Last night someone on Rachel Maddow pointed out that health insurance profits were up 1000% over the last five years.

Really.

Is your healthcare 1000x better than it was five years ago?

"I won't ever vote for a health reform bill, but you have to keep seeking my approval!!!"

And according to Gibbs today, Obama buys it.

and he knows it.

Does he?

Come Charlie Brown. Come kick the football.

If anyone in the White House believes Grassley is Serious, I just found the Weapons of Mass destruction in Iraq the Bushies sold the country !

okay, i'm convinced... into the wood chipper for ol' Chuckie.

Or the Iron Maiden... or the Death Panel.

Or the Assholes' Lifetime Achievement Award Winner.

What a clown -- the epitome of the US Senate!

Grassley isn't just a stupid old liar. He's ugly, too. He should go around in a burka and keep his trap shut.

You have every right to fear that the Republicans will pull the plug on health care reform!

Grassley can kiss my assley.

This is a common Republican game Grassley is playing. The fact of the matter is the Republican do not want health care reform, and they certainly don't want it under Obama. If health care is improved by Obama, the Republicans will look bad. So this is a way to "kill it with kindness" - use words like "compromise" and "bipartisan" to appear flexible while doing all you can to fight change. I do not believe Obama buys it - but I do think he's smart in letting the American people get an earful of this crap before he drops the boom on the Republican *minority*.

This statement is intended entirely for the media - to be compared and contrasted when reporting on the fact that the Democrats are ready to walk away from the table, after weeks of provocations. They'll stick on the footage of Chuckie talking about the need for "partisan" solutions - and make the Democrats look like the partisans and SOBs.

At least, that is what Chuckles is hoping for. And it is still more evidence that he is the GOP's point person for scuttling health care reform from the inside.

-Bokonon

Here's something all Americans can get behind: No health care coverage for Senators or Congresspeople until a sensible health care solution that lowers costs for the American people is passed.

Run that up the Polls and see who salutes.

Sorry - I meant to type "bipartisan solutions" above.

Chuckface is pretending that he isn't partisan, after all.

Is this man cognitively impaired? Serious question.

Note that I did not ask if he's a compulsive liar or an asshole. I just wonder if he's got some mental impairment in addition to these traits.

More delay = more chance to kill the bill.

More lies from this turdburgler to get more delay. This to appease his paying masters, the corporations opposing health care reform.

I don't see how it could be more obvious.

No, Grassley thinks the Democrats are stupid enough to take the bait.

He may be right.

So who's going to go on national TV and make him look like an idiot?

The MSM? I'm not holding my breath.

I nominate Barney Franks.

We are not going to be able to lead Republicans out of the hall of mirrors inside their heads.

They are a serious medical problem. We have to address them as a medical problem.

It's all about maintaining local insurance monopolies,

Some members of the Senate Finance Committee, which is taking a lead on health care legislation, come from states where the insurance market is highly concentrated. The Democratic chairman, Senator Max Baucus, is from Montana, where 75 percent of people are covered by one major insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana. For Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, the figure is 71 percent, by Wellmark. For Senator Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, it's 78 percent, by WellPoint.

"For many Americans, the idea that they have a choice of health plans is about as mythical as unicorns", said Jacob Hacker, professor of political science at Yale University.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/how-much-competition-among-insurers/#more-1119

Why wouldn't Grassley want to "negotiate?" He has given up nothing while getting many concessions from the Dems. What's not to like about that?

Medical problems indeed. Grassely is nothing more than a giant, hissing, corporate hemmoroid .. someone, anyone, should use a giant tube of preparation h on it ... that would solve the problem right there

Wow! Grassley and Republicans have balls, eh? I mean, if Obama had just half their balls he might fight half as hard for the truth as Republicans like Grassley fight for their lies and disinformation. As it stands now, however, Obama needs a vacation. Maybe, just maybe, while he is chillin' at the upscale Martha's Vineyard (I can just see the GOP's coming elitist commercials) he will be able to figure out whether or not he supports a public option...and, too, maybe he can figure out whether or not he is a Democrat or a Republican, because he can't be both and right now, he thinks he can be.

Put something on the table Chuck! What will you accept this week that you rejected last week?

It's pretty clear Grassley is suffering early stages of dementia.

It may be time for him to go before a "panel".

He's going to wait for his closeup right up until they pass a bill without him.

Grassley needs to go back and read the newspapers from when President Nelson and President Collins were whipping the stimulus bill through the Senate. Timing is everything.

Here's something all Americans can get behind: No health care coverage for Senators or Congresspeople until a sensible health care solution that lowers costs for the American people is passed.

A-Fucking-men!

The things that Grassley and the far right wing Republicans say are ridiculous, but whatever. I say we press forward, guard the rear and the supply chain.

I am bored with Republicans and pseudo-Democrats and protesters who protest for the sheer sake of disruption. There are more important principles at stake here than "consensus." The need to have a society as free from disease as possible, the right to grow up knowing that managers of insurance companies and medical providers are not getting wealthy by thrusting some poor person deep into poverty due to an illness or incapacitation.

If there is a vote to be cast, I cast it for civilization and not for the barbarism of the bronze age masked with statistics, soft leather jackets, and rose gold watches.

I keep thinking of Charlie Brown and Lucy

One crazy old white guy gets on the bus at 850 Bryant - the Hall of Justice in SF. Apparently he’d been there on some sort of citation. He kept muttering about 1200 bucks and someone trying to kill him.

