Howard Dean Shoots Down Norah O'Donnell's Republican Talking Points on Health Care
By Heather Monday Jun 15, 2009 11:01am
Howard Dean does a great job on MSNBC shooting down every Republican talking point on health care reform that Norah O'Donnell throws at him. Here are the questions she asked him.
- Is a public option a stalking horse for this government control?
- Doctors don't support this plan--then proceeds to read a quote that doesn't say doctors are against a public plan.
- Medicare and Medicaid waste money.
- Doctors don't like it because they only get 80% of what they would under private insurance plans.
- How do you stop employers from dropping employees from their coverage?
As Media Matters has reported, this is nothing new for Norah O'Donnell: Hardball for Dean, softball for Allen: MSNBC's O'Donnell echoed Republican attacks, misleading statements
As Think Progress noted, Dean also did a good job of explaining why Kent Conrad's co-op proposal is a really bad idea and won't work:
He’s wrong about this. The co-ops are too small to compete with the big, private insurance companies. They will kill the co-ops completely by undercutting them, using their financial clout to do it. In the small states like mine and like Senator Conrad’s, you’re never gonna get to the 500,000 number signed up in the co-op that you need to in order for them to have any marketing [power].
This is a compromise designed to deal with problems in the Senate. But it doesn’t deal with problems in America. And I think it’s time for the Senate to stop playing politics, do what has to be done. … If the Republicans don’t want to get on board, then we can do this without the Republicans.
We need more voices like Dr. Dean and Sen. Sanders talking honestly about this issue as long as the media is going to continue repeating the Republicans talking points for them.
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Dean was excellent. She didn't interrupt him. Great Q & A.
I keep on getting reminded how much I despise Rahm Emmanuel's useless guts.
I love how the GOP openly makes a point about how it is about profits and not actual healthcare.
a total sore spot for me. He's that blue-dog-centerist-schmuck-boy who goes along to get along and maintain the lucrative status quo.
Obama, hopefully, is even smarter about this than I think he is.
I loathe Emanuel. I also think he is a blue dog centrist schmuck boy who plans and executes to maintain his lucrative status quo. I think HE IS THE REASON Dean no longer is the head of the DNC. Because his itty bitty nasty little feelings got smacked when the CONSTITUENTS CHOSE DEAN OVER HIM to lead the party.
So now the schmuck is king of the white house hiring staff, he puts a nobody into the DNC that nobody can relate to. That way he can rise again and recapture that spot after this run in the white house is over.
I voted for Obama. I like the man. But his choice of this schmuck and the harsh dumping of DEAN has totally jaded me. I have very little faith in this president's ability to discern fact from blue dog fiction. This president has NEVER been liberal. Never.
Sounds to me like she was just playing devils advocate and asking questions to challenge Dean. You know, like a good reporters ought to.
riiiiiight.
O'Donnell's either a liar or dumb. Very few Americans with an IQ over 50 wants this health care system to remain the same. Nora was whoring.
does not know what the term "devils advocate" means, or what a "good reporter" does?
Meh. I'm not really familiar with Norah O'Donnell, so if she's famous for whatever I wasn't aware. But I don't really consider it a bad thing that she voiced the opposition argument and then gave Dean plenty of uninterrupted time to respond.
like the "devil's advocate" and acting like a representative for the devil. Which is what IMHO the lady interviewer was doing. Just because she was being respectful of Dean's turn does not change that fact.
Acting like the devil's advocate would have meant the interviewer challenged directly Dean's statements, facts, or assumptions. Not using GOP talking points as questioning line for Dean's appearance, or respond to Dean by using said talking points as irrefutable counter arguments. The negative of a statement is not automatically correct, or deemed necessary when conducting a debate.
Don't confuse politeness with correctness...
Are you aware of the fact that on occasion Nora O invites Mike Malloy on the air? She is the ONLY ONE who will EVER do this. I think she is a good person trying to earn a living in a pit of snakes.
I agree. Ask the questions listeners would ask. That's what she did. I got my question answered about what happens if a company drops their health care and goes for gov't care. It was answered. I also liked how Dean pretty much said, fuck the Republicans, we got the vote. Why are they still kissing the Republicans ass on just about everything. Just do it.
