Mary Landrieu: I Think When People Hear 'Public Option' They Hear 'Free Health Care'
By Heather Thursday Oct 15, 2009 10:00am
This has to be one of the more infuriating things to come out of one of these Conserva-Dems mouths in a long time. Do you think you could be a little more insulting to the American public Sen. Landrieu? Of course both David Shuster and Tamryn Hall waited until after Landrieu got off the air to question whether what she was saying was complete B.S. or not. That's not included in the above clip but here's my beef with the two of them. While they still had her there, they should have asked her how lining the pockets of insurance industry CEO's and their stock holders is doing anything to help small business or the general public that isn't fortunate enough to have her health care plan paid for by our tax dollars.
And nobody thinks that having a public option is going to be "free". Landrieu apparently pulled that talking point out of the land called her butt, since that's the first time I've heard someone use it. That or some health insurance lobbyist fed it to her and we're going to hear more of the same from Landrieu and the rest of her fellow Corporate-crats as this debate goes on.
Hall: I want to talk about the public option. You just heard Gov. Dean and he said “What’s the point in having a sixty vote majority in the Senate if you can’t get the public option passed?” “That is health care reform, not insurance reform and that is what the American people want.” Where do you stand? I know that you’ve been under a lot of pressure about your opinions on public option, but where do you stand now after we saw new numbers come out and it passed in the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, without the public option in that committee?
Landrieu: Well first of all Gov. Dean has been a wonderful leader and he is a great guy and a wonderful American, seriously. I just don’t agree with him on his statement that unless you have a public option you can’t have real reform. And I don’t agree that if you’re not for a public option you’re for insurance companies, you know, scamming tax payers…um…or consumers. I’m not for either. I wish it was as simple, but it’s not.
The bottom line is we want choice and competition and a reformed market place. I don’t believe as a Democrat and I’m proud to say this as a Democrat, I believe in the private sector. I don’t believe in the government running every program and for everybody. I believe in public/private partnerships.
Hall: Do you believe in the polling that says that the American people want a public option? Do you believe in that desire from the folks that you and all of the others represent that say that they want a public option to happen to help offset these costs?
Landrieu: I think when people hear public option they hear free health care. Everybody wants free health care. Everybody wants health care they don’t have to pay for. The problem is that we as governments and business have to pick up the tab and as individuals. So I’m not at all surprised that the public option has been sold as free health care, but there is no free lunch and it’s costing us 16% of the gross national product and it’s driving businesses out of business.
So I wish it was as simple as saying you can have a public option and everything’s going to be great or not. The fact it’s more complicated than that and it’s been a very I think unfortunate debate between public option and not public. We should be thinking about public/private partnerships and cost containment.
Sen. Landrieu, cost containment would mean putting a stop to your campaign donors taking 30% for moving our money around and making the bankers happy while they deny their customers the coverage they thought they paid for.
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Scarily, I've heard SEVERAL people assume that "public option" would be free to subscribers -- including my own brother (who works for a hospital chain) and my daughter's high school history teacher. That's why so many ill-informed people are concerned that public option will drive out private carriers: of COURSE employers will choose to give their employees government-paid healthcare instead of paying for it themselves! Or so they think.
Even more scary, I interpreted Landrieu as buying into this garbage. She's not saying it's "not free" because public option will charge premiums like any other provider; she's saying that SOMEONE will have to pay for it, and since it'll be free to the subscribers, the taxpayers will be picking up the tab.
That's flat wrong -- and no senator, let alone a Dem, has any excuse for being so ignorant.
and pathetic. It amazes me that people don't look at what we're all paying now. If you've got insurance your premiums are paying for those who are not in the system on top of lining the insurance companies' pockets. And myself, I'd be happy if the private carriers were not driven out of business, but having to reform their business model where they are just offering supplimental insurance and that they're regulated.