Two stops later, crazy ole black guy gets on sits next to crazy old white guy. He asks the driver how to get to the Greyhound station

“I gots to get OUT of here. I’m going to Mi-ami. I am going to make nuclear bombs”

“I used to make nuclear bombs,” the crazy ole white guy offers helpfully

Went downhill from there

Come to think of it...crazy ole white guy looked a bit like Charles Grassley

exlibra writes:"Grassley isn't just a stupid old liar. He's ugly, too. He should go around in a burka and keep his trap shut."

Come to think of it, he DOES look a lot like Grandpa Simpson.

-And displays the same razor sharp mind. . .

Grassley's a sandbagger. He brings nothing to the table.

My guess is that poor old Chuck Grassley may feel a bit strained by the situation he finds himself in. On the one hand the GOP has mobilized the crazies to swamp town hall meetings and shout 'death to health care reform' and 'Obama is a Nazi'. Yet when Grassley himself, with an eye on the fact that is getting primaried by an opponent to his right, tries to appease these people by telling them that he will vote against any proposal that may come up in the Senate, he runs into a conflict with his role as the GOP point man in the Senate Finance Committee.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Chuck Grassley and John Kyl got an earful from their GOP colleagues in the Senate after their recent tactical plunders ("you guys are providing cover for the Dems to rally and go this alone with your stupid pronouncements"), and now Grassely's head is spinning like a top.

Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy, and will only get better if Obama ignores Grassley's attempts at a siren song.

Gawd, I want this to be over! Fuck you Chuck, you and your ilk have brought nothing to the table. That is all, you can't get something from nothing.

There would be widespread public support for single payer healthcare, if only the Republicans and the media would tell and report the truth.

exlibra, yes that is the proper attire for Grassley, also he should have a voice box ectomy.

Does Grassley get the feeling he might be under the bus if he doesn't get onboard? Now if we can just pry his Assley out of the drivers seat, get a seatbelt around him and something stuffed in his mouth so we can get this vehicle moving...just like busing grade school kids.

No health care coverage for Senators or Congresspeople until a sensible health care solution that lowers costs for the American people is passed. Gridlock @ 2:35

What about:
all public employees must be on the public option plan, from the Prez right on down the line to the local librarian. That would be a selling point-I have the same plan as the Prez. Plus the In$urance folks would cry foul so loud, I'd pay just to see that alone.

Or like somebody else said, convert medicare to the public option.

Kabuki..that's all it is. There is a very complex charade going on here, and the only sad thing about it is the extent to which Obama and his people appeared to accept the charade as something real.

As for the blue dog Senators like Baucus, they're just plain corrupt. They want their insurance company masters to be happy with them, and so they're doing everything they can to make sure their masters are happy. That isn't complex at all, it's bone-simple.

cld wrote:

Is your healthcare 1000x better than it was five years ago?

That should be 10x better, not 1000.
Your point is still valid, though.

Grassley isn't just a stupid old liar. He's ugly, too. He should go around in a burka and keep his trap shut.

This could only have been improved by a videoed exlibra snapping it while waving a cigarette dismissively.

A number of months ago a rather well-dressed and well-spoken middle aged woman knocked on my front door at 9:00 pm with a sob story about her car breaking down and needing $20 to get home. I got soft and had the money to spare, so I gave it to her. She promised to pay me back the next morning. Naturally I never saw her again.

Until night before last, at about 9:00 pm, that is. She again knocked on my door with a similar sob story. She was still well-dressed and well-spoken, but seems a lot thinner. She remembered me, too. We have meth being sold in my neighborhood, and my guess is that she was over here buying it, and thought she could sucker me again. She didn't even blink when I told her no. She turned on her heel and rapidly walked away into the darkness, no doubt to avoid the cops if I called them.

I had been suckered once, she considered me a likely mark a second time.

Grassley is playing the same game. He has suckered so many Democrats for so long this year that he thinks he can sucker them again now. How many lies does it take? He's not even that well-dressed or well-spoken.

It's time to say no.

Lucy,,,football...Charlie Brown.

Grassley is just a clown. He comes up with this bipartisan crap just so he can brag later at how successful he's been at delaying and stalling any kind of reform.

"That's not what your wife said" Grassley knows how ridiculous his plea is but I'm amazed that he believes anyone would buy into this crap as if it were in the least bit credible. He just can't help himself. An authoritarian sociopath who's only goal is to maintain power. He's now at the place where serious people should just point and laugh. Bipartisanship my ass,... hell, you can't compromise with death.

Go cheney yourself, senator.

I think Grassley is living in a world of his own, where he feels important and he thinks progressives are as stupid as his crazy followers who listen to Fox.A new poll just taken finds that 39% of Americans think the government should stay out of medicare! This is the type of follower Grassley has.

The GOP does not consider Healthcare reform a priority. They would have done something about it during the Bush years if they did.

The Dems need to accept this and focus on crafting the reform bill without any constructive input from the GOP.

The only way we'll have real reform is if there is a public option. The co-op proposal will not be accepted by the GOP regardless of what they've previously indicated; they're just using it to get the Dems to backtrack on the public option and further split the party.

Interesting that Grassley is considered a "powerful Republican." He lies openly in hopes of seeding clouds of confusion and anger among lo-info voters, tells us Republicans won't back down an inch on health care reform and then bitches that the Democrats have given up on bipartisanship.

He's a prime example of where the Republicans get their power. From lying, projecting and exploiting ignorance.

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