“Deal” Could Put Joe Lieberman In Charge Of Regulating Your Health Insurance

[Are_grits_groceries]

One of the big components of the new possible “deal” in the Senate would be to create a new, national Office of Personnel Management (OPM)-run program. How exactly this OPM exchange for national non-profit insurance plans, which is meant to be a replacement for the public option, would work is unclear. Rumors are that if the non-profit insurance companies fail to offer good enough plans on this new OPM exchange, it would trigger the creation of a real public option.

Who in Congress would likely oversee this new OPM exchange? The answer is Joe Lieberman.

The plan emerging from negotiations among moderate and liberal Democrats would put a key part of the planned health insurance exchanges under the supervision of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). And jurisdiction for oversight of OPM falls to the centrist-dominated Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Lieberman chairs.

Thats right, Lieberman, the biggest champion of the health insurance industry in the Senate, will chair the committee that oversees this “alternative” to the public option. It would probably be Lieberman’s finger on the public option trigger. The idea of putting Lieberman in charge of keeping the health insurance industry honest sounds like hiring the fox to guard the hen house.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/10/deal-could-put-joe-lieberman-in-charge-of-regulating-your-health-insurance/

I don't want Joe near control of anything, and I don't care how minimal some say his role may be. If he can find a way to screw it up through some parliamentary maneuver as chair, he will. I'll bet there are lots of ways chairmen can control things.

[villager]

1. Just as long as it's all change-y and hopeful

...it shouldn't be a problem. Right?

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. +1

[tmyers09]

2. What the FUCK?

[vi5]

3. Bipartisanship! YEAH!!!!

So glad our leadership has their fucking priorities straight. Useless sacks of crap.

[Blue Owl]

4. Just kill me now

What a crock of shit.

[jtrockville]

5. When is he up for re-election?

Is his campaign manager from last time going to run his next campaign?

[GreenPartyVoter]

25. 4 yrs?? Not sure. But to the CT voters who put him back in the Senate, I have a message

for you and the horse you rode in on. And for those voters who wanted Ned Lamont, :hug:.

[Stevenmarc]

6. Can you just show me the way to the nearest death panel

[QC]

7. How very, very hopeful and changealicious! n/t

[L0oniX]

10. changeomania at its best.

[QC]

18. Hope-a-rific! n/t

[Froward69]

8. Good gawd, buy a bullet and borrow a gun

our only hope is LIEberman suffers and dies from his own malfeasance.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LiberalFighter]

11. They can change committee assignments after the 2010 elections.

For good measure everyone should spread the rumor that Reid will be assigning Lieberman to the Subcommittee on Alaskan Security and Protection of Ice Microbes.

[Are_grits_groceries]

12. Am I supposed to take comfort in that?

They have given Joey everything he has wanted in exchange for nothing. Why should they stop now?

[Altoid_Cyclist]

13. I had a tooth pulled yesterday so I'd rather not bang my head against the wall.

This will have to suffice for now. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Just when you think that our "Leaders" can't do anything more inane than they've been doing, along comes this???!!!

LIEberman is nothing more than a little snot nosed Quisling who is managing to derail more than one moron should be capable of.

This "bipartisan reaching out BS" has to stop.

Between * & LIEberman, I think that it's time to change my avatar. This is nothing personal against all of the fine Nutmeggers who realize that those two idiots don't really represent what the people of Connecticut are really like.

Those two are anomalies.

[flyarm]

14. Harry Reid, Crook for PhRMA, Tries to Kill Drug Reimportation

I Can Believe It’s Not Medicare: Schumer, Baucus “Fixing” Buy-In Plan
By: Jon Walker Friday December 11, 2009 7:45 am

Allowing younger people to buy into Medicare sounds like a good idea. Medicare is a well-run and cost-effective program. The problem is that the latest reports indicate this “Medicare buy-in” idea might not really be Medicare at all, it might in fact be fake Medicare:

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said efforts were under way to address concerns raised by senators, including the low reimbursement rates for hospitals and doctors.

“All of the problems that people have mentioned, we are mindful of,” said Schumer, who worked to develop the package with 10 moderate and liberal senators. “Every one you have mentioned has been brought up in our discussions, and we didn’t ignore any of them.”

snip: as per DU rules:

This change would result in this fake Medicare program having much higher premiums and a smaller provider network. It would also result in greater administrative overhead. This fake Medicare would lack almost all the benefits of Medicare. A Medicare buy-in program that does not actually allow people to fully buy into real Medicare is a farce. Beware: it looks like we are about to get fake Medicare for Christmas.



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harry Reid, Crook for PhRMA, Tries to Kill Drug Reimportation
By: Jane Hamsher Friday December 11, 2009 6:08 am

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/10/harry-reid-... /

snip:

The CBO says that drug reimportation would save the government $19 billion dollars, and the public $100 billion dollars. In reality, however, Jon Walker estimates it could be more like $400-$500 billion, if the reimported drugs pressure the price of US drugs down.
Sounds like a good thing, right? Except Harry Reid uses his control over procedure to do what Harry Reid wants to do. (Tell that fish story about “60 votes” and Joe Lieberman being the block to anything to someone else.) And what he wants to do is block Dorgan’s drug reimportation bill, and protect Obama’s PhRMA deal.

[Vinnie From Indy]

15. That just SUCKS if it is true.

[peacetalksforall]

16. Senate Homeland Security - how utterly diaastrous. How ridiculous.

During the Cheney administration, I was angry every day. During the Obama administration, I cry every day and feel the slipping and loss more than I ever thought possible. This country, the way I knew it, was all about hope and promise. I may have to drop out of knowing the details that DU offers. It hurts too much. Every day I tear up and feel depressed. Have we seen the worst? Where is the Department of Peace. The United States of Corporate Power, Eternal War, Hypocrisy, and Blatant Theft.

[asdjrocky]

17. You can't make this stuff up.

[Liberal In Texas]

19. So, this isn't an Onion bit?

:eyes:

[Solly Mack]

20. Well isn't that just peachy

Everything's coming up roses. Just take a whiff....

[Nikki Stone1]

21. Oh holy fucking Christ on a goddamned cracker!

INSANE!

[elehhhhna]

22. THE OPM IS OUTSOURCED TO A CARLYLE-OWNED COMPANY

whoc cares, though.

[GreenPartyVoter]

24. I am sure Lieberman will never allow that trigger to be pulled. (Too cozy with the Ins cos)

[snake in the grass]

26. With the exception of...

...a handful in the House and Senate, I'm really surprised at just how much cock these bums can swallow at one time. I would've have considered it an anatomical impossibility, but no, they can take it like a pro. They must have separate orifices for breathing, as they don't even come up for air. Lieberpig is a backstabbing, pernicious little prick and it's unbelievable what he gets away with. What would it take to be rid of him? Must he first smear himself with his own feces on the Senate floor while reading Aleister Crowley aloud? I swear, I'm going to have a huge party if the invertebrate, stealth Republican Reid loses in the next round, even if it's to a fucking open Republican. How much worse would that be?

[Norwood]

27. Wow.....

Can someone tell me why LIEberman keeps getting rewarded for stabbing the party he's supposed to be a member of in the back?

[glinda]

28. Demanding an outside Group do drug testing on all our Government officials.

[varelse]

29. Just when I thought it couldn't get much worse

:puke:

I can't take much more of this. :(