Peggy your not a logical thinker are you?

What would we do without Peggy? I’m afraid the Lake would dry up completely. Her logic is so twisted that her brain must looked like oatmeal.

She is just a crybaby. Loser.

The Obama White House has done the near impossible: It has united the Republican Party.

Peggy if an African American President can’t unite racists?

If the loss of government maintained no competition for the drug companies and insurance industry won’t unite the GOP? (no importing cheaper drugs no government competition with private insurers to cut into profits)

Well Peggy besides Race and Money what else does the GOP have?

It’s amazing. Usually she contradicts herself over the span of several columns. I think this is the first one where she actually disagrees with herself.

Social conservatives, economic conservatives, libertarians—they’re all against the health-care schemes as presented so far

Yep all the 20%ers Peggy try getting a majority of voters on this issue.

Of course, the only “health care reform” that a Democratic president could propose that would get extensive support from the Republicans is one that would enshrine all the worst abuses of the current system into law and even then, over half of the Republicans would oppose it just because it came from a Democratic president.

Oh my, they’ve wound Peggers up and sent her forth once again have they?

“Living is easy with eyes closed -
misunderstanding all you see”
Lennon/McCartney

More evidence the GOPers are coming undone! The GOP is united by victory a defeat on something big like healthcare will shatter them especially if we get the program working.
We need a good economy too we can’t afford 2 wars.
If we do these 2 things healthcare and end the wars are economy will take off. The GOP will shatter power makes the GOP the cool club we do these 2 things the GOP will be shown to be without power and the authoritarians will flee.
The problem is they will join us.

Do editorial writers have a clause in their contracts that prevents them from being fired when dementia sets in?

Pegs needs to slowly put down her cocktail glass, unclutch the death grip she has on her pearls, and just walk on by. No, really, I mean it, Peggy. Stop with your faux concern and uber-gentility and get the hell off my intertoobz.

besides Race and Money what else does the GOP have?

Fake Christianity, for one.

nooners so dated…I keep looking for her on Mad Men.

True I expect the GOP to start with a major fake christian campaign soon Gay Marriage, Abortion, or something more directed at Obama personally perhaps?

Noonan needs a brain transplant.

Since they own the airwaves, it’ll be all of those and more.

The Obama White House has done the near impossible: It has united the Republican Party.–Peggy Noonan

What’s near impossible about that? Didn’t the Bush White House do that on a regular basis?

Even in the Day she was a joke Bush 1’s “Thousand Points of Light Speech” was Peggy’s and it was mocked heavily at the time by the Right and Left somehow she got a job writing her opinion.
Despite writing the dumbest political speech in my memory. At least until Sarah Palin came on the scene.

No Republicans support them? Hell, they must be netter than I thought!

Rev Wright, Obama the Anti Christ, African Americans are unfit to rule a White Christian Nation.
Sotomayor will legalize abortion, Gay Marriage supporters are stopping Christians from exercising free speech by boycotting their business never mind the Christians want the right to refuse Gays service at their businesses.
The next Hurricane, Terror Attack is God’s anger at Obama (funny how Katrina and 9/11 were not God’s anger at Bush only sinful Americans).
Stem Cell research is evil but the GOPers will be the first in line for cures. Ralph Reed supposedly wants back in the movement I think he is the one to watch about what the fake christians do next.

I do not support Obama’s healthcare plans. They look like an enormous sellout to corporations, insurers, medical providers, and drug makers. But Obama could have brought his healthcare proposals down from Mt. Sinai carved in stone and the Republicans would still reject them. The content is unimportant. It is the opposition which counts for them. They hope he fails and that Americans will turn back to them.

When is this nation going to exercise a few IQ points and ignore this disingenuous witch?

Fake it is, but a thoroughgoing fake, with Doug Coe at the helm of a bizarre reading of Christianity that puts philanderers like Sanford and Ensign on top (of the rest of us) because they understand that the real Christianity is a religion of power. This is a very important stream in the Republican leadership, partly because this ‘brand’ of Christianity demands that they become leaders. Grassley is one, Ensign, De Mint, Sanford, Nelson– just the guys Noonan wants to listen to?

