Dick Cheney Gets a Heart

Former U.S. Vice President and war criminal Dick Cheney had a cadaver’s heart put in his chest at Inova Fairfax Hospital last weekend. Think how many thousands would be alive today if he had had a heart while in office. We do not know if Mr. Cheney’s Medicare paid for the procedure but, unlike you, he was an oil industry robber baron and can probably pay cash.

Related:

“Vice President Dick Cheney Still Undead,” Rebecca Schoenkopf, Wonkette

“Classical Music Boosts Heart Transplant Survival in Mice,” Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune

 Heart Gelatin Mold, Archie McPhee

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GOP’s Repeal is the Job-Killer

Instead of fixing the economy their own party destroyed, Congressional Republicans are wasting limited agenda time and scarce public money pretending to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The posturing begins with the name of their bill, the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.” As Dean Baker puts it, “Republicans call Obama policies ‘Job Killers’ because the media might ask for evidence if they called them ‘Baby Killers.'”

Nevada Polling Places: Poultry-Free

It will be illegal to wear chicken costumes at Nevada polling places during the upcoming Republican primary election on June 8th. Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden is forever linked to Leghorns after proposing bartering chickens for medical care, so wearing your chicken suit near the polls will be regarded as a violation of Nevada law Section 293.740 section 4(D), which forbids these activities near the polls:

(d) Buying, selling, wearing or displaying any badge, button or other insigne which is designed or tends to aid or promote the success or defeat of any political party or a candidate or ballot question to be voted upon at that election.

 If you plan to picnic on the courthouse lawn that Tuesday, better leave fried chicken off the menu.

 

Feeling poorly? Check the Chicken Barter Calculator before you see the Doc.

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Republican Senators Fail to Improve Health Bill

The House of Representatives passed the Senate’s health reform bill and sent it to the Senate with a package of improvements, chief among them removal of embarrasing earmarks added to appease holdout senators.

In the spirit of bipartisanship and concern for the health of all Americans, Republican senators tried to introduce improvements to the bill, including an amendment forbidding federally funded blood transfusions for vampires or something like that. “The vast majority of Americans don’t want their taxpayer dollars paying for … those kind of people,” said Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK).

The amendment failed 57-42.  The GOP media machine is certanly poised to attack opponents of the measure as “pro-vampire.”

 

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The Healthcare Vote on a Postcard

“Obama’s health bill is a very conservative piece of legislation, building on a Republican rather than a New Deal foundation,” explains Robert Reich. “Ronald Reagan … picked up where Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover left off.”

Catholic Support for Healthcare Reform Bill

While C Street’s token Catholic (and token Democrat) Bart Stupak and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops oppose pending healthcare reform legislation, 59,000 American nuns, pro-life Catholic theologians and evangelical leaders, and Catholic healthcare agencies back H.R. 3590, the healthcare reform bill.

Read the sisters’ letter here.

 

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Senate Passes Insurance Industry Aid Bill

There must be mistletoe hanging in the Capitol dome. The U.S. Senate gave insurance companies a big,  juicy Christmas Eve kiss by passing the Health Insurance Enrichment Act by a vote of 60 to 39.  

The Republican public reaction: “Bah humbug.” Privately, the GOP and healthcare industry lobbyists probably slapped Joe Lieberman  (“The Grinch Who Stole Health Reform“) on the back, thanked him for his hypocrisy in eviscerating the bill, and wished Senator Joe and the entire Lieberman family a prosperous and happy Hanukkah.

President Obama fled DC ahead of an impending ice storm and the wrath of Public Option proponents.

And to all, a good night.

 

More here.

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Healthcare USA — Nothing is Foreign

T.R. Reid’s article “Five Myths About Health Care in the Rest of the World” appeared in Sunday’s Washington Post. He makes many interesting points, including this one:

In many ways, foreign health-care models are not really “foreign” to America, because our crazy-quilt health-care system uses elements of all of them. For Native Americans or veterans, we’re Britain: The government provides health care, funding it through general taxes, and patients get no bills. For people who get insurance through their jobs, we’re Germany: Premiums are split between workers and employers, and private insurance plans pay private doctors and hospitals. For people over 65, we’re Canada: Everyone pays premiums for an insurance plan run by the government, and the public plan pays private doctors and hospitals according to a set fee schedule. And for the tens of millions without insurance coverage, we’re Burundi or Burma: In the world’s poor nations, sick people pay out of pocket for medical care; those who can’t pay stay sick or die.

The fragmentation of U.S. healthcare creates a “costly bureaucratic mess,” writes Mr. Reid, costly in funds and lives. U.S. healthcare leads the developed world in cost and one uniquely American medical area: medical paupers — 700,000 families bankrupted by medical bills, and counting.

 

Note: T.R. Reid’s book The Healing of America was published today.

 

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