking to his guns on the campaign trail...NAH IT CAN'T BE TRUE

OBAMA IS A SUPER PRESIDENT AND WILL WIN IN 2012

All I know is, if you listen to NPR and watch cable news on a regular basis, you will see or hear Senator Grassley about 75 times a day, every day. He is interviewed about health care reform more often than all the other players put together. What's up with that? The connection between Grassley the news media might be a story as worthy of persuing as his tight connections to the insurance industry.

Grassley is a confirmed lair who has been caught on tape doing so. Can one negotiate with a lair! I think not.

We need to stop government health care now! Congress will begin the debate again in September, we must inform them that we don't approve.
https://planotexaspolitics.wordpress.com/

I want reform, but starting another medicare entitlement is not sustainable. I have seen how it works with my older relatives. They all have a corner in the kitchen with dozens of prescription bottles. They show me their bills in the 10's of thousands which medicare pays. Nobody wants to talk about it, but benefits need to be trimmed down and be more basic and the fraud reduced. We put the whole country on medicare and we will have a medical and financial disaster. This government cannot run any program on a budget. People will complain and the reps in DC will just pile on more benefits without regard to cost and just print more money and borrow more from China until we collapse.

Republicans equate better health-care to more expensive health-care. That's why health insurance companies thrive in gleeming office towers and hospitals are under construction everywhere, to be equipped with the latest in costly diagnostic imaging equipment. Meanwhile, where can I find a doctor who has the time to sit down with me for an hour to discuss my health issues? Republicans are the party of money. The health-care debate isn't about health-care. It's about money. People have been motivated with lies to bellow at town-hall meetings so those who have the money and want to continue to get the money are not forced to endure any changes to their environment whatsoever. Republicans are doing what comes naturally to the party of money and party of "don't care about the people." That would include the PROTECTOR OF THE PURSE, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa. He is truly against change of any sort.

There is not alot wrong with the basic structure of how health care is presented in America. Mostly, we get into a plan through our employer but when the jobs disappear, so does the connection to the plan. The economy coming back will take care of that tho it is coming back far too slowly. The progress made in medicine is expensive and it would help if funding could be found to offset those expenses. But to give health care out free to all? That's naive tho well-meaning. We are all expected to work in this country unless profoundly disabled. We have Medicaid and Medicare to cover the elderly and those unable to work. What needs work is the vetting system to prevent cheating and fraud and double-billing. Thorough reviews to streamline the process may also help. But keep the basic structure intact.

I monitor opensecrets.org regularly especially when a politician takes such a vocal stand.

Chuck Grassley's top donations are from the insurance, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries by a wide margin.

Also take a look at his other anti "Obamacare" compatriots; Tom Price, Michelle Bachmann and Jim Demint. All of them have received an influx of money from the very people they are siding with. Bachman and Demint almost identically, it's no wonder they are often issuing press releases together.

It really doesn't take much to put the pieces together.

Hopefully Chuck Grassley and Bachman and Demint will be out in the next election as well as Baucas.

"I want reform, but starting another medicare entitlement is not sustainable. I have seen how it works with my older relatives. They all have a corner in the kitchen with dozens of prescription bottles. They show me their bills in the 10's of thousands which medicare pays."

So, you would prefer that there be no prescription bottles in the corner? And am I correct in assuming that you would prefer that they have 10's of thousands in UNPAID bills to show you? Because, that is what we currently have for too many Americans already. If that is your definition of "reform" I do not agree.

Cutting waste and fraud is vital. However, cutting benefits is not the place to begin. There is wastful spending across all government programs. A significant portion of it is a direct result of your representative "bringing home the bacon" to your state/district. Take a page from Palin and tell them "thanks but no thanks". If we stop holding our hands out for our share of the pork we might get a better hand on spending.Throwing our seniors under the bus is not the place to start.

Single Payer is the only way to save money! - the whole world knows it! ...except politicians bought by the insurance industry (wall street) in the USA!

Single Payer, public option will cut 30% of healthcare costs that now go towards filling out insurance forms and coding and billing.

There are several models out there of National Health Insurance that give dozens of choices of insurance carriers, doctors and that result in better outcomes.

Reform won't be Obama's Waterloo, it will be the last time Americans ever listen to the extremist anti-government right wing ideologues.

Why do they hate America?

Grassley repeated Sarah Palin's wretched lies on one day, then reversed himself the next day when the Iowa press called him on his lies, only to double-down on his lies the following day after his funders read him their version of the riot act.

He has repeatedly stated that he would vote against a bill that met all of his requirements if a majority of Republicans wouldn't sign on. What a duplicitous creature he is. He has no intentions of helping draft ANY bill. At this point, he is merely a puppet being controlled by GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell who have threatened him with a lack of party funding in the primaries if he negotiates, and by his insurance industry backers who will do the same. The man has no credibility or dignity left.