I'm guessing that most of you, by the mere fact that you found this website, have seen the insidious subtly of modern corporate cable and network television. Under the bush crime wave, the McCarthyites pushed the national discourse so far to the right it capsized the boat. What this did was make the rest of the channels look "liberal," at least when compared to the blight on the industry known as fox news. Nothing you see on TV is an accident or co-incidental. Corporate Amerika owns the message. The message is NO SINGLE PAYOR. You will either get it by sledgehammer on fox or slightly less intrusively on the other Big Media networks.
She did let him say a lot of very important things and make his points - in addition to dissecting the re=Thug talking points.
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Dean took over and basically schooled O'Donnell, who had no choice but to ice the talking points, STFU and learn something. Look, it is quite difficult to speak legibly as a devil's advocate while [mmmkay that's very colorful but let's keep it PG13 and not make every female reporter out to be a sex toy. It's sexist, bad writing, and tiresome. - Site monitor]
Thank you. I think most doctors are on the side of their patients. The only ones who went into this for profit instead of to be of service to humanity belong to the AMA.
True.
Actually, the voice we really need is Dean's.
Obama is not really on our side in this. He wants public option vs. single payer.
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Public option is more politically viable in this climate. With public option you can slowly ease into single-payer system. However, jumping from private insurance to single payer is just too much for some to wrap their little heads around at this time.
Tomorrow she'll be back on the side of us poor folk. Another instigating media whore with zero information or conviction whose existence is predicated on keeping the ignorant confused.
talking brains?
When my boss asks me to do something, I can't come back to him six months later with a bunch of feeble excuses that my co-workers "just don't want" to do it his way.
If these people worked at a corporation they'd get fired for incompetence. The Democratic Party HAS A MAJORITY. Just PASS THE PUBLIC OPTION.
Just pass the single-payer option. See how they have skewed the issue already?
Give them a few more months and we'll be debating just how much more money the insurance companies are entitled to get, damn it.
They're busy pretending Single Payer doesn't exist and isn't an issue.
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Her GOP-leanings used to be unapologetic but, she's had to soften up her conservative tendencies what with being on MSNBC and all.
she's so purty!
who is asking questions. We need to demand what we want, and screw those who try to distract from this mission.
Thank you, Howard Dean, from the bottom of my heart.
Damn that was good.
Howard Dean is by far the best point man on healthcare the Democrats have. They should have him on TV as much as possible.
Looking back now it is astonishing the Dean's career was shot down just because he yelled during a campaign stop. Media made too much of a big thing out of his yell. Compare that to the to the vile that came out and is still comes out of the Republicans during their primary. Half the Republican candidates said they did not believe in evolution (christ they could have said they thought the earth was flat) and they still would have a career.
The horror. An honest reaction to something.
to bring presidential scrutiny to media consolidation.
Plain and simple.
The scream was merely the pretext.
authority and integrity were questioned. Like I always say, when Colin Powell says he's a republican, believe him.
I don't think his career is over and he's in probably the best place he can be right now.
secretary of health and human services spearheading the health care reform.
But he would bring actual change, with which parts of the Obama administration are not really enamored.
crickets.
Rahm Emmanuel made sure of that, heck he was literally kicked to the curve as soon as the election was over.
With friends like the DLC who needs republicans?
Dean probably told Emmanuel to go fuck himself over something. Probably the 50 state objective that Dean advocated for during the campaign. It worked and Dean probably threw it in Emmanual's face.
The 'Public Option' is a sham. Single payer is the only way.
until the system breaks. You see it in most individuals and the system in general - nobody wants to make any sacrifice whatsoever.
whole damn government. The system IS broken. Has been for quite a while. The "internets" is just pointing it out to more and more people. Must put a stop to that freedom.
Pennsylvania Town Fights Big Coal on Mining Rights
Now .. if every town, county, city and state would follow Blaine Township's example, We The People would once again be in a position to tell the corporations whether they can operate within our jurisdiction, and exactly how they will and won't operate - just like it was in this country before 1886 Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company.
Thom Hartmann's been recommending this remedy for years.
They've got guts. I wish them victory.