We don't let the utility industries in this country gouge customers like this and make obscene profits. Howard Dean was right and if we're not going to get some real competition, these industries need to be heavily regulated. The next time one of these people brings up their "concern" for these private carriers, you should ask them if they approve of the profits they are making and what they think should be done about it if they don't.
I don't think Landrieu is ignorant. She knows who is lining her campaign coffers.
This appears to be Landrieu's way of internally discounting any arguments FOR the public option... she doesn't understand the public option, and therefore any proponent of the public option is simply ignorant of how 'complicated' it really will be.
Her argument is little more than the ridiculous claim that the public option is the same as socialized healthcare for Americans.
don't you just love everyone's (both repugnick's & demonick's) concern for our nations bottom line in d.c., that is until it comes to war. how many trillions have been spent in the last decade keeping our war machine primed and ready around the world? how countries are we in now (not just the 2 wars) ? how can we afford that with little interest where the money will come from than... hell i can't think of anything we as a nation care that little about, but health care for the poor and ill, control the insurance industry? COMMUNISM!!! oh, Lord please forgive us as we act like the idiots we are
I am so tired of listening to public officials who were born into privilege and are able to reap benefits as elected officials give sermons to the electorate about how they need to recognize that nothing is free and that they ought to expect less. Is that really how the mayor of New Orleans, Moon Landrieu, raised his daughter? The woman will never worry one iota about her wellbeing and yet she feels entitled to determine the fates of others born lower than she. John "daddy and jesus say I am innocent" Ensign maintains the same attitude. The majority members of the ruling class, to paraphrase the late, rational, governor of Texas, were born on third base and act as though they nearly hit one out of the park on their pluck and skill. Be damned those less worthy as they!
ditto to what you said!
But could we play the re-frame game and call it the "Competitive Option"? or something like that?
Oh...c'mon Mary...as a high powered Congressional whore you know that nothing is for free, especially your vote.
we read this story at CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/15/health...
Well, he and Mary oughta know!
in a michelle bachman kind of way.
by that i mean crazy.
Mandated health insurance purchase for the hoi polloi and fines and jail for those who refuse or are unable to comply; and record windfall profits for Private Insurers, when I hear 'Public Option.'
Oh. And fascism, too.
when I hear Mary Landrieu, I hear "ka-ching!"
When I hear: "I’m proud to say this as a Democrat, I believe in the private sector"
I hear "I believe in corporate campaign donations".
HR 676 provides free health care for all residents of the US, all at government expense.
And that is, indeed, what I think Americans should have.
This "Democrat" is just like her colleagues. Useless. It is time for her and her buddies to go.
when she was on the ropes back in 2006, and the consensus was to help save her damned seat because a conservative Dem was better than a ReThug getting her seat.
I said at the time that we'd regret helping Landrieu retain her seat. And I was right.
She's the female equivalent of Joe Lieberman, and we're all seeing the fallout from Harry Reid's failure to strip his ass of any power and committee assignments.
Mary Landrieu is in the same boat.
Everybody deserves access to healthcare, unimpeded by ability (or inability, more accurately) to pay. The cheapest way to deliver that is to get rid of private insurers, who contribute to a third of the cost of health care, while offering nothing in return.
I think it's actually more than a third.
The analyses that arrive at that figure only include the profits and overhead that the insurers take from the premiums paid.
They do not include the money spent on the staff in every medical office who spend hours every day filing claims and negotiating with the insurers.
Factor that in and the total cost may be HALF, which would explain why on average Americans pay TWICE what the best universal health care costs in other countries.
Give up your free health care all Congress people get, then you can bitch about free health care for the masses.
What's more, if they retire, they get to keep that coverage while the American taxpayers PAY FOR IT.
Let them go on Medicare like the rest of us. If they think themselves worthy of better, they can damn well pay for a private policy.
.
Actually, Congress doesn't get FREE health care...
... Just extremely affordable Gold Standard Care for $503/year.
No wait time, Specialists on demand WITH no extra charges, access to preventative and rehab care at a walk-in notice.