The lies of the right wingnuts on this topic are endless. They are not interested in the good of the American people. For the Repukeliscum, the ideal health care system involves running a benefit at a car wash to pay for health care. In Canada, you get health care. In the US, you need to run a pancake breakfast, and then if you take in enough, you get health care. Otherwise, you die.

A few weeks ago, a crazy NRA gunman went to a health club and shot women. One was a young woman who has aged out of insurance, and probably cannot afford to buy it. She was shot by an insane NRA nut, and now she is running a benefit at a car wash to save her life.

Many folks are getting wound up concerning the "Public option"...
HOW ABOUT WE MAKE THE PUBLIC OPTION FOR PROFIT??????
We could use the profit to help defray the cost of the program (ie pay for those that cannot afford it)and indirectly still keep the insurance companies in line but keeping the profit percentage lower than theirs...

To the right-wing-nuts: capitalism as a model for health care is a dismal failure. We pay more than any "developed" nation per capita for health care and have mediocre to poor results by any reasonable measure of health outcomes. Even that bastion of capitalism - Switzerland - tried for-profit health insurance and in a few short years repealed it by a massive majority in a national referendum.

Forget tort reform (~5% of costs) and remove the administrative overhead of our current system (~33% of costs) and you'll have more money in your stingy (it's MINE, ALL MINE) pockets!

Otherwise pack your bags and move to Guatemala - a wonderful example of a "your-on-your-own" government -- no taxes (effectively collected) and no services. Of course, you'd have to rely on commie Cuban-trained docs (poor Cuba - an impoverished nation that does as well as we do on health outcomes!).

How do men like Grassley and Baucus stand to live with themselves? They as much as any other factor might be the reason that we don't get good healthcare reform.

Both of these individuals are aware of the state of healthcare in America. Both of them know that the situation is not only bad but critical. They understand that this is about human suffering and in some cases life and death. They've seen the same shocking stories over the years that we all have. People denied treatment by insurance companies. Insurance companies rejecting life saving procedures. They know that insurance companies run death panels and have for years. Decision makers who deny treatment needed to live.

Millions of people sit on the verge of having a real improvement made in the quality of life and these two guys work hard to torpedo it. Both of them are recipients of lots and lots of insurance industry money for campaign contributions.

Like I said, How do these guys live with themselves? How do they look in the mirror? There's a lot of blood on their hands.

Republicans would cut off their own nose to spite their face.
Negotiation with republicans is a fruitless exercise; the only way to get anything done is to ram a bill right down their putrid little republican throats.
I hope they choke on it.

Financial connections of Grassley, Hatch's family, Boehner and the other saboteurs of Health Care Reform should be pointed out constantly, firmly and loudly by All media.
But don't expect any such PUBLIC service from Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, O'Reilly and other blabber mouths.

The GOP is absolutely owned by two classes: 1) Ultra-rich screw everybody else trash.
2) Ignorant Aryan Nation, KKK, Survivalists nuts of the NRA, primitive/self designated "Christian" fundamentalists, and other freaks.

If most people look little closer they will fine out Democrats and Republicans are taken big money money from the Big Insurance Companies. So you can stop blame the Republicans. you do not hear much about the Democrats doing anything wrong. from the Liberal New media such as LA times New York Times and Washington post. also there are some people that blame every thing on the Republicans. my self i do not want universal health care. there have been some to mention to cut the waste and fraud is correct. also the people that want the pork in there district. right there we could save billions. asfar as health care goes it can be done by stoping insurance company from denide clams when it should be payed. no existing problem should be denided. for the people with no insurance the gov. can give them votcher to help pay for insurance.

Republicans are against reform simply because they fell entitled to keep sucking 33% of every dollar spent on healthcare to line their pockets.
All Americans need to understand that death panels exist already at Insurance companies; they're called medical review boards and utilization review departments. Their ONLY purpose is to DENY care to members - that would be people who have paid premiums - for the sole purpose of maintaining profit margins to pay a bunch of people who don't do anything to provide care.
So it's either do the good and Christian thing and provide healthcare to the less fortunate, or defend greedy pocket lining republican scum bags, many of the exact same people who also fleece regular Americans by credit card loan sharking and sub-prime mortgage lending.

If you would like to help pressure your Congressmen to pass single payer health care reform please join our voting bloc at:
http://www.votingbloc.org/Health_Bloc.php

I'll send money to whoever runs against him. He needs to start putting the American people before party and special interests.

I, Charles Ernest Grassley, pledge allegiance to the lobbyists of the Heath Insurers of America and to the corruption for which they stand, a "Christian" nation, under God, with Congressional payoffs for all.

You gotta love the post from the guy who said "Down with government health-care". Can you see him tearing up his Medicare care?

Since it is obvious that the republicans will not support a "public" option or any serious reform, I say to he11 with 'em. Medicare for all. Shove it down their lying,conniving gullets.