You need to be thinking a little strategically here. There is no way you can directly move to a single payer system. It would be too much of a shock to the system and the backlash from doctors, insurance companies, etc. would be too big.
A public option is a half step, which likely leads down the slippery slop to a full single payer system. It is the way for the Dems to backdoor into a single payer system. It moves the ball forward. If you bit off too much you will likely get zero, as the lobbying is way too strong.
The public option will be where the private option corporations send all of their sick people. The ones that they don't want to insure.
They will then say that health insurance and government don't mix and defeat the public option.
The profit motive in health care is barbarism.
The insurance companies make the most off of you when, after they have taken your premiums, they let you die on the curb outside of the hospital.
That is their strategy.
Open Left here
Nader at Counterpunch here.
Dr Carol Paris one of the 'Baucus 13' here
Bill Moyers here
... the public option is actually the preferred via by the health care industry. That is why they are playing "coy" with it... they are doing the whole "oh, noes... we would really hate the public option... wink, wink."
And of course, Obama doing his usual chess move... just came all for the "public option."
A compromise on a public option (which is already the game plan) would take us exactly . . nowhere.
I've argued with people before on here about that exact thing. If Obama put a single-payer bill up for consideration this afternoon, it just would not go anywhere. Too many people are still willing to buy into 'Boo Canada BOO!!!' scare tactic type crap, and that, in turn, allows opposing lawmakers to feel like they can rail-road single-payer and get away relatively unharmed.
We have to do it gradually, and you only need to look as far as the screeching about a public plan from the right to know that it will probably work better than most people are imagining. From there, this country will be in a place where we can take the training wheels off, all become big adults, and not buy into moronic, whining, dumbshit scare tactics anymore.
(golf clap)
Monkey clap?
single-payer for patients. Unlike the corporate weasels, they have an obligation to do something other than make profits. The doctors tell me that they are fed up with all the paper work laid on them by the health insurance industry. Phillip1, are you a corporate shill? Who do you think you are talking to here? Fox Nation?
They won the election. What are you advocating? And for whom?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ynq_NcpT4
You keep my head from exploding.
to kill any possibility of a "public option."
That's nagahapun...prolly never wuz
It's seriously time to just shut the republicans out of the process. Not because they did it to the dems but because they had their opportunity and turned everything they touched to shit.
Now that the dems are trying to fix everything the republicans screwed up or simply didn't address, why wait for the republicans to get on board? Answer: Don't wait. The republicans aren't going to get on board and will throw every wrench in the works that they can. Ref: Norm Coleman.
The republicans can sit on the sidelines sucking lemons while the country improves in spite of them.
You are not alone to think it is the Republicans versus the Democrats.
Sadly, in fact, it is the Corporatocracy versus the American people, at least the vast majority of them.
"this country needs a strong, vital two-party system."
..not the dreck we have now.
Two parties: Democrats and Progressives. What, I left out Republicans? There's this joke we used to tell:
Hey, how come on Star Trek, there's no Republicans?
Because it happens in the future!
Green party here
here
here
here
here
here
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Common Dreams (Russell Mokhiber) Single Payer vs. Public Option (h/t MountainMan23) here
It will be mostly cosmetic.
But it will be spun BY EVERYBODY as the very best that could ever have been accomplished, even though it will in effect change nothing.
When all the noise is over, the HIP (Health Insurance Parasites) will be as deeply entrenched as ever, as ruthless and relentless in prusuit of YOUR dollar as ever, and you, dear friends--and I--will again be taking the sharp end forcibly up your delicates...
..get healthy! Stop Smokin' (why cigarettes and the toxic substances released aren't banned outright is beyond me) and drink moderately (red wine and a nip of bourbon once in awhile is not a bad thing), exercise. Get kids off the couch and out of the house. The computer, TV, Play Station, etc. is NOT a babysitter.
How's that for Health Care reform?
Barrasso blames health care problems on tobacco and lack of exercise and does not support the public option, single payer, etc. No doubt a healthy lifestyle will enrich your life but you will still get sick and you will still die. Too bad this natural process is likely to place your survivors closer to poverty.
...has his prostate checked by a trained medical professional on a regular basis or...no wait:
are we suppose to believe that he goes ahead and fingers his own ass before going for a nice jog around the park?