OR
Congress gets to chooses cross state lines from ALL Private for Profit care plans...
... Something that Congress deems unacceptable for the rest of US!
.
You forgot that other talking point: tort reform.
I have no objection per se to "across state lines", except that it would require a comprehensive set of standards/regulations from the Fedl Govt, applicable to all states. Regardless of demographic differences, etc. And what makes you think, for instance, that any insurance company would offer the same premiums in, let's say, Mississippi as it does in Colorado? (or chose any other two states that have big differences in health care costs)
I loved Dylan Ratigan's smackdown of "tort reform" as THE answer to health care costs.
.
Landrieu has the option of paying $503/year for Gold Standard Health Care.
Why whould SHE complain?
.
.. and that $503 comes from the salary that we the people pay her ..
She's gotta be takin' under the table money from corporations. I don't know that for sure. I'm just sayin'.
;o)
www.opensecrets.org
It will tell you exactly who Ms. Landrieu gets her payola from, and I'm willing to bet you will see Blue Cross on that list of donors.
They've written the laws so they can reward their pimps(corporations)& take the bribes(campaign contributions)right on top the table. We get the crumbs they drop as they feed at the public trough.
I'm so sick of hearing about the marketplace of health insurance and how increasing competition will cure all ills. Essential services (which I believe healthcare is) should not be subject to the whims of the market.
we need to be able to recall any senator or rep who isn't representing their constituency. That would end this crap right quick. If they get recalled, they lose congressional benefits.
Who's with me?
We track the different caucuses in Congress as to whether or not they represent their constituencies.
www.blackagendareport.com/cbcmonitor
tried to check your link...my question is what recourse do we have if they are not rep'ing their voters? right now you have to wait until the end of their term to vote them out and even so, they have the "incumbent's advantage".
Or we will not be. It has to be free to all of us and paid for by taxes on the rich. What kind of message do we send if we give up anything? The amount to insure everyone with the best care there is is still a small fraction of what we are spending on even one of the military services.
Honestly, is everyone completely scattered all over the map on this? The idea that we have to pay is what caused this mess in the first place, and what will continue it until it makes peasants of us all.
Please consider your retracting that statement. It is not helpful, and it is an opinion that is based on a subjective viewpoint of your own, and not the people dying for health care. I am shocked that you think paying for health care is the least bit acceptable. They are repossessing peoples lives because of the pay.
Your words are deeply troubling to those of us that believe health care must be made a right.
I hear "incompetent moron who added to the catastrophe of the poor people of New Orleans."
Does Sen Landrieu really want to play the word association game?
she thinks you can trust the insurance companies to bring down costs on their own.
.
Even in the face of them actually saying they won't contain or curtail costs.
... NO WONDER SHE'S FOR PROFIT CARE!
.
"been there, done that" scenario.
0f money if they voted against their own health care.
Well, Senator, now that it has been made clear that your "objection" to a public option appears to be based on the "ignorance" of the American people, then it's your job to point out the truth to them. Furthermore, nothing in any polling on the question that I've seen implys anything about "free health care". (Of course, you might be wanting to say "socialized health care" but don't dare...).
Bottom line, Senator: You can now support a PO and make the statement that people's beliefs about it - as you have stated - are in fact false.
"The problem is that we as governments and business have to pick up the tab"
Where the HELL do you think that government money comes from you stupid bi7ch?
I think of the words "corporatist prostitute", "corrupt", "bought and paid for" and words of similar connotation.
don't forget....you need to add..."I'm just sayin."
Then it's all good.
I'm just sayin'...
I also think of the word "criminal".
I'm just sayin'...
Only difference is I was going to say "insurance industry sell-out".
Weird.
I'm going to go with "great minds...."
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/f02d0b8cca/w...
classic skit using word association, just sayin' :P
Which is it?
Both.
Liar implies that she has any cognitive understanding of the debate. Moron implies that she's simply to ignorant to understand which side her bread is buttered on.