The public option is vitally needed to keep the insurance market equal and to provide insurance for people who cannot get affordable care due to pre-existing conditions, race discrimination due to genetic history, and past rescissions or unaffordability. The reform is needed to keep private insurers honest and to stop the unethical practice of denying care, rescissions of policies and the implementation of electronic billing, payment and medical records that eat up costs in time consumption and red tape the current system has in administrative costs in both Medicare and Private Insurance. IF your Repulican Senator or Congressman is against putting these measures in place such as what is listed in HR 3200, then I would have to ask for whom he or she is working for? Patient care and cost reductions in the health care system should be their priority not contributions from the private insurance industry to stop reform. Who are these people representing?

A lot of talk about bring down the cost health care is through tort reform and a few other programs that would help the medical professional charge less for their services. The truth is the services providers are actually being paid less every year by the insurance companies. So the only real cost increase is in the cost of our insurance premiums. Our out of pocket expensive are going up at the same time the insurance companies are paying less. We can make the system work more efficiently, but the only we can control the cost to the consumer is through a public option.

Face the cold hard facts voters. The democrats want to help the people and the republicans want to help the insurance companies and themselves. Nothing has changed the POLICIES AND CORRUPTION OF THE BUSH ADM. is still going strong.

I think that fair minded people who opposed to the public option are disturbed by Grassley's bad faith negotiations. I think a more effective ad would be to target the GOP as being obstructionist. While most Americans might be leery about the bill, I think Americans are seeing who is holding out their hand and who is biting that hand. I think you will see a game changer after Labor Day, because the Republicans are over playing their hand.

Obama and his accomplices will try to manipulate and coerce Grassley into submitting to their will. We pray he has enough courage and cares enough for his country to refuse to compromise with evil.

Obamacare (as “public option,” “co-op,” or whatever names they use to manipulate us) has NOTHING to do with improving our health care system. It's just another power grab that would further destroy our health care, destroy our economy, steal money from our children and grandchildren, multiply our deficit, and enslave us through lies, manipulation, intimidation and coercion.

Imitating Hugo Chavez, Obama wants to nationalize everything, including our health care system! "Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama!" Chavez cheered on Venezuelan TV. He added that he and Cuba's Fidel Castro would now have to work harder just to keep up.
http://www.hacer.org/report/2009/06/us-obamas-red-chorus-investors-business.html

SWAMPYPD, facts are that the "Democrats" are currently controlled by communists/Marxists and U.S. enemies.

Many (not all) "Democrats" demonstrate that Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov was right when he warned us that our enemies were working hard at brainwashing us (dumbing us down) and would succeed if we did not defend our principles: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6KUDv1wzraWhwlBt1

The dumbed down are obviously unable to understand that Obamacare will further contribute to “the American descent into Marxism,” which “is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple…” http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-american_capitalism-0

Fortunately, as we can see in the town halls, most Americans have not been dumbed down and they will do whatever necessary to defend themselves, their children and grandchildren from the abomination of Obamacare and socialism/communism.

The Senator is not trying to pass any kind of health care reform bill. He is there to stall, delay and finally kill health care reform. It is a shame that the entire Republican Party has decided to vote against the people and stand with the health care industry to protect the industry’s outrageous profits. It is also a shame we can not follow other large nations who are providing health care for all of their citizen as a basic right and moral obligation to see everyone have decent standard of living. It time for the Democrats to go it alone and get done and do it now. Forget the noise and do what is best for the people Health Care for everyone. Increase care and reduce costs with a strong Public Option and laws that increase and provide Health care for everyone. Mr. President Lead the Charge Now!!!

With marching orders from Obama and his accomplices, Obama’s operatives and brainwashed lemmings are busy demonizing the insurance companies.

But we know by now their doublespeak, their lies, their manipulation, their intimidation. We know we are safer with serial killers than we are with Obama and his accomplices. A serial killer may kill us individually but will not destroy our country and our future, and the future of our children and grandchildren, as Obama and his accomplices are doing.

With God's help, we'll do our best to defend our country and our future from the abomination of Obamacare.

We may have issues with insurance companies, hospitals and doctors, but that does not mean we want the abomination of Obamacare. We do NOT WANT SOCIALISM/MARXISM!

Great post, Jerzy. I laughed, but your "CASH FOR CODGERS" hits the nail on the head.

Obama and his accomplices may lie all they want, but it's obvious that Obamacare will ask seniors to "sacrifice."

Of course, in communist doublespeak, Obama would call his death panels, "life panels," and his government-takeover of health care "public option," but that does not change the fact that, as per the House bill http://www.jeffhead.com/HC-HouseII.pdf (pages 425-430), we would be asked to receive end-of-life (death) counseling when we turn 65.

Lies do not change Obama's pro-abortion and pro-infanticide (late-term abortion) stand, nor the aberrant eugenic stands of Obama's Health Care Czar Ezekiel Emanuel and Science Czar John Holdren.