These people talk with the wrong orifice, clearly. Of course, if I am right, then Barrasso already has his longest digit shoved in his talkhole, so maybe I can cut him some slack for sounding like a hypocritical blowhard.
Mon, 06/15/2009 - 14:36 — Bonkers
...has his prostate checked by a trained medical professional on a regular basis or...no wait:
________________________________________________
I've had it done by a professional
With a strap-on.
There's no fun in that.... you never see a jogger smile.
...while you are out getting that exercise, folks, or you will be up Shit Creek.
Sorry, surfjac, but that kind of talk is pretty condescending and dismissive, even if you don't intend it to be. It even teeters on the edge of blaming the victim.
Yes, excercise, a good diet and an all-around sensibly healthy lifstyle are great preventative medicine, but none of that will necessarily protect you from the many, myriad ways to get sick or injured.
Because we all breathe fresh, clean air, our water is chemical free, and we have plenty of healthy, uncontaminated food to eat.
And what about people with genetic disorders or birth defects? Can they exercise their way to good health?
Then it's their parent's fault for having them! Oh, you didn't get the memo? Conservatives are only pro-life until birth, at which point they couldn't give less of a fuck.
They should actually change the name of their movement to pro-birth if we're being technical about things.
*shudder*
...of smoking dope and porn prescribed for everything from an ingrown toenail to a brain tumor?
It couldn't hurt.
or corporations for profit insurance. Let's put it to a vote by the people for the people.
Single payer and public option are NOT the same thing. We want Single payer, which Obama is trying to keep from us.
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Outstanding. Great interview, Doctor Governor Senator Howard Dean.
I can't tell you what it means to Americans to have you out there as a strong advocate for us.
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That Gregg quote at the beginning of the clip is beyond infuriating.
We are ALREADY waiting, fuckhead! In what fantasy republican la-la land do you have something happen to you and just snap your fingers and a doctor emerges from the ether, ready to treat you that second? I'm sure a lot of people in this country would like to know. So, Judd... we're already waiting, and we ain't in Canada. That's just people who can afford to go to the doctor, or who are lucky enough to have a job that provides healthcare.
Jesus, when will these people fucking start dealing with the truth? When do they finally decide they are sick of having to lie, scare, distract and divert all day long? Isn't that a process grown adults go through at some point in their fucking miserable lives?
And then this is when Republicans say, 'Oh, calm down! Why are you making this personal? Why can't we talk about this, and be bi-partisan, and try to come to some understanding?'
Fuck you, you fucker!
How bout, instead, Democrats decide to grow some balls and start playing your game. From now on, we go on TV and accuse you idiots of wanting Americans to die and suffer. And it'll actually be the truth, for once.
IT IS PERSONAL! They are playing with your life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDmoDs8TXLE&fe...
Single Payer vs. Public Option
Much more here: Single Payer Action.
Especially this Single Payer v. Public Option Chart provided by the League of Women Voters (thanks mom!).
How much are you getting paid to tell lies?
We know how much the senators are getting paid to cheat the American people.
Here is a list of elected people taking payoffs to cheat the American people and the amounts of bribes being taken. This is just from health care and insurance.
It is mind boggling to think how much these people are taking from others!
Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $4,026,933)
Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $2,833,731)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $2,758,468)
And when you just go right to Big Insurance, the non-presidential candidates who got the biggest legalized bribes were the 7 senators who have been tasked with the job of killing single-payer:
Ben Nelson (DLC-NE- $1,196,799)
Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $1,184,113)
Joe Lieberman (DLC- CT- $1,036,302)
Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $1,035,530)
Chuck Schumer (D-NY- $981,400)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $929,207)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA- $884,724)
We need to investigate and prosecute these criminals now. Severe jail terms are in order for these criminals!
Single payer is the only way to go and be fair with everyone!
Wha?
That was exactly the point of Mountainman's post... dude.
roflmao ..
Single Payer would BANKRUPT the Health Insurance Companies.
All those campaign contributions would come to a screeching halt.
You might want to re-read my post. It's all in favor of single payer.
Maybe you're confusing single-payer with public-option. They are DEFINITELY NOT THE SAME THING.