Whore. Simple. Direct. Accurate.
Actually...desperate whore would be more accurate. Look into her eyes. She's scared.
.
I saw "Up" over the summer.
Besides, Ed Anser will save the kid.
;)
I can't imagine the terror this poor little boy must be feeling now. Let's hope the mylar doesn't rip open, he holds on, and it lands gently. It just tears me up to see this.
Home made balloon. Flying Saucer shape. Unattended small child.
Do we really want to know this story. Ugggh.
Probably a huge prank.
If kid had fallen out, there'd be some kind of gaping hole, which there is not. Nothing about a gondola either.
So I'm betting on Halloween prank.
at least that the kid was NEVER in tha balloon. I got a feeling this was the kid's way of payback at Dad after he yelled at the kid for getting in the balloon in the first place. We'll never know for sure.
Story ends.
I'm serious. If compassion is our ideal, if we accept the goal that everyone should receive basic medical care as a human civil right, what the hell is wrong with it being free?
I'm not being dumb here -- of course, to society as a whole, it costs money. That's what taxes are for. But we also pay taxes for police protection, a humongous standing army, and fire protection. They don't levy us extra money or co-pays to come put out a fire or capture a burglar -- that's their job.
So again I ask, what the hell is wrong with medical care being free for the asking? Are we so close-minded and unsympathetic? That Scrooge-ish?
I swear to God, we've become the most selfish and least kind-hearted people on the planet, taken collectively.
...that paying for something is bad, as if everyone had an unspoken agreement that taxes are bad, even when paying for something that see's to the well-being of all.
She is unworthy of public office, because she is unworthy of any person's trust.
Afterthought: Like so much of what comes spewing out of the pie holes of the GOPers and her fellow Bribe-O-Crats these days, her whole rant sounds suspiciously like yet another attempt to self-justify, by application of shabby rationalizations.
A conservative Dem? Just what Louisiana needs.
and we don't care who pays for it as long as we aren't being ripped off and they will pay for the coverage when we need it. I think we already saw how well the healthcare insurance companies did.
landrieu is one of those self-appointed
entitled bitches who has what she wants and
it's screw, actually f#ck everyone else.
she's a paid corporate whore and not
a representative of the people who actually
elected her.
she is to the health of the American
people what used summer's eve is to
the environment.
Some people DO think FREE when they hear Public Option or Single-Payer or even Medicare, but they're usually conservatives who think that.
Rational people know all healthcare comes at a cost which has to paid by somebody. It's no different under any healthcare plan, universal or private.
It's her job to explain that to her constituents or anyone else for that matter. If she doesn't, she's purposefully misleading people. And if she's doing that, she's on the side of the Republicans and the insurance industry and she really would prefer no reform at all.
It seems we have about half of the Senate who would rather protect private company profits than actually control or lower costs.
picked up this little nugget from yesterday. I was watching this and just wanted to barf whent that woman said people just want free healthcare. (like what she gets, effing hipocrit). Shuster and Hall did a good job of correcting her, after the segment. This is just Bullshit. Nobody says anything abouth free halthcare. They just don't want to go broke if they get sick. Right now I spend 30% of my income JUST ON HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS not counting the co-pays, co-insurance and prescription costs. AND MY EMPLOYER PAYS HALF OF MY PREMIUM. This is unsustainable.
She should be removed from office and put to work on her back or front as the case may be,to help pay for single payer. A buck a min. sounds about right. Please select your own nominees.
She was the best they could come up with back in '06.
a gud teeng we got merre lanrow onare syde cuz ...
as blithering idiots we certainly have no hope of understanding something as complex as taxes in/services out without her spectacular intellectual insight.
Apparently, Sen. Landrieu thinks American people are stupid. She should be ashamed of herself. The real question that needs to be asked of these Conservadems is whether or not they will sign on to a repug filibuster.
