A heart-warming day for the Senate Finance Committee

(thanks for your vote Olympia. now please go away.)

As you probably know, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) voted with the democrats on the Senate Finance Committee to pass the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Health Care Reform Bill. As she announced her decision to do so, Max Baucus grinned from ear to ear and practically bounced up and down in his seat.

In fact, Baucus then led the committee in singing Happy Birthday to Sen Maria Cantwell (D-Wash). I kid you not. The video is below.

After the little sing-along, Max proposed a rousing session of Hokey-Pokey. This was voted down 22 to 1.

"Come on, Olympia!" he exclaimed. "You're my friend! Let's play!"

Snowe shot him a chilly glare. "Bug off, dwarf-breath," she snarled. "In fact, move over. I'm in charge of this committee now."

Baucus shrugged his shoulders affably, and skipped off to play with his insurance industry buddies.

Olympia is now hard at work designing a public option that is not really a public option but that might be triggered into becoming a public option if it's really needed in some vague futuristic world where the insurance companies fail to do what's best for the lowly consumers. Hard to imagine how THAT could come to pass.

But forget all that. Enjoy this video of your elected officials, hard at work:

Snowe Job

(olympia snowe, r-maine ...
did i vote for her? funny, i thought i was voting for a black guy from hawaii)

I have been invited to another top secret meeting. shh ...

The meeting is being held by Dumb and Dumber, two fictional but extremely realistic Senators who are trying hard to come up with a bipartisan agreement on health care reform because for some reason it's not enough to win a decisive victory and hold a majority in Congress, you also need to get the approval of the OtherSideWhoLOST before you can make any type of changes.

Let's listen in ...

~~~

Dumb: We really need everyone to have a stake in this. A mandate is essential.

Dumber: Yes. Let's require everybody to buy insurance. No pre-existing conditions. No turning people away. Everybody gets insurance! Yay! Everybody wins!!

Dumb: What if people can't afford it?

Dumber: Then the taxpayers can chip in! No problem.

Dumb: How are we gonna pay for this?

Dumber: We'll impose some new fees on the insurance companies.

Dumb: Won't the insurance executives get mad?

Dumber: Nah. They'll just pass the cost on to their customers.

Dumb: What about the public option?

Dumber: Are you dumb? The public option is dead. The insurance companies don't want it.

Dumb: Employer mandates?

Dumber: Nope. Only for large companies.

Dumb: So people will have to buy their own insurance ... the insurance companies will raise their rates sky-high to cover all these new expenses ... and taxpayers will also have to pay more to cover low-income people?

Dumber: You got it!

Dumb: That's not fair.

Dumber: Who cares? I've got health care for life. How about you?

~~~

Just in case you think this is a figment of my over-active imagination, click here to check out the "reform" plan that the Gang of Six has come up with. As you probably know, the Gang of Six consists of six senators who are almost finished drafting their version of health care reform.

Who are these Gang members, anyway?

Let's see ...

The three Dems on the Gang are from Montana, New Mexico, and North Dakota -- states that together account for just over 1 percent of Americans. The three Republicans are from Maine, Wyoming, and Iowa, which together account for 1.6 percent of the American population.

All 6 have been recipients of huge sums of money from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, most notably Sen. Baucus, the head of the committee, who has received $25 million in contributions from health industry Political Action Committees since 1989.

In spite of the fact that a majority of Americans and a strong majority of doctors back the idea of a public option, that concept is now completely off the table for our Gang. The public option has been loudly criticized by Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) whose opinion seems to be the only one that counts for some reason.

I don't get it.

I did not vote for Obama in the hopes that we could get health care "reform" designed by the Republican Senator from Maine.

Somebody please explain this to me.

~~~