And make Laura second; she is delusional on the end of care topic….saying the Dems are the deathers party. Round the bend….the misrepresentations on end of life docuements, which are so important to the ill, the aged, and their families and drs, will set back progress, compassionate care, to the stone age where she lives and thinks. What a rant she is on….

Digby had a great post yesterday about David Broder that fits together with Nooners.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com…..roder.html
For years Noonan has been able to place radicals with a picture of the DFH, now the picture of a radical is a baby boomer. Noonan knows that they are ill informed and look assinine, so she is searching for the moderate R elder in the party to step forward and stop this insanity. ‘If Obama’s health plan were any good surely some moderate R would support it’ Except they have all gone from Washington and she is now being confronted with what R’s remain.

Shake another martini and up the Xanax dosage.

Oh, Blue….LOL, such fun.

TOday Laura was blaming Woodstock and O’s hippie mother for why he can’t govern

Laura Bush?

Obama’s mother didn’t know how to use the front bumper of her car properly.

Obama has gotten way more stuff done than Bush did at the same period in his Presidency.

Obama’s Montana town hall is going on.
Obama gives big shout out for Max Baucus.

Christy’s on CSPAN right now

Obama’s hammering on recission and lifetime caps.

Touting Recovery plan. Tax cuts first thing mentioned – 400,000 working families in Montana have seen taxes cut. 200,000 (?!) Montana businesses eligible for loans from recovery act.

UI for 40,000 montanans.

final third is on its way.

Recovery plan is working. jobs turning, business investment returning.

Right on all counts. Washington DC is toxic to all efforts to reform (anything). I’ve said for a long time if you want to know the real incentive behind any government policy, figure out who stands to profit from it. That applies to policies with a much smaller profit potential than the health care industry.

As for Republican opposition, Jesus himself could descend from Heaven and endorse the plan and within minutes the wingnuts would be circulating pictures of him with a Hitler mustache.

Bozeman – 8600 applicants for 160 jobs.

economy working for wealthy, not so much for others. We need “new foundation for lasting prosperity, Health insurance reform is one of the key pillars of this new foundation”

TV loves a ruckus.

Obama proud of constructive meetings going on across the country. Civil, honest discussion about how to improve the system.

I hope the live blogging is appreciated, seems like the natural thread for it.

Insurance companies won’t be able to cancel when you get sick. Again with Recission can’t happen… 3 companies cancelled 20,000 policies.. 3 true stories about recission causing death, cancer doubling in size… Obama’s mother’s case.

No more lifetime caps. Helps 3,700 households in Montana. No one should be broke when they get sick. Preventative care…

We’ll make your health insurance more affordable and safer.

Don’t want government bureaucrats meddling in your health care, also don’t want insurance company bureaucrats meddling in your health care. Crowd likes this… Obama “that’s what reform’s about”.

200,000 montanans will have access to exchange.

Broad agreement in Congress on 80% of what we want to achieve. Agreement with drug companies on lower prescription cost for seniors. no deficit impat.

Scare tactics – happened in 93, happening now, happened with LBJ and medicare, with JFK proposing medicare…

40,000 americans lose health insurance daily, that could be you.

Seniors – worried about medicare, in about 8 years medicare goes in red if we don’t control costs.

done with speech… will start with q&a.

Speech went after insurance companies a bit harder it seems to me.

Q: Laid off, currently uninsured, children have medicaid. Canada, england, pck and choose from other more successful systems?

A: Other industrial countries. Americans spend $5-6,000 more per person than any other country on earth on health care.

You don’t notice this because money is going to health insurance, not your salary.

Most countries have some form of single payer. Contrasts government facilities, government pays.

Find a uniquely american solution, historically people in US get insurance from job… too disruptive to change that – people scared.

Questioner – you would get credit to purchase insurance. Exchange to allow you to buy into larger pool, get better deal. reform to remove recession, caps.

Preserve best of what our system offers, while helping the most vulnerable.