Why vote for a politician who advertises as a Democrat, but is simply a Republican? Primary every Blue Dog in 2010. If the Blue Dog wins, support anyone else to get rid of that Blue Dog. Let the Blue Dogs join the Republican Party. Good riddance to those fakes!
Landrieu. Except to say that I'm absolutely disgusted.
Nothing in this world is free. We should have expanded medicare for all and paid for it through a series of sin and payroll taxes. Harry Reid, Max Baucus and Chris Dodd will never emerge with a good health care bill.
Her point is as ignorant/dishonest as a preacher claiming that atheists believe Darwin created the universe 6000 years ago.
I think when people hear "Mary Landrieu" they hear "ignorant and crass stupidity".
Another paid off sell out Demlican that we need to go after and get out of office .
twit.
...brains. If the trade off were stupid, but honest, it might be an acceptable deal. Unfortunately, the deal is stupid and on the corporate payroll -- not a good deal for average citizens, but a great one for corporations.
Notice the incredibly sloppy use of language. What she actually says here is that the Public Option is costing us 16% of the GNP (amazingly, Mary hasn't even made the switch to GDP) and "it" (the Public Option) is "driving businesses out of business." It's difficult to imagine more inaccurate language that coincidentally just happens to favor private insurance companies at the expense of the truth.
Free health care? like the stuff you get bitch?
These conservadems are morons. They saw what the American people have done to republicans and how much they hate their guts. If they think they are gonna keep their seats acting like republican's, they are delusional.
The second part of the revolution has begun; getting rid of the bluedog republican's.
This comment is the same as clapping her hands over her ears and saying "LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA..." till everyone else stops talking.
I call bullshit.
i think fat, lying sellout dino twat.
I'm not surprised. This "Democrat" hails from one of the most dysfunctional and corrupt states in the union that produced the likes of Bobby the page Jindal and Diaper Dave Vitter.
Btw bitch, are you ready to give up the free lunch health care you get as a member of the senate? Primary the backstabbing DINO c*unt hypocrite.
Apparently you haven't spent much time around the wingnuts because this is a common theme in their entire philosophy. Lazy people all over America are collecting their government checks paid for with the sweat off their brow. Liberals think they ought to be entitled to everything..oh and pay no taxes. Poor people don't pay taxes(so they imagine and they have the facts to prove it!) and collect that money. Poor people evil. Liberals think everything should be free and encourage people to be lazy by providing them with everything and that is why America is falling apart!
I know there's holes in that you could drive a cruise ship through but they get a chance to feel superior and after all that is what counts right. ...But what gets me most is the fact that the wealthy are stealing exponentially more from them than the poor ever could doesn't seem to bother them much. The fact that Landrieu would say this is the only signal you need to understand what planet her thinking comes from and it sure isn't mine. We'd be no worse off with a republican.
Part of the resistance to a public plan _has_ to be that it threatens to take money away from the military/industrial complex. As it is now, we have the worst hell of both worlds. Our taxes go to corporations that provide us no value at all and then we have to scrounge up the money for our own health. Take some of that money we spend blowing other countries to crap and use those taxes to ACTUALLY BRING SOME SERVICES BACK TO _US_. It can easily be a wash -- or, in other words, FREE. So, Landrieu, you can be a corrupt Republican idiot and simultaneously be a smarmy bastard who thinks we're all idiots for demanding that our taxes actually bring SERVICES _BACK_ TO US. Guess it all depends on how sick and desperate the American people have become from taking it for a quarter century of Reaganomics. Have we had enough of politicians like this?
No we don't (at least most of us)
Mary just hopes people think that and is trying her best to make it true.
Just curious, how much money is she getting from the health insurance industry?
The free market solves everything., huh?
Isn't that the same B.S. that the thieves in Enron used to defraud American citizens out of hundreds of millions of dollars as they were fleecing "grandma" and laughing about it?
Why do people put their trust in greedheads and voracious swine?
A too large percentage of the American population are dull-witted sheep.
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