Comments on: Please Welcome Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Candidate for US Senate

By: STTPinOhio

STTPinOhio — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:03:53 +0000

Sorry I missed this one; I certainly wanted to find out what steaming piles of doo-doo Blackwell left for her to clean up that we don’t know about.

By: dakine01

dakine01 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:03:37 +0000

Book Salon a couple of flights upstairs with Thom Hartmann’s Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture hosted by Mommybrain

By: lambertstrether

lambertstrether — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:48:57 +0000

1. No matter what, you’re going with a guess, since the only option on offer that can be shown to work is single payer.

2. “If the public option is a Medicare buy-in…” Well, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas. Where’s the legislation on offer that has that provision?

3. As far as the idea that if my enemies spend money against something, that something is good… How does that work out for you in RL?

By: lambertstrether

lambertstrether — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:44:05 +0000

Well, now that our guest has left, I can explain again, more directly: The trump card you seem to think you are playing, is that if the insurance companies are spending money to run ads against the bill, then the bill must be good. It’s equally likely that they know that some sort of bill is inevitable — after all, the midterms are coming — and they’re running the ads to make sure that the bill that does pass works against they’re interests are little as possible. I’d expect a telepathic strategerist to be able to see the distinction, but binary thinking does take a toll.

By: ThingsComeUndone

ThingsComeUndone — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:43:38 +0000

THANKS FOR SAVING OHIO FOR US:)

By: foothillsmike

foothillsmike — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:41:34 +0000

Hi Ms Brunner. What are your feelings with regard to the previous administration’s use of torture?

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:39:59 +0000

I’d pay money for Medicare coverage.

so would i. in a heartbeat.

By: Cujo359

Cujo359 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:33:53 +0000

[In reply to Jon Walker @ 62]

This has always seemed the most sensible form of such an option. Instead of creating an entirely new bureaucracy, it would just expand one that already exists. It would have the same bargaining power and a large ”customer” base in place already. I’d pay money for Medicare coverage. I haven’t seen anything coming out of Congress lately that’s worth paying for.

By: Jon Walker

Jon Walker — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:25:23 +0000

If the public option is able to piggy back on Medicare than it really would be like Medicare. Early ideas like Rockefeller’s proposal was to make the public option simply buying into Medicare for the first few years. If the public option is a Medicare buy in than it is not 11 million people but part of a 60 million person network.

CBO guesses about how many people would sign up for the public option is just that, a pure guess. Expanding what size companies can use the exchange should be relatively easy (as written now would not take an act of congress) and would expand the reach of a public option.

The incredible amount of money that is going into killing the public options I think is proof in itself that the industry knows even a weak public option would still be very popular.

By: lambertstrether

lambertstrether — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:17:50 +0000

I’m don’t claim telepathy, unlike some, so I can’t speak to motive. I envy your prowess in that regard! I’m simply here to advocate forcefully for what all agree is the best policy on offer — single payer — and I couldn’t be less interested in the “Inside Baseball” of the day to day maneuverings of our elected representatives — any more than an advocate for abolition was interested in tracking bills to make the chains of slaves less comfortable to wear. YMMV, and, apparently, does.

That said, I’ve discussed this matter with others, and one view we came up with is that some of the backers peeled away precisely because the vote for HR676 — now that Pelosi has promised one — had actually become less symbolic and more meaningful.