Public Option is the sop to the Insurance Companies. It's more business as usual.
I did confuse the public option with single payer.
My bad, I apologize for not reading it all.
in a compromise with the insurance companies in exchange for everyone's first born children. We are going to be in worse trouble than we are now when we receive our punishment from the health care "industry" for trying to get decent coverage. Mark my words.
Hey MountainMan, thanks! Thanks to your mom, too.
You call that a yell?
Now here's a yell...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvcxibuf9uk&fe...
Whatever the reason Noron asked the questions that way she asked them it gave Dean a good chance to refute the bullshit Republican talking points. He did an excellent job and at the end she even appeared to be won over even if she was not. Anybody watching who was not on board or who may have been thinking that the GOP propaganda had some merit may have been brought around with Deans answers and Noron's reaction. Maybe. Never the less Dean should be marched out there as often as possible. I would even like to see him on Fox (well, i don't think I would actually see him there because I don't watch Fox but he would be good there).
The gov't certainly can run Health Care. All you need to do is see how the gov't has handled Medicare & Social Security.
government employee and CongressCritters healthcare alright.
Even the military was running fine when everything was handled in house.
Privatization & allowing 'for-profit-interests' to conduct government business are what you should be demonizing.
Edited to add: I should have checked that you created your account to post that drivel. My bad.
In his defense, he did post two earlier pieces of drivel before that one.
Best line in the whole interview. "If they won't get on board we can do this without the Republicans."
Do it already!!
I understand that Obama is trying to reach across the aisle and do this in a Bipartisan way but c'mon already.
These people want Obama to fail and our country too apparently.
Obama should publicly warn these party of nothing corporate lackeys that he intends to do the right thing by the people he represents and then do it! The Republicans will only look worse for not getting on board and doing the right thing for the people!
To quote jon Stewart:
Republicans love their country, They just hate half the people in it!
Why does Moron O'Donnell start every interview with republican talking points? Its like this bullshit is the only basis of fact she can go on.
A single payer public option would create competition , imagine , they would actually go back to "negotiating drug prices" ! What a concept huh ? No wonder the Repugs are in panic mode trying to stop any meaningful reform ! The problem is that right now there is no competition and it's just the pigs at the trough unrestrained , taking us for all they can get. With out the public option any so called reform will be a farce and rendered a joke in no time at all .
Why is it so hard for many of our congressional representatives to address the Health care public option.? Howard Dean seems to have a very adult, direct, factual reasonable expression of his point of view on the subject.
Verses someone like Boeher or others that whine in fear of "socialism" or "Canadian Gov't waiting lines". For some being able to wait in line is so much better than NO doctor at all.
Besides, it is very true about the competition. The Health care industry had promised during Clinton's health care reform attempt by promising to reduce costs back then in the 90's after Clinton failed. It was a bone the health care industry gave to Clinton dropping the issue. We see how that worked out. Comapanies words of grief.
Republicans still scare many over this issue. Like ditto heads and religious fundamentalists. Education on this issue needs to be louder and more far reaching.
The continual characterization of the Canadian system as a 'government run' health care system is really maddening. That's not the way it works.
We've just replaced the insurance companies with a single citizen owned non-profit insurance company. Yes they set prices for standard procedures and determine what fall outside of what the citizens will collectively pay for but that's pretty much it. The same goes for the management of our hospitals - the american system has upped the salaries our management can expect.
The system is not perfect. There are waiting lines for some procedures - but to some degree they are there because the US has lured away a lot of our doctors that we collectively paid to train with outrageous salaries.
My recent experiences with our health care system have been excellent - I nor my wife didn't wait more than 10 minute for anything. My one experience with the american system was pretty dreadful - and exceedingly expensive.
The health care in the US is SHIT. God help any one who gets sick. This helth care was set up by Nixon. It was set up so the insurance people would make billions off sick people. You get sick, you go to the poor house after the insurance has fucked you every way they can.First,You pay $500 per member of the familey. Then there is that co pay. then there is THAT out of pockit bullshit. then the Dr sends you a bill, then the medical center sends you a bill. then the drug, the insurance pays only 80%. You pay the rest.