Not true that gov meddles with care.

Peggy, Unscramble this word.
kfcu uyo and the horse you rode in on. Bye

As for Republican opposition, Jesus himself could descend from Heaven and endorse the plan and within minutes the wingnuts would be circulating pictures of him with a Hitler mustache.

It’s amazing just how much that says about them.

Q: Most of us knw medicare is one of best social programs US ever put together… but money doesn’t grow on trees. How can we be sure that increasing coverage to others won’t lower benefits.

A: Medicare is government program… the keep your government off my medicare people don’t get it.

Medicare needs to be sustainable. Don’t reduce benefits. Eliminate practices that don’t make people healthier. Medicare Advantage $177B over 10 years goes to insurance companies. hospital does procedure, come back a week later for service that was done poorly. Extend life expectancy of medicare trust fund.

Q: single mother of 2 children, MSU student, son with many disabilities – autism, epilepsy, type I diabetic since 9 months old. Rely on Medicaid for his health care.

What would happen with his coverage?

A:
Thank you, you are an heroic mom.
If your son currently qualifies for Medicaid he would still qualify for Medicaid. Deliver system reforms – one test emailed to 5 specialists, instead of 5 tests duplicated by 5 specialists. Helps MT save its half of Medicaid costs. No cutting benefits, possible expansion. Includes preventive care, wellness care. We have “disease care” system, not health care… diabetes/foot amputation anecdote, perversity of current incentives.

Q: Proud NRA member. Believe in constitution, get news from cable networks. Max Baucus been in room for months. We keep getting bull, you can’t tell us how you’re gonna pay for this. Gonne have to raise taxes.

A:
Absolutely right that 46M people can’t be covered for free. Money comes from somewhere – let say it costs $800-900 billion over 10 years. about 2/3 comes from insurance companies, you may disagree but I just think its better to go to this young lady (previous Q) than insurance company.

Assume $30B per year over 10 years. Promised no tax increase for those making under $250,000, but people like pres Obama making more can pay a little more. Lower deduction so that instead of 35% deduction get 28%. Just that change would pay for health care reform.

Some people say no one should pay higher taxes. I respect that, but we can’t get something for nothing, that’s how we got into this problem. When previous administration passed prescription drug bill – costs 100s of billions, wasn’t paid for at the time… amused by gasbags yelling we can’t pay for it, when Bush put us in debt…

I appreciate the question, respectful way he asked, and BTW I believe in constitution too.

The woman makes me want to smash a Limoge teacup into her snarky, smiley, gooey visage….then [edited by mod] with her pearls.

[Mod note: violence to pearls and living creatures is not allowed]

Q: lost a job when downturn hit… new jobs as therapist at community health care… how do you help with gap in coverage when unemployed.

A:
COBRA covered 65% of premiums… explains how COBRA works, lose job get a bill for $1200/$1500 a month for coverage, recover bill covers 65% of that cost temporarily…. When health reform passes you will have been able to select a plan that you can carry with you, depending on income level you get a tax credit to help pay premiums… this important for self employed, tough to get good deal on insurance. Exchange/marketplace…

public option (crowd cheers). Explain this, because this is where myth of government takeover comes from. Should one option be a government plan that still charges premiums, might be able to offer better deal because it would be like a non for profit… opponents say there wouldn’t be a level playing field and private insurers would be driven out of market.

This is legitimate concern, especially if it is subsidized by taxpayers. Understand that it is not a government takeover, employers wouldn’t stop offering inusrance.

Q: Medicare pays about 94% of hospital costs, Medicaid pays about 84% of cost, private pays about 134%, which makes up difference.

A:
Complicated question, short answer:
Medicare/Medicaid should not be squeezing providers. Some cases there should be incentive to provide smarter care. We should not be saying costs are up, cut payments to doctors by 10% across the board.

By the way we’re paying for this in emergency rooms.