I wnnt to the Dr. drugs cost me $142.56.( this is what the insurance would not pay)then the Dr sent me a bill, $130.00, insurance did not pay. then the medical center sent me a bill,$156.78, fuck them, this was for the room the Dr seen me in.then there was the Lab test the insurance did NOT pay, another, out of $169 they payed less than 1/2 of the bill. So, going to the Dr with federal employee HEALTH insurance, it cost me $512.63. Did I say we pay about $153.84 A MONTH for this SHIT HEALTH INSURANCE. Now just look at the health insurance our people in congerss have, you know the people who support us. Who are the ones who are to look out for the American people. in a pigs eye. these assholes are proped up by the the insurance people to look out for them, Not us.
the Health care insurance is going to spend $100,000 million to make sure the health insurance stays just the way it is.
First for me there is a $1400 a month health care premium. Then there is the $60 a month for dental premium, and $37 for eye care premium, and of course on top of that is $230 for Medicare premium. Then there is the 20% overage on the lack of coverage by Big Blue; and 20% overage from dental and eye doctors and pharmacy is not covered.
All together I am going broke. I put medical and pharmacy on my credit card which is up to $9000 counting the car transmission I had to buy to get to the doctors' 50 miles away. Then there is the fact that I have been paying these monthly payments with money from our 401K account leaving us about $5000 to retire on so far. My husband is over 60 and I am just almost there myself.
Nobody will hire us "old" folks. No programs to help us. Our house never got paid off because the health insurance companies took the money we needed to pay off the mortgage. So we are sitting with a 95K mortgage and we are 60!!!!
Good job? Hell no. That went away when my husband turned 55. The companies of America meet every year at their annual retreat and they figure out how to make big bucks again. They collude and they are a pack of monopolists acting as a CARTEL. Example: How did they know that my husband got a $200 a month raise? They increased our insurance premium $200 exactly. Seems like his employer, the big box store, is in touch with his insurance provider, huh? Is THAT how they deal? Obviously, they deal it down to the last dime.
Which is why Americans have lived down to the last dime for 30 years now. The only people not slammed are the young. They just don't realize what a hole they're getting into with the credit thing. They will get it when they're 55.
And any of them who didn't help bail the old folks?
No inheritance. I am sure we can find more deserving folk.
If these gop punks and turn coats democrats continue to block this option we should be out in the streets in droves to show them we mean business. We have the power to stop these clowns in their tracks and remind them that they work for us.
If these gop punks and turn coats democrats continue to block this option we should be out in the streets in droves to show them we mean business. We have the power to stop these clowns in their tracks and remind them that they work for us.
O'Donnell asked the GOP questions. Good. It gave Dean the opportunity to debunk them. She didn't talk over him or belittle his answers like a FOX person would. It was an effective interview for healthcare reform. A straight fastball is a good opportunity to hit a homer and Dean did.
...directly from the Republican Party? If so, she's certainly working overtime to deliver for them.
Dean demonstrated that it's possible to respond to Republican disinformation without adopting half of it in the process. He is one of the few Democrats on the national scene who can do that.
they are deathly afraid of our non-profit health care system. Really, the only people who profit from sick Canadians is doctors, nurses and pharmacists. The system works. And I can see a doctor whenever I want - in fact I had an MRI last month and I am having an ultrasound on my neck tomorrow. Nobody ever asks me for money.
Like it or not, blue dogs; Howard Dean stands eons above most Democrats. The Senators and Representatives in the House are so locked into the K Street crowd's income; they are afraid to rock that boat and allow for Howard Dean to retain his position within the party. He is the man who should be our President. I like Obama, but Dean is the better man. Dean has his ear to the ground.
But I must say, I think Obama is listening, learning. Anything he does not presently know about the constituents he is trying to learn. Let's hope he cares about the people the way Dean does. It's all we have for now.
Him and Howard Dean.
Maybe with time the president will put schmuck boy in his place. After all his (schmuck boy) current position is not exactly "leadership", but rather "office boy".
I do love that moniker. Schmuck Boy. I am going to use it often.
Thank you bibimimi, for you are the originator of the moniker.
What's with the ball-less, asshole, no guts Dem's, trying to stall and ruin healthcare only for their greed of money from lobbiests.
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