…
he wasn’t able to go into much detail

Q:
Montana ambassadors… COBRA, own a lumber yard when economy took nosedive cut jobs from 11 to 6 people, wants to take care of her peeps, looking for coverage for laid off employees, COBRA doesn’t allow them to keep coverage because less than 20 employees, why is she charged more for active emplyees, someone with 30 employees sitting in cubicles get better rate.

A:
Small business needs this more than anybody. One thing that hasn’t been talked about is subsidies for small business to help them do the right thing. We want to allow small business to buy into the exchange. That allows you to get best rates, second for employers that are doing the right thing we want to ive you a tax break to help your bottom line. Small business is were we see the fastest job growth…

Nooners gives Obama too much credit. Uniting the Republican Party is about as hard as uniting the Communists under Stalin, after the purges. People sort of tend to fall in line.

Q:
(Obama wants skeptic for last Q)
Make a living selling individual health insurance. why change strategy to talk about health insurance reform not health care reform?

A:
Absolutely right that health insurance companies have been working with us, eg Aetna has been working on pre-existing condition reforms… that said Health insurance has been funding some opposition… not vilifying insurance companies, if he was he’d be saying there’s no place for private insurance. Whole point of everyone getting coverage is to allow insurance companies a bigger market, changes in insurance practices can’t happen without more people being covered.

Q:
(One more question)
Because you’re a constitutional scholar, MT constitution preamble…

Thanks for reading this for me.

now it’s cable gasbag blah blah blah

awesome liveblogging wmd, you a court reporter or something? ;)

I’m a mathematician, or at least that’s how I think of myself. Never learned how to touch type, still manage 60+ wpm with reasonable accuracy. My keyboard skills come from stealing computer time by punching card decks at the University computer center back in 1973/1974 when I was 12/13 years old. I learned where keys are on an IBM 029 keypunch (used to program the key punch to put sequence numbers in the 72-80 column field so I could sort my deck if it got scrambled). I’ve been a geek for a long time.

Thanks for the compliment, I hoped someone would appreciate it, and the usual suspects are at NN cheering on Christie’s panel (IRL or virtually).

BTW, I commented at Christies before it was promoted to the front page – I always look for Friday Muppet Blogging and she’s been great about getting it out every week and keeping it fresh and relevant.

Sorry I was no back earlier….and, NO. Ingraham….she has been relentless in attacking, ridiculing the President….now she starts on his dead mother. Tacky, cruel. Sorry for confusion…

I sure wish Nooners would share some of that recreational delusion medication that she has…It’s gotta be good for getting out then getting back into (only if Karl tells you to) reality….breathtaking lunacy….

I’ve heard several suggest the reform needs to focus more on cost savings using market reforms (or something like that). But when it comes to what they might do (or accept from a Dem proposal) there’s nothing

In fact the idea of a public option is to enable better market performance through competition.

Any other mechanism to ‘control costs’ would be viewed as government interference or Draconian or Dictatorial Socialism or some other nonsense.

The only possible excess in the reform legislation is the mandates. Take away those, so the public option is not required and there would be no heavy hand of the gov’t, but just an option the public can choose of it’s own free will. What would the wing-nuts complain about then?

Well, they made up the ‘death panel’, so they would obviously come up with something stupid. They’re good at that. It’s the alternative they offer and Noonan is apparently cheering on.

Reform IS going to happen. Republicans won’t like it no matter what’s in there. I can live with that.

Lemmings unite!

But the party can be harsh too. Look what happened to Sarah of the North. First she’s running for Vice President, then she’s off to Alaska to be governor, then she gives that up and ends up fishing for a living. It’s a sad sad story of how the Republican party treats it’s members. Next thing ya know she has to pay for her own daily living expenses, has to return clothes they bought for her, maybe gets divorced, has to put her Down-syndrome child up before the ‘death board’. It’s a tough life for Sarah.

But then, that’s what happens when you’re on the outskirts of the old Soviet Union — right over there across the bay from her front porch.

/s

I Can’t begrudge Peggy trying to earn a pay check….But her comments are so tired and She really doesn’t add anything to the conversation. She should ride off gracefully into the Sunset and leave her opinions there.
Obviously her time has Come and now ..Thankfully gone.